Sinkholes have cropped up in residential areas
Editorial of the Delaware County Daily Times, October 25, 2018
This was probably not the news that opponents of the Mariner East 2 pipeline wanted to hear. But it was probably the one they expected.
First, the findings from a risk assessment on Sunoco’s multi-billion project to ship volatile liquid gases from the state’s Marcellus Shale regions across the entire width of Pennsylvania to Marcus Hook was released.
The study, which was paid for largely by private donations raised by the citizens group Del-Chesco United, was performed by Quest Consultants of Norman, Okla. It underscored the same kinds of concerns that have now been raised by pipeline foes for months.
Specifically, it warned that in the case of a leak of hazardous, highly volatile liquids for the proposed 20-inch pipeline could extend up to 2,135 feet away from the site of the leak or rupture.
That reinforces one of the loudest complaints of pipeline foes, who question the notion of sending such volatile liquids through densely populated neighborhoods here in Delaware and Chester counties.
Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline will ship hundreds of thousands of barrels of ethane, butane and propane every day more than 300 miles across Pennsylvania. That includes an 11-mile stretch of Delaware County as the line snakes along generally the same path as an existing old Sunoco petroleum pipeline. It also will traverse about 23 miles through the heart of Chester County.
The path takes it in close proximity to several elementary schools, including Glenwood Elementary in Middletown.
This week a large contingent of citizens showed up at the Middletown council meeting to air the findings of the risk assessment and again voice their concerns.
For its part, Sunoco has consistently vowed to construct and operate the pipeline to the highest safety standards of the industry. They have gained support from local municipal and county officials, labor unions and the chamber of commerce, who tout the jobs and economic benefits of the project.
Reacting to growing citizen concerns, Delaware County Council recently agreed to undertake its own risk assessment analysis.
The project has faced a number of delays, many centered around leaks and runoff problems. Most have been characterized by the company as routine pipeline construction features, but a problem with sinkholes in a West Whiteland community in Chester County that actually exposed the old existing Mariner East 1 pipeline led to the state halting construction.
All of that has delayed the completion of the entire 20-inch Mariner East 2 project. However, it will not stop the company from putting the pipeline online. They vow that Mariner East 2 will come online “shortly.” In order to do that, the company will fill in areas where the 20-inch pipe has yet to be installed with an 80-year-old existing 12-inch pipeline.
Company spokesman Lisa Dillinger said work to bypass the areas where the 20-inch line is incomplete is progressing according to schedule. “As stated on our Q3 earnings call in August, the upcoming in-service of ME2 will include use of our 12-inch line, as well as a portion of our 16-inch,” Dillenger said.
The company has been stressing for months that the Mariner East 2 project is more than 95 percent complete and will be online soon. “I would like to clarify that there has been no change to our timeline,” Dillinger said in response to what appeared to be new delays. “It will be in service as soon as it is mechanically complete, which is expected to be in a few weeks.”
Clearly, they missed the September 2018 date to put ME2 online. Now they plan to use this somewhat patchwork approach to get materials flowing through ME2.
What they also have been unable to do is assuage the growing concerns of residents who now have Mariner East as their new neighbor, in some instances in their back yards.
Those tensions will not be eased by findings in the latest risk assessment that the use of the older pipe to fill in spots along ME2 only increases the potential for problems.
Residents and elected officials have pleaded for months with Gov. Tom Wolf and the state Public Utility Commission to at least address their concerns, if not shut the project down.
Mariner East 2 has been delayed, but it has not been halted. It does not appear as if it will be.
In the meantime, residents and officials will await the results of the next risk assessment being done by the county. But by that time, Mariner East 2 may already be pushing these highly volatile liquids through neighborhoods.
Community concerns have only been exacerbated by news that Sunoco will be substituting the older, smaller pipe in areas where the 20-inch line has not yet been installed.
Those concerns are not going away. Perhaps it is time – finally – for the company and elected officials to properly address them.
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Court rejects another plea from pipeline foes
From an Article by Bill Rettew, Delaware County Daily, December 10, 2018
HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court declined to consider a challenge from the Clean Air Council and local landowners concerning Sunoco’s use of eminent domain to acquire land for their controversial Mariner East 2 pipeline.
The December 5th decision involved an April Commonwealth Court opinion, with all but one claim thrown out.
Arguments may still be heard by the Commonwealth Court on Pennsylvania’s Environmental Rights Amendment.
“The Supreme Court doesn’t take many cases,” explained Alex Bomstein, senior litigator attorney for the Clean Air council, on Monday. “There’s not enough room on the docket. Always when a decision is appealed you don’t anticipate the Supreme Court is going to take the case and usually doesn’t.”
The trial court ruled in Clean Air Council’s favor. That decision was overturned by Commonwealth Court.
Bomstein listed three major reasons argued by Clean Air Council in the case filed in August of 2015 as Sunoco started using eminent domain to acquire needed easements to construct the massive pipeline that eventually will deliver hundreds of thousands of liquid gases from the Marcellus Shale region to a facility in Marcus Hook.
Bomstein argued against allowing the company to use eminent domain, saying the project does not serve a public purpose, it is not paramount to the benefit of the public and is an export project for European plastic manufacturers.
Sunoco several years ago won another court fight granting it public utility status, which allows it to use eminent domain, largely on the argument that the project was being done for the public good.
State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Whiteland, released the following statement Monday afternoon: “I’m disappointed that the court has kicked questions about a private company’s ability to use eminent domain back to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC). Keep in mind that a portion of my complaint before the PUC raises the same issue – whether a pipeline built to send natural gas liquids overseas can use eminent domain as a public utility. That complaint continues to move forward through the judicial process. So, it’s like the courts and the PUC keep sending us in a circle without making a clear decision on what seems to be a very clear, cut-and-dry issue.”
A spokesperson for the grassroots organization Del-Chesco United for Pipeline safety wrote the following: “The Framers of our Constitution, having recently escaped tyranny themselves, wanted our foundational American document to guarantee certain enduring freedoms. None was more important than the assurance that the government would seize private property only for ‘public use.’ One wonders how the framers would have reacted to the perversion of this guarantee in today’s Pennsylvania.”
https://www.dailylocal.com/business/court-rejects-another-plea-from-pipeline-foes/article_52cbd8f4-fcc3-11e8-963e-13f3eff6a1be.html