Group claims Sunoco Pipeline damaged own equipment

Middletown Coalition for Public Safety offering $10K reward for info on alleged perps

MIDDLETOWN » The Middletown Coalition for Public Safety is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the positive identification of those the coalition believes might have been acting on behalf of Sunoco Pipeline to damage equipment at Pullman Drive, in West Whiteland Township, last week.

Sunoco was first to offer a similar $10,000 reward for arrest of the all vandals for what company staffers said was about $40,000 of damage to pipeline-related equipment. The coalition said it will pay out only if those acting on behalf of Sunoco, to damage or with instructions from the pipeline builder to damage, are positively identified.

Sunoco spokesperson Lisa Dillinger replied to the reward offer made by the coalition.

“It is silly to think we would damage our own equipment and it is unequivocally not true,” she said. The coalition disagrees. “It is entirely possible that Sunoco ordered damage to its own equipment in an attempt to distract attention from the public safety risks and enormous property damage caused by its troubled project,” said Melissa Haines, spokesperson for the coalition. “In Sunoco’s reckless rush to ram this export pipeline project through dense population centers, Sunoco has caused enormous property damage, trespassed on private water supplies, and destroyed property values across Chester and Delaware counties.”

Eric Friedman, spokesperson for the coalition, wrote Tuesday that Sunoco has caused extensive damage to private and public property across Pennsylvania.

“In an apparent attempt to distract attention from this fact, Sunoco now claims that some damage was done to construction equipment and, without presenting a shred of evidence, implies that ‘environmental groups’ are responsible,” Friedman wrote. “If any equipment was actually damaged, Middletown Coalition for Community Safety believes it’s just as likely that Sunoco did it itself.”

Friedman also reported that the reward money being offered is not connected in any way with funding for the Mariner East Citizens Risk Assessment currently underway.