NPR's State Impact Quotes Clean Air Council Regarding Upcoming Compressor Hearings

 Con­cerned about com­pres­sor sta­tions, after this month’s explo­sion at a Susque­hanna County facil­ity? The Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion is hold­ing two pub­lic hear­ings on the issue next week: one in Wyoming County, the other in Susquehanna.

Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion offi­cials who will be host­ing the events said they have not seen an uptick in inter­est in the pub­lic hear­ings since the explo­sion at Williams Part­ners’ Lath­rop sta­tion in Springville Twp. DEP pub­lished a news release for the sec­ond hear­ing on Mon­day and spokes­woman Colleen Con­nolly expected to see more response after that.

But an orga­nizer of a recent Wyoming County infor­ma­tional event about one pro­posed sta­tion and an envi­ron­men­tal group urg­ing stricter air pol­lu­tion con­trols at all of the sta­tions said pub­lic inter­est in the facil­i­ties is growing.

“In the wake of this explo­sion, espe­cially, I think a lot more peo­ple will be com­ing out to the hear­ings than before,” Matt Walker, a com­mu­nity out­reach coor­di­na­tor with the Clean Air Coun­cil, said.

Each event will com­bine a pub­lic meet­ing with an offi­cial pub­lic hear­ing dur­ing which com­ments on the pro­posed air qual­ity per­mits will be recorded.