DEP reaches $800,000 settlement with pipeline company

Marie Cusick

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Marie Cusick was the Harrisburg reporter for StateImpact Pennsylvania.

December 24, 2014 | 1:00 PM

courtesy of Jolie DeFeis

Alex Lotorto and Allison Petryk chain themselves to an access gate in the Delaware State Forest to protest construction of the Tennessee Gas pipeline in February, 2013.

The state Department of Environmental Protection announced an $800,000 settlement today with Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, for multiple violations of Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law.
The incidents took place in four north-central Pennsylvania counties during 2011 and 2012. The company has agreed to pay a $210,000 penalty and fund a $540,000 clean-up program of illegal dumpsites in Pike, Potter, Susquehanna and Wayne Counties. It also agreed to pay another $50,002 to four Conservation Districts and the DEP.
“This civil penalty is two-fold in its benefit to the public,” DEP Northeast Regional Director Mike Bedrin said in a statement. “It eliminates unsightly and illegal dumpsites that are problematic for many communities across the state and it directs more money into the Pennsylvania Clean Water fund, which is designed to protect the waterways of the commonwealth.”
DEP oversight of pipelines is limited to matters related to water quality (for example, a stream crossing) and issues with erosion and sedimentation. In 2013, activists failed to stop the expansion of the Tennessee Gas pipeline through a number of legal measures. They then switched to direct action.