MERRILLVILLE, Ind. -- Utility provider NIPSCO has entered an agreement with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) regarding alleged pipeline safety violations.

According to documents, a Notice of Probable Violation was sent to NIPSCO in July of 2025, alleging 190 violations in 2024. The notice says that NIPSCO failed to locate utility lines in a timely or accurate manner during 811 calls for digging, as required by Indiana code.

The consent agreement with the IURC's Pipeline Safety Division acknowledges that NIPSCO reduced its at-fault ratio between 2023 and 2024 and trained more than 25 percent of excavators who damaged NIPSCO lines during the alleged violations. Because of that, NIPSCO received a reduction in penalties which amount to $463,400.

NIPSCO issued the following statement in part to ABC57 News in response to the consent agreement:

"Ensuring public safety and maintaining a safe natural gas system is critical and one of the most important responsibilities we have as an energy provider. While maintaining this system, our goal is to also ensure that approximately 900,000 industrial, commercial and residential gas customers across our northern Indiana service area receive a safe, reliable supply of natural gas.

We acknowledge the fine and pledge to continue improving our processes for performing line locates.  As the largest natural gas provider in Indiana, NIPSCO responded and completed more than 565,000 requests for natural gas line locates in the 2024 calendar year. The violation addresses 190 instances that occurred in 2024 in which NIPSCO failed to accurately locate its underground utilities when requested by someone doing excavation work, meaning NIPSCO accurately located more than 99.96% of the locate requests it received.

From 2021-2025, NIPSCO reduced its 'at-fault ratio' from 0.54 to 0.24. This is based on the industry benchmark that measures damages per 1,000 locate requests also known as Operator DP1K.  The 0.30 reduction demonstrates NIPSCO’s improvement journey to prevent at-fault damages and reduce risk.

...Pipeline safety is a top priority, and NIPSCO is focused on a path forward to ensure the continued safety of our communities, customers and employees."

NIPSCO says it has increased training and procedures for pipeline safety management. An additional 30 dedicated locator personnel have also been added to NIPSCO's staff in 2026.