U.S., Williams Subsidiary Settle Pipeline Case

Date: January 31, 2002

Source: News Room

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. has reached a settlement with the federal government to clean soil and groundwater contamination along the company's 10,500-mile natural gas pipeline that stretches across 12 states from Texas to New York, according to the Justice Department. The settlement is the latest enforcement action by the Environmental Protection Agency against the natural gas industry involving hazardous waste violations. The Justice Department pursued the company on behalf of the EPA. Transco, a subsidiary of Texas-based Williams Cos. Inc. (NYSE:WMB), will also pay a $1.4 million civil penalty for the polychlorinated biphenyl contamination at compressor stations along the pipeline. The compressor stations are used to pull the natural gas through the pipeline. From the 1950s to the mid-1980s, Transco disposed of pipeline wastes in unlined earthen pits and debris areas at its 53 compressor stations. Often the wastes, including PCB-containing lubricants, were burned in the pits.

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