HARRISBURG, Pa.- The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has announced a settlement related to previous shortcomings identified in the installation of natural gas pipeline infrastructure across the Lehigh Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The settlement was reached between the PUC’s\u00a0independent Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement (I&E) and UGI Utilities’ gas division, following an investigation that, according to the PUC, identified 52 pipeline joints\u00a0that failed visual inspection or company construction procedures.<\/p>\n
The joints were part of plastic natural gas pipe installation projects in\u00a0several Lehigh Valley communities, the PUC said.<\/p>\n
According to settlement documents, the investigation began in late 2022, after\u00a0I&E inspectors observed a contractor failing to follow UGI construction procedures during the installation of plastic natural gas main on or near Liberty Street in Nazareth.<\/p>\n
That prompted a larger investigation, in which UGI reviewed additional projects tied to the same contractor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Between March 2023 and July 2025, the company conducted integrity inspections at multiple projects in Allentown, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Emmaus, ultimately investigating 273 pipeline facilities,” the PUC said, in its report.<\/p>\n
Specifically, investigators identified concerns with 27 plastic butt fusion joints and 25 electrofusion joints, including misalignment and improper depth.<\/p>\n
The same foreman and laborer were tied to each of the 12 projects investigated, both of whom are no longer permitted to work on UGI’s gas lines, the PUC said. UGI subsequently replaced all of the joints that were found to be visually unacceptable.<\/p>\n
The PUC pointed out that the investigation did not identify any gas leaks, explosions, fires, property damage or injuries associated with the plastic pipe fusion joints.<\/p>\n
Under the proposed settlement, UGI would pay a $150,000 civil penalty and commit to making other safety improvements.<\/p>\n
“The settlement also recognizes UGI’s cooperation throughout the investigation, including providing requested information, conducting extensive integrity inspections and remediation activities, and implementing a number of safety enhancements while the investigation was underway,” the PUC said.<\/p>\n
According to the settlement documents, UGI isn’t admitting any wrongdoing, saying the foreman and laborer involved failed to follow the company-provided training on installing and inspecting the joints.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The commission will issue a final decision on the settlement after a public comment period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa.- The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has announced a settlement related to previous shortcomings identified in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,279,805,28,7445,7446],"class_list":["post-245965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-berks","tag-lehighvalley","tag-pennsylvania","tag-poconos-coal","tag-southeastern-pa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}