Spectra Energy compressor station offline while engineers investigate Searsmont gas release

SEARSMONT — A team of engineers remains at a Spectra Energy pipeline compressor station in Searsmont attempting to determine why a pressure valve blew Dec. 31, sending a tower of gas 100 feet into the cold night air. Meanwhile, the station has been shut down, while gas continues to run through the pipeline to other compressor stations in Maine.

“Engineers are on the ground reviewing it,” said Spectra spokeswoman Susan Waller, from the company’s Houston corporate office, almost a week after the incident shook residents awake within a 10-mile radius just before midnight New Year’s Eve.

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This was not the first incident at the Searsmont Compressor Station. A similar disruptive release occurred in 2010.