County, Public Remained In Dark About Big Methane Leak

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By MICHAEL RUBINKAM/Associated Press

SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, PA (AP) - County emergency management officials say a natural gas company should've told them about a big gas release at one of its facilities in northeastern Pennsylvania.

One night in early September, the Harmony compressor station in Susquehanna County spewed more than twice as much natural gas into the air as a typical compressor station does in a year.

Yet the leak was not made public by any state agency or by the company itself. The Associated Press learned of it during a review of calls to the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center hotline for discharges of oil, chemicals and other substances.

Robert Thatcher Jr., coordinator of the county's emergency management agency, says station operator DTE Energy should have notified county officials at the time of the release so they could've taken steps to make sure residents were out of harm's way.