Compressor stations are scary.  They emit benzene, toluene, formaldehyde, and other toxic chemicals at an alarming rate. They emit volatile organic chemicals and fine particulate matter which creates ground-level ozone, harming human health and animal health.

They’ve made people in Pennsylvania, like Pam Judy, sick. They are unregulated because they are treated as individual sources of pollution rather than aggregate sources of pollution. They also explode.

Of all the dangers from Marcellus Shale gas drilling, this was one problem that wasn’t even on the radar until last Thursday in the wee small hours of the morning in Bedford County, when the compressor station there exploded and 150 local residents were evacuated. While terrifying incidents such as this don’t even make it into the major newspapers, one reporter for Aol Energy is doing his job; read Jon Hurdle’s report here. Hurdle reports,

A natural gas compressor station in southern Pennsylvania exploded overnight Thursday, prompting the evacuation of about 150 people and raising concerns about safety amid the shale-gas boom that is spreading throughout the state….

Working with local fire and emergency services, company officials shut down the station and a nearby underground gas-storage facility and the fire was extinguished, Trahan said.

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