Originally published by Fox 45 News
BALTIMORE (WBFF) – BGE has been fined more than $400,000 in a massive gas explosion in 2019 that destroyed a Columbia shopping center.
The Maryland Public Service Commission is fining the utility company after finding that the explosion “was the result of both a violation of gas and electric regulations in [the Code of Maryland Regulations],” according to the order issued today.
The report concluded that BGE violated several state and federal statutes and regulations, including failure to comply with “the minimum separation of the underground lines specified for joint trench installations in its internal standards.”
The commission did note that “BGE has made a significant effort to identify 253 similarly constructed joint trench sites that may result in an incident similar to what occurred at Stanford Boulevard.”
Besides paying the $437,294 penalty, BGE is ordered to respond to the results of a survey that identified 1,250 sites that need to be remediated.
