delphiprog wrote:

is there a "safe" amount of natural gas to
smell? Reason: I can smell natural gas near my meter, but only when I
put my nose right near the pipes. Anywhere else along the ground
around the meter I can't smell it - and I can't smell it on any of the
pipes in my house that I could reach

No "safe amount" of any explosive gas can be detected
by human nose. Our noses have not been trained to
discriminate between safe and unsafe odours. This is
why gas companies ask people to notify them if they
ever smell gas.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)