The Houston Chronicle reports that El Paso Corp. will pay a $15.5 million fine as part of a settlement with the Department of Justice and pipeline safety regulators related to a 2000 natural gas pipeline explosion in Carlsbad, N.M., that killed 12 people.
El Paso has also committed to spend $86 million to modify the 10,000-mile pipeline system that was part of the incident.
The Houston-based company has already spent $225 million on methods to better monitor and repair internal corrosion, which investigators say was the probable cause of the accident.
