Environmental Group Sues to Stop Compressor Station 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.

August 1, 2012 | 5:32 PM

Courtesy of the Clean Air Council

The Greenzweig Compressor Station in Bradford County is operated by Angelina Gathering Company.

The Clean Air Council has appealed a permit issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to Angelina Gathering Company for a compressor station expansion in Herrick Township, Bradford County. Compressor stations push natural gas through pipelines toward processing plants or the end-user.
In addition to emissions from the compressor station, nearby natural gas operations also create air pollution. The lawsuit, filed with the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board, says the DEP should have aggregated nearby sources of air pollution, which include nine wells that serve the Greenzweig Compressor Station. If the state combined emissions from the nine wells, and the compressor station, more stringent environmental rules would apply. These include greater pollution limits, record keeping, monitoring and public input.
The lawsuit also says state regulators miscalculated emissions, and failed to respond to public comments.