Gas company ordered to pay $850,000 for violations

Serious environmental problems around natural gas compression stations at opposite ends of Potter County have led to hefty fines against the company responsible for the crimes.

State officials this week announced that Dominion Transmission Inc. of Clarksburg, W. Va., will pay $850,000 under the terms of a consent order.

Cleanup work continues at Dominion facilities in Genesee and Stewardson townships, Potter County.

At the Ellisburg station in Genesee Township, Dominion disposed of contaminated silica beads and burned solid waste on its own property, polluting the groundwater with volatile organic compounds.

Under state supervision, Dominion has removed contaminated soil and wastes and is treating contaminated groundwater.

The situation at the Greenlick compressor station in Stewardson Township is more complicated, since Dominion leases the land from the state. Because of practices similar to those at Ellisburg, the soil and groundwater became contaminated with both volatile organic compounds and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Work done so far includes removal of contaminated soil and wastes, removal of leaking underground storage tanks, and upgrading distillate and ethylene glycol recovery and product transfer facilities.

Past violations

Dominion has had previous violationns at the Greenlick station. In January 2000, the company contaminated soil and groundwater with an unknown quantity of distillate from a buried transmission line.

Three years later, about 1,300 gallons of ethylene glycol and water leaked when coolant was pumped to a compressor engine through a disconnected pipeline. Then, in April 2005, Dominion discovered soil contamination caused by the release of distillate wastewater from an uncapped pipe and a fractured pipe.

"Dominion has worked closely with the state over the years to investigate conditions along its pipeline network and conduct cleanups," said Robert Yowell, northcentral regional director for the Pa. Dept. of Environmental Protection.

Yowell said the company violated the state's Clean Streams Law and Solid Waste Management Act. Dominion has paid $550,000 to DCNR to resolve breaches of its lease. That money will be used by the state to purchase additional land. Another $300,000 was paid to state's the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.