2008-07-07 23:36:10 -

www.washingtongas.com - On Thursday, July 10, Washington Gas Chairman and CEO James H. DeGraffenreidt will be joined by Carl T. Johnson, U.S. Department of Transportation Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil Pipetown, a new state-of-the-art training facility at Washington Gas's Operations Center in Springfield, Va.

Only

the second of its kind in the United States, Pipetown was built to simulate an urban community. Designed to provide the most realistic training environment possible, the facility allows Washington Gas to train field operators, line supervisors and emergency responders to an unparalleled level of high-performance, safety and efficiency in a live, controlled environment.

The Pipetown facility consists of four city streets, 10 buildings, gaslights, gravel roadways, curb boxes, fire training field and a complete natural gas distribution system. Trainers can use multiple controls to create a wide array of realistic damaged facilities, leak and fire emergency scenarios. The leak settings are randomly altered so that participants are not aware of what to expect when called to respond.

"Pipetown is aimed at enhancing the safety of our customers and community through our highly skilled employees," said Terry McCallister, President and Chief Operating Officer, Washington Gas. "Pipetown improves our readiness capabilities through scenario planning and training which better enables us to handle any situation we might find on our extensive pipeline network."

The celebration will commence at 8:00 a.m. Thursday, July 10 at the Operations Center at 6801 Industrial Road, Springfield, Va.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Washington Gas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WGL Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:WGL). The parent company holds a group of energy-related retail businesses that focus primarily on retail energy-marketing and commercial heating, ventilating and air conditioning services.

Additional information about WGL Holdings is available on its Web site, www.wglholdings.com/. Go to www.washingtongas.com/ for more information about Washington Gas Light Co.

Washington Gas
News Media:
Eric Grant, 202-624-6091