Gas Line Repair in Big Pool, MD
Only 4% of households in Big Pool use gas of any kind — 0% on mains and 4% on tank propane. Gas line work is the exception here rather than the rule.
Read this first
Only 4% of homes in Big Pool use gas for heat. That makes a gas line the exception rather than the rule, and the ones that exist are usually tank supplies owned on the property instead of utility service lines ending at a meter.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey table B25040; the service line boundary is 49 CFR § 192.3.
If you smell gas right now
Leave the building on foot. Do not use a phone or a light switch inside. Call 911 and your gas utility from somewhere else, and do not call us — we are a referral service, not an emergency line. The full list, in order.
How Big Pool is supplied
Low local gas use does not make a buried line safer or a leak less serious. It makes the subject less familiar, which is a different problem and arguably a worse one.
The emergency response does not vary at all: leave on foot, no phones or switches inside, call 911 from elsewhere.
| Households in Big Pool | Share |
|---|---|
| Utility (mains) gas | 0% |
| Bottled or tank propane | 4% |
| Electricity | 30% |
| Fuel oil and kerosene | 48% |
| Wood and everything else | 18% |
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, table B25040 (house heating fuel), 2023 release. Universe: 407 occupied housing units. This is the heating-fuel table. It does not enumerate service lines, and no table does at this geography; what it gives is the best available indication of which arrangement a property is on. Service line definition: 49 CFR § 192.3, via PHMSA interpretation PI-12-0003.
Across Maryland as a whole, 45% of households are on mains gas and 3% on tank propane. Big Pool sits 45 points below the state on mains and about level with it on propane. That is the gap a statewide number papers over, and the reason the figures above are this town’s rather than the state’s.
Before anyone digs on the property
The single most dangerous thing most people will ever do to a gas line is put a spade through it. PHMSA calls excavation damage the leading cause of pipeline incidents; 8-1-1 is a nationwide toll-free number to call before any excavation, and calling it gives a 99 percent chance of avoiding an incident.
Source: PHMSA, 811 Day.
What to ask whoever quotes it
Ask which side of the meter the work is on before anything else. On the utility side it may not be a contractor job at all, and a quote that has not established that has not established whose problem it is.
Other Maryland towns we route in
- Brunswick 24% mains gas · 1% tank propane
- Charlestown 3% mains gas · 14% tank propane
- White Marsh 40% mains gas · 7% tank propane
- Elkton 29% mains gas · 17% tank propane
- New Market 38% mains gas · 2% tank propane
Checking a plumber in Maryland
Maryland licenses are issued by the Maryland State Board of Plumbing, Department of Labor, which publishes a public search you can use before work begins.
Gas work is separately permitted and separately licensed in most jurisdictions, so ask specifically about gas rather than plumbing in general.
For repair work, not for a suspected leak.If you can smell gas, leave and call 911 or your utility from outside; this is the wrong number for that. For everything else — a line, a meter, an appliance connection — we will route you to a contractor covering your area, free of charge to you. Gas is one part of what Big Pool calls us about.
Call (888) 752-8038