Pipeline drilling ban partially lifted

Judge rules horizontal directional drilling could resume at 16 sites

WEST WHITELAND » Horizontal directional drilling was allowed to resume at two Chester County locations of the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline.

Environmental Hearing Board Judge Bernard Labuskes Jr. ruled Friday that drilling could resume at 16 sites in the state following his July 25 ruling, which stopped drilling at all 55 locations statewide.

Three days of hearings are set to start Wednesday in Harrisburg.

Horizontal directional drilling was allowed to resume at Ship Road in West Whiteland and at Eagleview Boulevard in Uwchlan.

Representatives of three groups which formed a partnership to battle pipeline construction met confidentially with the Environmental Hearing Board Thursday in Harrisburg.

The Clean Air Council, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Mountain Watershed Association are working together to “maximize the protections under the law for our community and our waterways,” Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper said Saturday.

“It’s excruciatingly difficult to make progress relating to pipelines,” van Rossum said. “In Pennsylvania, Gov. (Tom) Wolf and his DEP are very pro-pipeline, as is the Federal Regulatory Commission.

“The law is against us and the governor is against us.”

Alex Bomstein of the Clean Air Council continues to fight on the state level against pipeline companies.

“Our primary goal in appealing the Mariner East 2 permits has always been to protect the public and our beautiful commonwealth from this dangerous and wrongly permitted infrastructure,” Bomstein said. “We are taking all

steps we can in our appeal to make sure the public is protected.”

Plans call for the Mariner East 2 pipeline to snake 23 miles across Chester County and 350 miles from Marcellus Shale deposits in western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the former Sunoco Refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County.

The pipeline would carry colorless, odorless and heavier-than-air volatile liquids, butane, propane and ethane in the high-density areas of Chester and Delaware

“Mariner East 2 is providing countless economic benefits for Pennsylvania and new opportunities for local workers. Restarting these 16 sites is good news.”

counties.

Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, said the group applauds the judge’s order.

“Restarting these sections means some of the laborers who were idled can come back to work,” Knaus said. “There’s nothing pretty about large construction projects, whether you’re building a highway or developing a pipeline like the Mariner East 2.

“Mariner East 2 is providing countless economic benefits for Pennsylvania and new opportunities for local workers. Restarting these 16 sites is good news.”

— Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance