Sunoco returns to East Goshen

Pipeline construction resumes in township

Sunoco Pipeline has resumed Mariner East 2 Pipeline construction in the township.

Subject to terms and conditions of an Environmental Hearing Board’s Aug. 9 settlement agreement between the Clean Air Council, Mountain Watershed Association and Delaware Riverkeepers Network, and Sunoco, the pipeline builder was allowed to resume construction.

Drilling resumed Thursday at the Quaker Ridge-Rite Aid Site on Boot Road.

Sunoco previously was required to notify private well water users of an offer to test drinking water for those whose property is located within 150 feet of horizontal directional drilling sites.

As part of the Aug. 9 agreement, Sunoco is notifying all property owners located within 450 feet of drilling sites.

Sunoco sent certified letters to residents with private wells and whose property line is within 450 feet of horizontal direction drill-

ing sites.

Sunoco is offering testing of private water supply or well at the company’s expense. The results will be provided to well water users as well as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Residents were given a phone number and person to contact to register for well testing.

The letter states that wells with 450 feet of horizontal directional drilling sites would be tested within 10 days of a resident’s request, at a mutually-convenient time.

“If you do not contact the Sunoco representative, there will be no further contact from us regarding any private water supply/well testing,” reads the Aug. 16 letter signed by Mark McConnell, land project manager representing Sunoco.

A July 24 temporary injunction to halt drilling in neighboring West Goshen Township was signed by Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes.

The full Public Utility Commission is expected to make a ruling on whether Sunoco may resume drilling sometime in October.

The West Goshen suit challenged Sunoco’s response to a 2015 settlement agreement. The township maintains that Sunoco was not permitted to build an above-ground safety valve on the east side of Route 202, at Boot Road, but rather on the west side of the four-lane highway.

The 6-acre property on the east side, next to the West Goshen Fire Company, was recently cleared and prepared for construction by Sunoco.

The Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline will carry flammable liquids, butane, ethane and propane, 350 miles from western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to the former Sunoco Refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County.