(Credit for Photo: Photo Provided with Release Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Harrisburg, PA) The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved a joint settlement yesterday with Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania Inc. (Columbia Gas) that is related to past pipeline safety violations while completing main line replacement projects that are in Southwest Pennsylvania.

The PUC voted 5-0 to adopt the recommended decision of PUC Administrative Law Judge Jeffrey A. Watson, which recommended approval of a joint petition for approval of settlement filed on March 14th, 2025, between Columbia Gas and the PUC’s Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement (I&E).

Yesterday’s action resolves a formal that was filed by the PUC’s Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement on November 21st, 2023, alleging that in 2019 and 2020 Columbia Gas and its contractor, Infrasource, violated state and federal regulations relating to visually unacceptable socket fusions along multiple main line replacement projects in Allegheny and Washington counties.

Gas service line fusion is a method of joining plastic polyethylene (PE) gas pipes that is permanent, and it uses controlled heat to melt and blend the materials into a single, continuous piece.