Dec. 23—The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission is pursuing a civil fine against the landowner involved in the rupture of a natural gas transmission line last month and is forwarding an investigation to the Whitman County Prosecutor’s Office for consideration of a misdemeanor charge.

Scott Rukke, director of the commission, said landowner Brad Meyer could be fined a maximum of $10,000 under the civil procedure and he would be able to contest the fine and mount a defense at a hearing. Meyer could also face a misdemeanor if the prosecutor’s office decides to pursue the case.

“We thought it prudent given the information we have to give it to the prosecutors and let them decide what they want to do with it,” Rukke told the Tribune on Friday.

The landowner allegedly hit a high-pressure natural gas transmission line known as the Lewiston Lateral while installing a drainage pipe in a farm field north of Pullman and allegedly didn’t call prior to the work to have the gas line located, Rukke said. The rupture caused more than 36,000 Avista customers in Lewiston, Clarkston, Moscow, Pullman and other communities to lose natural gas service for a number of days. The outage launched a large-scale effort by the utility company to relight tens of thousands of gas furnaces and appliances once the transmission line was repaired.

Rukke said the civil penalty stems from Meyer allegedly doing the work without first calling to have the line located and the potential misdemeanor charge would be for digging within 35 feet of the high-pressure line without first obtaining an excavation code, meaning a location on the pipeline.

The agency believes Meyer and not a contractor was the one doing the work.

“We know nothing about a third-party contractor,” Rukke said. “We had an engineer investigator on site the day it happened and talked to Brad Meyer indicating he was the one doing the work.”

Rukke said following the incident, his agency reviewed the Williams Companies’ public awareness campaign related to working around its high-pressure transmission lines and found no issues. He said the company that owns and maintains the transmission line properly marked the line and routinely sends letters to landowners and others notifying them of the requirements to have lines located prior to excavation work.

“They did everything they were supposed to do and we found no issues with that at all,” Rukke said.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.