Buda neighborhood dealing with gas leaks

Suzanne Jones lives in Garlic Creek West in Buda. She said on Friday night, her neighbors started smelling gas and posting about it on social media.

The smell in the Jones house was just intermittent so they waited until Sunday to call CenterPoint Energy. A technician was there in minutes.

"It's called a sniffer, he put it around everything and he said our control box specifically was bad because it was emitting gas and so he red flagged it, turned it off," Jones said.

Another resident who wants to remain anonymous had the same story.  She says CenterPoint found a problem with the control box.

"Why would everybody's box be all of a sudden faulty on the same time on the same day?" she wondered.

This homeowner says she just shelled out the money and paid a plumber for a new box. But others are still trying to figure this out.

"There's like 200 of us wondering what's going on," Jones said.

Jones says she was also told the control boxes were fine.

"It's supposed to emit a little but and that the gas company put too much odorant into the line and it's making it smell worse than it really is," Jones said.

Alicia Dixon, a spokesperson for CenterPoint Energy says they investigate every gas leak called in. 

"If we do discover that there is a leak on a customer-owned facility, for example an appliance inside the home, we are not able to make those repairs because CenterPoint Energy does not repair customer-owned equipment, we're responsible for maintaining and repairing our infrastructure, our natural gas lines that lead up to the meter," Dixon said.

And they encourage people to call...that's why they add the odorant to the naturally odorless gas.

"We realize there has been a number of leak calls and we are investigating on our end as well including whether or not it's just simply an odorant which is the odorant that we add to natural gas or if there is any other issue going on," Dixon said.

But the homeowners that contacted FOX 7 believe after all is said and done, CenterPoint Energy is responsible because not everyone's leak is at the water heater...some people have electric water heaters so their leak is at the gas stove.

"The thought is the gas company increased the pressure above higher what they should have, what's acceptable for our lines and it caused some of these leaks," Jones said.

CenterPoint says they are investigating. In the meantime, Garlic Creek homeowners just want someone to take responsibility.

"Everyone's pointing the finger at someone else.  CenterPoint says it's the manufacturer's problem, it's a faulty part.  The manufacture says it's CenterPoint's problem," the anonymous homeowner said.

"All the higher ups are fighting with each other 'it's your fault, no it's your fault.'" Jones said.

CenterPoint Energy says in mid-September they did reconfigure their gas flow...which most likely changed the odorant not the volume.