Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Protesters rally at sinkhole site
They demand halt to pipeline construction
More than 150 anti-pipeline demonstrators marched – while chanting and carrying protest signs – to the scene where three sinkholes have recently developed at the drilling site of the Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Protesters chanted as they marched toward the site on Lisa Drive.
“Hey, hey, ho, ho ME2 has got to go,” they mouthed.
“Stop drilling, stop filling, leave our land alone,” the protesters sang out in unison.
In the wake of a ruling this week by the state Public Utility Commission to suspend operation of the Mariner East 1 pipeline, and increasing calls by state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Whiteland, among others to halt construction on Mariner East 2, several pipeline opponents have said Gov. Wolf is the only person capable of stopping pipeline construction permanently.
Homemade signs read, “Putting the public back in public util-
ities,” “We demand clean water, our Constitutional rights,” “No ME2, Governor Wolf revoke the permits” and “Corporate fat cats destroying our quality of life.”
PUC Chair Gladys Brown Wednesday issued a temporary emergency order at the request of the PUC’s Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement to shut down the Mariner East 1 pipeline after sinkholes developed on Lisa Drive.
Mariner East 1 is the old original Sunoco oil pipeline, constructed in the 1930s and reformatted to run natural gases from the Marcellus Shale region to a storage facility in Marcus Hook. It carries about 70,000 barrels a day of gases such as ethane, butane and propane. Mariner East 2 would up the ante considerably, involving a much larger pipe that would carry as much as 250,000 barrels a day.
Most of the right-of-way for the now-under-construction Sunoco Mariner East 2 pipeline runs through the right of-way for the 1930s Mariner East 1 pipeline. The pipeline crosses 350 miles – the full width of Pennsylvania –from the Marcellus Shale deposits in West Virginia, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania while carrying highly volatile liquids to the former Sunoco Refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County.
Carolyn Hughes and other speakers called for an immediate stop to drilling.
“A community is coming together to say this is enough,” Hughes said. “We as a community are united to say no more.
“(Chester County) is a high consequence area because of our dense population. I say look out Sunoco.”
At the site of the sinkholes, a small group of protesters donned hardhats with CPSI stenciled on the brim – Citizen Pipeline Safety Inspectors.
The faux inspectors watched as a backhoe dug just feet from the ME1 pipeline, with more than a dozen Sunoco workers legitimately wearing hard hats.
“Sunoco, the DEP and the governor are not keeping us safe, so the citizens have taken it upon ourselves to initiate a citizen-funded risk assessment in collaboration with Sen. Dinniman,” Speaker Ginny Marcille-Kerslake said.
Sam Rubin, mobilization organizer from the group Food and Water Watch, donned a helmet and inspected the sinkholes, and then said, “Gov. Wolf refuses to take safety measures. This project puts our homes, neighbors and schools at risk. We don’t have any more time to waste.”
Jeff Shields, Sunoco Pipeline communication manager, recognized the right of the demonstrators to protest.
“We realize there are varying opinions on clinical energy infrastructure, and we respect the right of people to express their opinions,” Shields said. “We look forward to finishing the Mariner East 2 pipeline safely and in accordance with our environmental permits, so that Pennsylvania can continue to reap the very real economic benefits of this project.”
Marcille-Kerslake addressed the crowd as Sunoco employees were jeered as they drove past the rally.
Christy Parker is a neighbor and said Sunoco does not deserve the public utility status it was awarded.
“This is not helping Pennsylvania in any way,” she said.
Parker also talked about the drop in real estate values for neighbors like her.
“If I drove by and saw all the construction people with hard hats and digging at properties, or the sinkholes, I’d think about another neighborhood,” she said about prospective home buyers.
Don Vymazel spoke for Sen. Andy Dinniman.
He said the project was “terrible and tragic,” Vyzmael also said that Dinniman had called for public hearings on a state level.
Speaker Eve Miari, of the group Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, said the pipeline was “egregious” and the demonstrators had “done everything” that a community could to stop construction.
Shelley Chauncey is a Democrat running for the newly formed 5th Congressional District.
“I’m disappointed in Gov. Wolf, disappointed that my party that is charged with safety and security of the people in the state,” Chauncey said. “He is refusing to take a stand.”
State Sen. Becky Corbin, R-155, released a statement Friday urging a focus on safety.
“The safety of our community should always be paramount,” Corbin said. “The concerns raised by the bureau in its petition are troubling.
“I hope action is taken swiftly to address the sinkholes and further testing is done to assure additional problems do not develop.”
State Rep. Duane D. Milne, R-167, also released a Friday statement, reinforcing his repeated calls for a complete halt to continued construction on Mariner East 2 pipeline. Milne said he is outraged that further work on this route even can be contemplated.
“I am not interested in a grand canyon being created in the heart of Chester County,” Milne said. “I have expressed and will continue to express my objections to this pipeline, given the substantial problems encountered along its path.
“Numerous concerns regarding public safety, geological conditions, terrain stability, water quality and general environmental protection continue, quite rightly, to be raised. Until a thorough safety review takes place, the project should not move forward.
“As I have called for in the past: this project needs a complete reboot.”