WILLIAMSPORT – Dominion Transmission Inc. of Clarksburg, W.Va., will pay $850,000 for past environmental violations at the company’s natural gas compressor stations in Pennsylvania under the terms of a new consent order and agreement negotiated with two state agencies.
The multi-site agreement, signed by Dominion and the departments of Environmental Protection and Conservation and Natural Resources, covers cleanup activities at two natural gas compressor stations in Genesee and Stewardson townships, Potter County.
Dominion has enrolled both sites in DEP’s land recycling and environmental remediation program, and cleanup is under way. The company must meet the appropriate cleanup standards at both sites in order to receive a relief of future liability from DEP.
“Dominion has worked closely with the state over the years to investigate conditions along its pipeline network and conduct any necessary cleanups,” DEP Northcentral Regional Director Robert Yowell said. “The multi-site approach gives the company and state agencies a comprehensive strategy to complete remediation work in a timely fashion and in accordance with stringent cleanup standards.”
At the Ellisburg station in Genesee Township, Dominion had disposed of contaminated silica beads that had been in trash pits or ponds and burned solid waste. Dominion’s sampling revealed that groundwater at the site was contaminated by volatile organic compounds.
Since enrolling the property in the Act 2 process in November 2001, Dominion has conducted a number of remediation activities to meet statewide health standards, including removing contaminated soil and wastes, and treating contaminated groundwater.
Dominion’s Greenlick compressor station in Stewardson Township is located on land leased from DCNR. Because of past waste practices similar to those at Ellisburg, the soil and groundwater became contaminated with both volatile organic compounds and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.
Environmental sampling determined that the contamination had spread beyond the fence of the facility, and the company has agreed to a cleanup that will meet both the statewide health and site-specific standards. 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.
Dominion also had several additional contamination incidents at the Greenlick station in the past six years. In January 2000, the company reported a release of an unknown quantity of distillate from a buried transmission line that contaminated soil and groundwater on the property.
In November 2003, about 1,300 gallons of ethylene glycol and water leaked when coolant was pumped to a compressor engine through a disconnected pipeline. And in April 2005, Dominion discovered soil contamination caused by the release of distillate wastewater from an uncapped pipe and a fractured pipe located in the general area of the distillate tank.
Dominion conducted appropriate cleanup work after each of these incidents, which was approved and overseen by DEP.
The pollution incidents are violations of the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law and the Pennsylvania Solid Waste Management Act.
Under the terms of a legal agreement signed by Dominion, DEP and DCNR, the company has paid $550,000 to DCNR to resolve breaches of its lease. DCNR will use the money to purchase additional land in the future.
Another $300,000 was paid to state’s the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund, which is used to help pay for environmental cleanups across the state where there is no viable responsible party.
In 1990, Dominion became the first company to settle with DEP after several statewide pipeline cases began in 1987 following discovery of historic violations related to pipeline waste disposal practices.