MPLX Reaches Agreement With EPA About Former MarkWest Facilities

11/5/18 – 7:23 A.M.

Findlay-based MPLX LP has agreed to a settlement with the EPA for air pollution violations at Ohio and Pennsylvania facilities they bought from MarkWest. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports MPLX will spend around $7 million to settle fines for violations at three facilities and to upgrade equipment. Part of the settlement includes efforts to reduce emissions at 18 other facilities not included in the EPA’s report.

The alleged violations include failure to report gas leak rates at one facility. The government also says there was “poor or nonexistent record-keeping going back a decade.”

MPLX will pay a $925,000 fine. They’ll also spend $2.7 million for new air pollution controls, and another $2.5 million to install air monitors next to four of the former MarkWest facilities. The agreement also includes $700,000 for volatile organic compound controls at truck loading and gas compressor stations in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

MPLX bought Markwest and its facilities in December of 2015. The EPA filed the original notice of violation in April of 2016. The complaint stemmed from air monitoring done in April of 2015, before MPLX bought Markwest. The EPA also cited other violations from 2014 and 2012.

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