Comment Period Open for Mariner East II Pipeline to Transport Marcellus Products

Marcus Hook Processing Equipment

PA-DEP holds Mariner East II pipeline hearing in Harrisburg

From an Article by Nick Malawskey, PennLive.com, August 17, 2016

Landowners and environmentalists opposed to the Mariner East II pipeline are asking the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for more time.

In eight days — and one more public hearing in Westmoreland County — PA-DEP will cease taking public comments on the proposed pipeline, which is designed to move Marcellus Shale gas from eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania to the Sunoco Pipeline plant in Marcus Hook.

At issue are whether or not the department will issue permits to allow Sunoco to build the pipeline near waterways — the pipeline itself is regulated by the federal Department of Transportation.

On Tuesday, at a public hearing at the Pennsylvania Farm Show complex, opponents argued there just wasn’t enough time to analyze all of the possible impacts of the project.

On the other hand, supporters of the pipeline — a wide swath of industry and manufacturing representatives and the union members who would build the project — argued that the permitting process had been drawn out long enough already.

Building the pipeline, they argued, would create thousands of jobs and provide a much needed boost to Pennsylvania’s manufacturing and energy economies. It could also provide a boost for the Marcellus Shale industry, which has been dampened by low natural gas prices.

Moreover, said Abe Amoros, the legislative director for the Labors’ International Union, the pipeline “will be constructed safely and in an environmentally friendly way.”

“Many have expressed concerns with this project,” Amoros said. “But study after study has shown pipelines are the safest way to transport national gas.”

Union members, meanwhile, testified that the pipeline would be built safely.

“Our involvement ensures a safe, quality installation, because our jobs are depending on it” said Ross Stevens, a union member. “Be assured, we maintain the highest standards. We will not let you down.”

But opponents were undeterred — and argued that much of the testimony from the industry, namely that related to jobs, had little to do with the issues at hand.

“I want to remind PA-DEP that comments about jobs are not to hold precedence over wetland protections,” said Elise Gerhart, whose family has fought against the pipeline.

Gerhart, who said that tree removal for the project has already impacted the streams and wetlands on her family property, and said Sunoco had a bad record when it came to safety.

“I am asking PA-DEP not to be part of the criminal act of forcing these pipelines on people who do not want them on their property,” she said. “We do not want to be in the blast zone.”

Zora Gussow, a farmer from Columbia County, also argued that the pipeline “could not be built in a way that does not have negative impacts on the land.” She also urged PA-DEP to extend the public comment period for another 45 days.

PA-DEP will hold one more public comment hearing on Aug. 18 at Westmoreland County Community College.