Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Sinkhole opens during pipeline drilling
Work temporarily stopped after inadvertent return at property on Lisa Drive
WEST WHITELAND » During pipeline drilling, a Saturday frack out released about a thousand gallons of cascading water and drilling mud, while a four-by-four-foot sinkhole developed, in a Lisa Drive backyard.
About 30 Sunoco employees attended to the water release likely caused by Sunoco Pipeline’s horizontal directional drilling. Since then, a large part of the Allen family backyard has been roped off by Sunoco.
The size of the sinkhole increased during the following 24hour time period.
Independent contractor T.J. Allen and his mother Carol Allen reside at the property where the original Mariner East pipeline crosses, about 20 feet from their home.
“We’re not sure that the whole backyard couldn’t cave in,” Allen said. “Obviously my home was built too close to it.”
About three years ago, the Allen family sold an additional easement on their property. Heavy construction by Sunoco then occurred at the property.
Allen is upset that Sunoco staffers called the police Saturday without speaking to him or
those assembled in his yard.
“I can’t believe that Sunoco can come on my property and say this is what we’re doing,” he said. “They treat me arrogantly. You feel bullied.
“Am I crazy to complain for nothing and then see people show up here with some attitude?”
“If anybody should be calling the cops, it should be us, on Sunoco, and not Sunoco on us.”
Sunoco called the police, said Sunoco Communications Manager Jeff Shields.
“For the safety of all involved, West Whiteland Police were called on Saturday to help maintain a safety buffer zone around the work zone,” Shields said.
Carol Allen has lived at the property since 1979.
“This is very upsetting,” she said. “I don’t know what’s happening to my yard.”
A police report submitted by Patrolman Brandon Krissinger stated that police were summoned to the property twice. The first visit occurred at 3:16 p.m. when police responded to a “gas leak.”
“I observed a 2-foot sinkhole in the center of the yard which had mud flowing from it,” Frissinger wrote. “Sunoco advised the material was not toxic and high in minerals.”
The report reads: “At 4:50 p.m., Chief George “Bud” Turner had called and stated that there were several people on location protesting the pipeline workers. Upon arrival, I spoke with the Sunoco foreman who stated several people were getting in the way of workers trying to clean up the sediment and blocking vehicles from entering the driveway.
“I spoke with the subjects, who stated they were there to document the incident and were not getting in the way. The subjects stated they would move the vehicles.”
As part of a release, Shields addressed the inadvertent return.
“During pipeline construction on Saturday in West Whiteland Township, drilling mud, which is a mixture of clay and potable water used for horizontal directional drilling, came up in the grass on the rightof-way behind Lisa Drive in West Whiteland Township. Drilling was stopped and crews immediately began to contain and remove the mixture,” Shields wrote. “Inadvertent returns can happen during horizontal directional drilling, and we follow contingency plans on how to respond as part of the environmental permits approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for the Mariner East 2 project. Drilling will resume with DEP approval according to the terms of our permits.
“There was also an area where the soil settled, creating a hole. The area is safe, it has been secured and the area will be fully restored.”
West Goshen Township activist Tom Casey visited the site Saturday afternoon while water and drilling mud diverted by hay bales flowed a foot high from the release site.
Casey has maintained that since plans for the pipeline were first discussed, the pipeline shouldn’t run through high-density areas with schools, churches and senior care centers located just feet away from pipeline construction.
Plans call for the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline to carry volatile fuels ethane, butane and propane 350 miles from Marcellus Shale deposits in western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the former Sunoco Refinery at Marcus Hook, Delaware County.
Casey was visiting with more than a dozen members of activist and watch dog organizations, Goshen United for Public Safety, Middletown Coalition for Public Safety, Protect Penn-Delco and Uwchlan Safety Coalition. Those groups were on their way to a working session of the larger umbrella group Del-Chesco United for Public Safety. They converged on the site of the inadvertent return.
“We are growing tired and weary of our state agencies, like the DEP, from not protecting our communities from this ill-suited project,” Casey said. “Sunoco refers to these inadvertent returns, what is commonly stated by the industry as ‘frack out,’ as being no big deal.
“The impacted property owners would probably disagree that it’s no big deal.”
East Goshen resident and mother Melissa DiBernardino visited the site Saturday.
“I can’t understand how this pipeline is still ongoing,” she said. “They have every reason in front of them to shut them down but it’s still happening.
“Sunoco has scared enough people at this point that everything about this pipeline is wrong.”
Caroline Hughes is a concerned community member who lives and works, and whose children attend school, in the Exton area “blast zone.”
“This is not a case of NIMBY,” she said. “For me, it’s ‘Not in my backyard, or my neighbor’s, or yours.’
“Our community is one big home that has been violated and cast aside as acceptable risk. Governor Wolf has sole executive power to revoke the DEP permits. Sunoco needs to be fired. We can do something. We are a commonwealth, which by definition is organized for the common good of the people. Not for the good of Sunoco and plastics. “
Amtrak rail road tracks are located little more than a neighbor’s backyard away from the sinkhole. Casey said he notified Amtrak Monday morning about the sinkhole and Amtrak officials told him they would investigate later Monday.
Bethany Toll, with Amtrak Corporation Communications, responded Monday.
“All Amtrak tracks are routinely inspected several times per week per federal regulations,” Toll wrote in a release. “Amtrak is not aware of a frack out or any current inspections on Amtrak property related to the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline construction.
“During construction of the pipeline, the area was inspected and surveyed daily and no changes to the track structure were observed.”
West Whiteland Township Manager Mimi Gleason said that after an inadvertent return associated with the pipeline, about a month ago, the township asked Amtrak to inspect the track area.