RICHMOND, Va. -- Harry Pearson has worked with Richmond's Department of Public Utilities for over 30 years.
"I love what I do," Pearson said. "I graduated high school and came out here, and started doing it, and have been here ever since."
Sometimes, he and his team respond to calls on Richmond's Southside to help fix natural gas pipes, particularly during the wintertime, when gas pipes may bust, leaving residents without heat.
"When they see us coming, they know they're going to get help," Pearson said.
Now, more help is on the way to help prevent those kinds of prominent problems from happening to natural gas users.
On Monday, Richmond received $10 million in federal funding from the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization (NGDISM) grant program, established by the Biden Administration's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Charlottesville also received $7.1 million as part of the program.
The infrastructure law provides nearly $1 billion in funding over the course of five years to modernize municipally and community-owned natural gas distribution pipes, aiming to "repair, replace, or rehabilitate nearly 270 miles of pipe," according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Richmond is home to one of the oldest community-owned natural gas distribution pipelines, with some parts of the pipe system expected to be roughly 170 years old.
"A lot of times, we see a lot of the worst or the worst infrastructure in South Richmond," Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said at Monday afternoon's check presentation.
The goal of the grant is to target underserved communities that face the impacts of aging natural gas pipelines first, as leaking pipelines contribute to harmful methane emissions.
"Richmond has been focused on environmental justice and you think about those who live in parts of South Richmond where areas are hotter, but also they are the ones who are experiencing the impacts of climate change more than other individuals," Stoney said. "These $10 million will go a long way obviously because it will cut costs for our consumers, but it will be environmentally friendly as well so we can reduce the amount of emissions that go into our atmosphere that unfortunately lead to dangerous effects on our climate."
Repairs and replacements could also prevent possible injuries among natural gas users and utility workers.
"Pipe that's sometimes over 100 years old, you can imagine, when it gets really cold, it's prone to leaking and breaking, or you might have a leak and it might have been leaking for a long time, and someone lights a cigarette or someone does something to ignite a leak that people didn't know about," Tristan Brown, Deputy Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said.
"It is more likely with this old pipe that you have serious injuries or, in some cases, fatalities. We want to get it down to zero fatalities across the country and mitigate any risk of serious injuries," Brown said.
The grant money is also set to create new jobs within the city. Richmond is expected to see appropriations in the next 60 days.
While projects similar in nature may take up to 20 years, Brown said the funding could expedite the process.
"It's a promise, almost like a promissory note for years and years to come," Stoney said.
Pearson said he's excited about what this could mean for the families he helps every day.
"This project will help the consumers out a lot," he said.
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