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January 14, 2015

Summit to pay $100K fine for sewer line damage

Summit Natural Gas of Maine will pay a $100,000 fine after state regulators found that the utility’s employees and contractors had damaged some sewer lines while installing pipeline.

The Bangor Daily News reported that Summit reached an agreement on Tuesday with the Maine Public Utilities Commission to pay the fine. Summit also agreed to work on preventing future issues by changing its training practices.

The newspaper quoted PUC Chairman Mark Vannoy as saying he believes Summit takes the violations seriously, adding that the violations “are a reflection on management.”

“I find [the contractor’s] lack of oversight to be particularly egregious,” he said during the PUC’s Tuesday hearing on Summit.

The violations stem from a PUC report finding that Summit’s use of trenchless horizontal drilling to install pipeline damaged some sewer lines. The report said the violations could have ultimately led to gas leaking into basements, where it might have ignited in the presence of pilot lights or furnaces.

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