Pipeline protesters, state and Sunoco strike safe-drilling deal

The Clean Air Council, Mountain Watershed Association and Delaware Riverkeeper Network reached a settlement agreement Tuesday with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and Sunoco Pipeline that would provide protection to the public from the drilling involved to construct the company’s Mariner East 2 pipeline.

The proposal came the day before the state Environmental Hearing Board was slated to open a hearing regarding the petition filed by the three groups to halt all drilling operations associated with the project. The proposed order, posted on the board’s

website, has been signed by attorneys for DEP, Sunoco and the environmental organizations and is awaiting the board’s review.

As a result, the hearing that had been scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday in Harrisburg has been postponed.

While the board considers the agreement, its Aug. 3 order, which allowed horizontal directional drilling to resume at 16 sites throughout the state, including two each in Chester and Delaware counties, has been extended. The action has permitted drilling to continue at Eagleview Boulevard and Ship Road in

West Whiteland Township, Commerce Drive in Chester Township and Chester Creek.

Drilling may not resume, however, at the remaining 39 locations throughout the state.

The terms of the proposed agreement would require Sunoco to re-evaluate 47 selected horizontal directional drilling sites and those where an inadvertent return has occurred or happens in the future. The terminology refers to incidents in which drilling fluid, a mix of water and bentonite clay used to lubricate the bit, has unintentionally leaked. DEP has issued notices of violation in two of the 17 counties along the pipeline route, including in Delaware County related to incidents in Brookhaven

and Middletown, for impacts to commonwealth waterways from inadvertent returns.

The proposed settlement also includes stipulations about notifying residents when drilling resumes and offering homeowners using private wells the opportunity of having their water tested.

Members of groups such as the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety had planned to attend the hearing. A post on the group’s Facebook page by Clean Air Council attorney Alex Bomstein thanked those who intended to be present.

“Your willingness to show up and stand together on these issues means so much to us,” he wrote. “Clean Air Council will be in touch once we can discuss

the details of the settlement agreement and what it means on the ground moving forward.”

Maya van Rossum, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, noted the proposed settlement would afford better protections for the community and environment, adding, “It is wrong that our organizations had to bring this legal action to get us to this point.”

“Sunoco should have complied with the law. DEP should had enforced the law and fulfilled its constitutional obligation to protect our environment,” she wrote in an email. “Instead it fell to our communitysupported environmental organizations, but we are glad we had the legal talent and resources to do so.”