Residents of southern Lawrence awoke Thursday morning to the sound of hissing natural gas. But the release wasn’t dangerous, an official with an area pipeline company said.

The loud noise around 7 a.m. this morning came from crews with Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline releasing pressure from a major transmission line that runs through the Baker Wetlands.

Bob Bath, a manager for the gas line company, said crews were releasing the pressure from the line so that workers in Ottawa could complete a relocation of a gas line in that community.

“There was no danger at all,” Bath said.

The crews were at a small station the company has in the Baker Wetlands, just north of the Wakarusa River.

Bath said Thursday afternoon that crews were scheduled to make a similar noise later that evening as they purged the line in order for Ottawa workers to complete gas line installation.