Pipeline foes ratchet up heat on Gov. Wolf

The school year is almost over, but that will not stop the growing concerns of families, staff and administrations about what for many is their new neighbor - the Mariner East 2 pipeline

Two Chester County school districts with schools located near the Mariner East pipeline project have expressed concerns regarding the project’s safety and appealed to Gov. Tom Wolf for a comprehensive independent risk assessment, according to state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Whiteland.

The superintendents of both the West Chester Area School District and Downingtown Area School District wrote to Wolf almost two months ago, but have indicated to Dinniman that they have yet to receive a response.

“The bottom line is our schools, parents, students, teachers, and staff deserve clear answers about the risks associated with this pipeline

project and what to do in the event of an emergency,” said Dinniman, one of the project’s most strident critics. “The fact that we still can’t get straight answers about potentially life-and-death scenarios from our state government, including the very agency responsible for pipeline safety, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, is extremely alarming. One has to wonder whether they have answers.”

In a letter to Wolf dated March 29th, WCASD Superintendent Jim Scanlon wrote, “The WCASD has four buildings within 3,000 feet of the pipeline and more than 25,000 residences living on or near the pipeline. For the past 18 months our school district administration and staff have been working with Chester County Emergency Management first responders and have developed safety protocol in the event of a pipeline breach ... Without a comprehensive risk assessment, it is difficult to measure our plan against potential risks if we don’t know what they are.”

On Friday, Scanlon said he wants to establish an emergency protocol.

“The school district can’t control whether the pipeline goes in or not,” he said. “We can only respond to an emergency situation.

“I haven’t seen a substantial risk assessment report and have not been able to get communications protocol from Sunoco. We’ve asked the governor to conduct a risk assessment or for somebody to conduct an independent risk assessment. “That way, we can make our emergency plans.”

Likewise in Delaware County, community activists have consistently pointed what they see as a fundamental flaw with the pipeline project, the fact that it runs within a couple of hundreds feet of the Glenwood Elementary School on Pennell Road (Route 452) in Middletown.

Rose Tree Media officials were unavailable to comment Friday.

When fully up and operational, Mariner East 2 is expected to transport more than 600,000 barrels a day of volatile gases such as ethane, butane and propane from the Marcellus Shale region across the full width of Pennsylvania to a facility in Marcus Hook, where it will be stored and shipped, largely to overseas customers.

Scanlon also said the study “should include viable worse-case evacuation routes, enhanced safety and safety training for first responders and separation of pipelines from existing residences, schools, and businesses by a distance deemed safe.”

In a letter to Wolf dated April 16th, Downingtown Superintendent Emilie M. Lonardi said she started hearing complaints and concerns from parents about the pipeline shortly after she began as superintendent last July.

According to Lonardi, the Mariner East 2 project runs approximately 500 feet from one of their middle schools. Lionville Middle School (986 students) is located in a campus-like setting, next to Downingtown East High School (1,788 students), and nearby Lionville Elementary School (674 students). The pipeline is also reasonably close to two other Downingtown schools.

“The safety of our students is of utmost concern to our board, parents, and me,” Lonardi wrote.”I ask, as part of the Integrity Management Plan, that you conduct a comprehensive independent risk assessment study regarding the construction of the new pipeline.

“The study should include evacuation routes, evacuation procedures, detection equipment, safety training for first responders, as well as an analysis and recommendation for the appropriate distance of the pipeline from schools to ensure safe evacuation, if needed. Once we fully understand the risks, we will update our school safety protocols to create the safest environment possible for our students and staff.”

Dinniman said he has heard from hundreds of parents, including those of students attending non-public and parochial schools near the pipeline’s path, expressing similar concerns.

“I shudder to think what would occur in the event of a pipeline emergency,” Dinniman said. “Remember, these pipelines, one of which is 87 years old, are carrying highly-volatile compounds such as butane, ethane, and propane, through an area which is known to be geologically problematic and potentially unstable,” Dinniman said. “That is precisely why I filed a petition for emergency relief with the PUC.”

For their part, Sunoco Pipeline has maintained they are building and plan to operate the pipeline to the highest industry safety specifications. Despite a series of delays and shutdowns ordered by the state, the company is still hoping to have the pipeline, which they say is more than 95 percent completed, operational this summer.

The project is supported by local business groups, labor unions, the Chamber of Commerce and some elected officials.

A move by Delaware County Council to conduct an independent risk assessment on the project recently stalled on a 2-2 partisan deadlock.

Last week, state Public Utility Commission Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes granted a petition filed by Dinniman, shutting down operation of the existing, much smaller Mariner East 1 pipeline and prohibiting construction of the Mariner East 2 and Mariner East 2X pipelines in West Whiteland Township. Mariner East 1 is the original Sunoco oil pipeline that has been retrofitted to carry the new materials. One of the points made by the company is that the region is crisscrossed by numerous pipelines that have operated safely for decades.

In her order, Barnes cited that, “Two large school districts have asked Gov. Wolf what to do in an emergency ... (and that) Sunoco’s Pipeline Safety expert did not know how people unable to run away from a vapor cloud should respond to such an incident.”

She also noted that, “Sunoco may have given safety pamphlets to 66,000 people along the 350-mile route, and to schools within .5 miles of the pipe. However, given that vapor clouds can move depending on weather conditions and people are mobile within their communities, this is insufficient.”

In addition, Barnes ordered Sunoco to:

• Create for the public an integrity management program, risk analysis and other information required to warn and protect the public from danger and to reduce the hazards to which the public may be subjected.

• Report its emergency response plan, practices and procedures including how it intends to coordinate with fire, police, PEMA, PHMSA, and state agencies in responding to a release or ignition of highly volatile liquids from its pipelines or appurtenances and whether its personnel will assist in evacuations.

Sunoco is appealing the emergency shutdown to the full, five-member PUC.

The PUC’s next meeting is scheduled for June 14.

Gov. Tom Wolf