Groups meet Wolf, turn up heat to halt construction

They want new safety study done on pipeline project

HARRISBURG » Six community members and two elected officials met faceto-face with Gov. Tom Wolf Wednesday as they ratcheted up the pressure on the governor to halt construction of the Sunoco Mariner East 2 Pipeline until a new safety assessment can be performed on the controversial project.

The residents from Delaware and Chester counties asked the governor to use his executive authority under Title 35 to immediately halt pipeline construction and operation, and to assess the risk the project poses to the safety of communities along the route.

“The residents, all members of the bi-county, bipartisan coalition Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety, additionally demanded that the Commonwealth mitigate that risk to vulnerable populations impacted by the hazardous, highly volatile liquid export pipeline,” reads a coalition release.

State Reps. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, D-161 of Swarthmore, and Carolyn Comitta, D-156 of West Chester, joined the residents.

The governor was presented with letters from a bi-partisan group of elected officials. Urging action were Congressman Patrick Meehan, R-7 of Chadds Ford, state Senators Andrew Dinniman, D-19, and John Rafferty, R-44, and state representatives Becky Corbin, R-155, Duane Milne, R-167, and Comitta.

“During the meeting, residents repeatedly stressed the urgent need to address the threat to densely populated communities, and once again handed Gov. Wolf a petition containing over 6,000 signatures asking him to protect the safety of schools,” reads the release.

J.J. Abbott, Wolf’s press secretary, released the following statement, Thursday afternoon: “Gov. Wolf has met with elected officials from this area and wanted to also hear from residents. He appreciated the meeting. As we have said previously, any safety assessment would have to be conducted by the PUC and Gov. Wolf would support such an assessment being done. As the PUC is the relevant authority with safety oversight over this project, if they were to perform this evaluation we would coordinate with them on how to proceed to safely and adequately assess safety concerns with this project.”

The now-under-construction Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline will carry highly volatile liquids and snake 350 miles across from Marcellus Shale deposits in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania to the former Sunoco Refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County.

Jeff Shields, Sunoco Pipeline communications manager, again repeated the company’s stance that construction is being done to the highest safety standards of the industry.

“We understand there are varying opinions on infrastructure projects such as ours, however, pipelines are the safest and most environmentally friendly way to transport the oil and gas products we use every day,” Shields said. “The mainline construction of ME2 is approximately 91 percent complete and our HDDs (Horizontal Directional Drilling) are approximately 62 percent complete. We look forward to completing our project in a timely manner. The safety of all pipelines is built into the strict federal regulations for the construction, operation and maintenance of transmission pipelines. Those include not just the Mariner East 2 system but the many natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines that have operated safely for decades throughout the Commonwealth. It is well documented that we exceed those federal safety regulations in many areas, including pipe thickness, depth, weld testing and pipeline inspection.”

The company picked up a legal victory Thursday when the state Public Utility Commission lifted an injunction against that had halted construction in West Goshen Township.

Work had been stalled since July in a dispute between the township and company over the installation and location of a valve station.

Bibianna Dussling is a Middletown Township resident and co-president of the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety.

“We’ve seen a rapidly growing bipartisan consensus to halt the construction and properly assess the risk of the Mariner East project,” Dussling said. “We hope the governor will take these concerns seriously and take immediate action to protect our safety.”

Caroline Hughes of East Goshen also attended the meeting.

“We expect the governor

to take swift action, to use his authority to protect us, as mandated by his oath and his office,” Hughes said as leader of Goshen United for Public Safety. “Citizens are prepared to escalate our voices and demand representative action.

“We’re getting the attention of people in office that have an ability to make a change and we’re taking every opportunity to communicate

the urgency of the situation.”

Comitta called on the governor to halt construction.

“I have been talking and meeting with constituents, state agency heads, township officials and Sunoco representatives regarding the Mariner East 2 project since I took office,” Comitta said. “Unfortunately, this project has experienced a record number of incidents and that is completely unacceptable.

“It’s past time to assess the safety risks so that our

first responders and residents have the information they need to be safe, and it’s regrettable that this wasn’t done prior to the start of the project.”

Rebecca Britton of the Uwchlan Safety Coalition said Wolf seemed eager to learn about the group’s presentation.

She talked about Wolf’s role, and the need for him to halt construction under Title 35.

“The governor has the ability and primary responsibility to protect the health, safety and welfare

of the citizens of Pennsylvania,” Britton said.

Melissa DiBernardino said she will pull her kids from SS.. Peter and Paul Elementary School if the new pipeline goes through. The planned pipeline runs less than 100 feet from several schools and a senior care center.

“While Gov. Wolf wouldn’t give an answer today, he assures us we’ll get one soon,” she said. ”I hope he sees the urgency in this. Every day he lets this continue, my children are at risk while Mariner 1 runs. Our children (and people of all ages) need a hero right now. Let’s hope he comes through within two weeks.”

On Wednesday Dinniman and Rafferty, calling the problems with pipeline construction “unacceptable,”

had called for a halt to construction until constituents’ concerns are resolved.

“In my district alone, pipeline construction has contaminated almost two dozen wells, disrupted businesses, created significant environmental damage, and resulted in the development of an expanding sinkhole that currently threatens at least two private homes and is within 100 feet of Amtrak’s Keystone Line,” Dinniman wrote in a Dec. 18 letter to Wolf. “I should point out that all of these incidents have occurred in a single Chester County municipality (West Whiteland Township) as a result of pipeline construction.”

Both Rafferty and Dinniman called the pipeline construction “unacceptable.”

Dinniman, who serves on the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, has been a vocal critic of the way the pipeline was being constructed and an advocate for voicing residents’ environmental, public health, property rights, and safety concerns related to the project.

Dinniman also partnered with Rafferty to introduce a bipartisan package of bills aimed at strengthening the pipeline regulatory process to give counties, municipalities, and local communities the tools they need to better address related safety concerns.

In his letter to Wolf, Dinniman addressed the safety concerns associated with the pipeline.

“While Chester County has some of the highest trained and dedicated emergency responders, in the event of a catastrophic release, lives will be lost,” he wrote. “A natural gas pipeline of this type does not belong in high-consequence communities and other states have implemented commonsense regulations that would prohibit the planned pipeline path. While I have introduced legislation to directly address this issue, action is needed now.”

“This law is being strengthened to coincide with the seriousness of each violation to help protect law enforcement, tow truck operators, highway workers and other emergency personnel who put themselves in harm’s way,” Rafferty noted. “It is the motorists’ responsibility to slow down and move over when they encounter an emergency response area on roadways in this commonwealth.”