Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
West Whiteland couple taking on pipeline project, but can they win?
You turn on the tap. It cascades over your head; you rinse your mouth after brushing; or you fill a pot to make pasta.
It’s a constant; clean and pure, just turn on the spigot, water always seems to be there.
What happens when it isn’t?
In a modern day version of David and Goliath, a West Whiteland couple is fighting Sunoco Pipeline.
Construction and drilling of the Sunoco Mariner East 2 Pipeline caused turbidity and sediment to appear in well water at the home of David Mano and Diane Salter on July 4.
Jeff Shields, Sunoco communications manager, maintains that drilling and construction lowered the water level, with Mano and Salter’s water coming from the bottom of their well.
Shields said that wells in the area, since the release, have always tested as safe.
But still, Sunoco offered to hook up Mano and Salter, and more than 30 impacted households, to public water for free and make a cash payment to each homeowner of $60,000 to pay for future water bills.
Mano and Salter balked. They said they were the only homeowners offered the deal who didn’t take it. And they say their neighbors are giving them the cold shoulder.
“How do you put a dollar amount on your well?” Mano said.
For now, the couple is drinking their well water.
“You can’t fight Sunoco,” Mano said. “They have too much money.
“They can buy off anybody they choose. They haven’t bought us off—they don’t have enough money. They couldn’t afford us.”
Until sediment turned up in their well water, the couple had never attended a protest rally. Now, they are regulars at grassroots events organized by pipeline opponents, they appear at township meetings and they have joined coalitions to fight pipelines.
They even attended a recent press conference at the Capitol in Harrisburg where Mano held two clear glass bottles filled with murky silt and sediment that he said came from their well.
During an emotional speech, Mano teared up when talking about how the water might have affected him and his finance Salter.
Mano has appeared on all the local TV stations and talked with several newspaper reporters.
“We want people to be aware of this pipeline,” Mano said. “We haven’t been able to enjoy what we do in the summertime.
“We made the choice to help others with coalitions and protests.”
Salter and Mano said they have lost sleep.
“It’s made a very emotional impact on us,” Salter said. “We’re so upset because our well water was contaminated.
“They’re interfering with our lives.”
Members of the Uwchlan Coalition knocked on their door and Salter answered it. She said it feels good to talk with “like-minded people.”
“I was embarrassed that I was losing my well water,” Salter said. “But I learned so much more about safety--the pipeline is only 85 feet from our home.
“We’ve learned so much more about what Sunoco is doing and how.” Salter and Mano moved into the West Whiteland neighborhood nine years ago and intend to spend the rest of their lives overlooking Northern Exton and Route 100 traffic.
Both smiled when Mano compared the brake lights in the valley running below their back yard to red rubies, the changing green traffic signals to emeralds and the white head lights to diamonds.
“Diane said it looks like Christmas--all the lights changing from red to green to yellow,” Mano said.
During the summer, leaves hide the roadway and make the property “totally private,” Mano said.
Ironically, Mano ran what is now a Sunoco gas station that his grandfather established in 1929. It was then an Atlantic brand station, and then Atlantic Richfield.
“I know how they work,” Mano said.
Mano talked about his attachment to well water.
“When we moved in it was perfect,” he said. “I grew up with well water.
“There were no water bills and it’s not processed water. We had spring water running out of our tap.”
Salter noted that their well water contains no chlorine or fluoride and she doesn’t have to buy bottled water.
“If public water is so good, why does everybody on public water buy bottled water?” Mano asked.
Mano said a single family lived at the residence for more than 50 years and depended on well water.
To cash in, and as part of the release and settlement agreement, the couple indicated they would have agreed to release Sunoco “from any and all manner of claims, causes of action, damages, liabilities, losses and demands whatsoever… arising out of or related to impacts to well water from the construction of the new pipelines…”
The battle is not just about water, safety or signing a settlement agreement, but more about fighting the big guy on the block.
“To us it’s not about money,” Salter said. “It’s about stopping this bullying and payoffs and helping others.”
Bill Rettew Jr. is a Chester County resident and weekly columnist. He grew up on well water, now uses public water and rarely purchases bottled water. You may contact him at brettew@dailylocal.com