HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has finalized a settlement with Peoples Natural Gas Inc. over a series of residential service outages in Altoona in January 2010.
The commission voted unanimously to approve the settlement, which includes a $20,000 civil penalty.
According to the PUC, the company made 27 service visits to four customers in a residential neighborhood, finding water or ice in the service line that resulted in outages. It was alleged that although the company took action to remove the water and/or change the meter, it failed to address the underlying condition.
After the source of the water leak was determined, the company completed the repair of the main gas pipeline on Jan. 28, 2010.
In addition to the penalty, Peoples must compensate the customers affected by the outages at the rate of $50 per outage, for a total compensation of $1,200.
The company does not admit to any wrongdoing under the settlement.
Peoples provides natural gas service to about 31,000 homes in Blair County.
