HARRISBURG — Sunoco Logistics got a setback to its planned propane and ethane pipeline across southern Pennsylvania.

In a decision released Wednesday, two administrative law judges advised state utility regulators to deny the company’s request to exempt pump stations and valve control stations from local zoning ordinances.

The judges say the buildings can’t be exempt because Sunoco Logistics’ Mariner East pipeline service doesn’t constitute public utility service. The service is to begin later this year.

The pipeline is to originate in the southwestern Pennsylvania town of Houston amid the area’s Marcellus Shale drilling fields and end at the company’s distribution facilities in southeastern Pennsylvania’s Delaware County.

The parties can submit new arguments by Aug. 19 and replies by Aug. 29. Then the final decision is in the hands of the five-member Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.