Pa. DEP Fines Pipeline Company Operating in Bradford County

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

December 22, 2011 | 4:54 PM

Susan Phillips / StateImpactPA

A compressor station in Susquehannock State Forest.

The Department of Environmental Protection says Chesapeake Energy’s pipeline division failed to use sediment and erosion controls at a construction site last February and May. Appalachia Midstream Services LLC violated Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law last winter while they were building a compressor station in Albany Township, Bradford County. Compressor stations are built alongside pipelines in order to force the gas through the pipes. Bradford County officials found violations in February, and when DEP inspectors were sent back to the site in May, the problem remained.

“Appalachia Midstream did not correct the violations documented in February by the Bradford County Conservation District until August, which is far longer than needed.” DEP Regional Director Nels Taber said through a press release.

Appalachia Midstream, a division of Chesapeake Energy, will have to pay a fine of $19,510 for the violations.