‘Mama Bears’ deliver message against pipeline

The protesters who oppose the Mariner East 2 pipeline project are not going away. In fact, they’re taking a seat. Tuesday a small group of local mothers and grandmothers staged a protest against Sunoco’s multi-billion-dollar pipeline plan by holding something of a picnic – smack dab in the middle of a pipeline construction site in Middletown Township, Delaware County.

The group, consisting of mothers and grandmothers, refer to themselves as the “Mama Bear Brigade.”

The site is not far from Glenwood Elementary School, which has been at the center of much of the fury surrounding the plan to transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile gases such as ethane, butane and propane from the state’s Marcellus Shale region to a facility at the old Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook.

From Day One of this contentious project, opponents have objected to the route of the pipeline, which takes it through densely populated neighborhoods near senior centers and elementary schools, including Glenwood.

The group sat down Tuesday morning and sang songs as they tried to block further construction by occupying the site and preventing operation of the drill rig.

State police arrived and asked the group to disperse. Most did. Two did not. They were arrested and cited for trespassing. Sunoco has indicated that more than 95 percent of the project is complete. They are pushing to finish the rest and get the pipeline online, delivering those materials across the full width of Pennsylvania, including 11 miles of western Delaware County and about 25 miles through the heart of central Chester County.

The Mariner East project has been beset with problems, including a series of spills and discharges, sinkholes that have popped up in one Chester County neighborhood, and a recent incident in which a water company work crew doing some digging hit the still inactive pipeline at 6 feet, when they had been told it was buried at 9 feet.

Construction on the pipeline has twice been halted by the state to allow Sunoco to show it is taking steps to correct the problems. Currently, work remains idled in West Whiteland because of the sinkhole issue.

The flow of materials on Mariner East 1, Sunoco’s former petroleum pipeline, which had been shut down, has been allowed to resume.

Sunoco has consistently said they are building the pipeline, and will operate it, to the highest standards in the industry.

None of this, as you might imagine, has eased the concerns of residents and some local officials who continue to put pressure on the state to take action.

Chief among them is Chester County Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Whiteland, who has in effect said the state and the Public Utility Commission have failed in their oversight and regulation of the Mariner East project.

But there is someone else Tuesday’s group of protesters were targeting. He also has been consistently under fire from pipeline opponents.

While a sign carried by the protesters announced that the “Mama Bears Are Here,” it also asked, somewhat tongue in cheek, “Where’s Gov. Wolf?”

Opponents of the pipeline have repeatedly asked the governor to come here to the construction sites to meet with them one-on-one.

They even took the fight to Harrisburg.

Meaghen Flynn, one of the “Mama Bears” who was arrested during the protest, lives just down the street from Glenwood Elementary.

“What we want from Gov. Wolf is to stop this pipeline,” Flynn said. “If these pipelines ever become operational, our children will be in the blast zone 24 hours a day. I don’t know what else I can do to protect them. We’ve done everything else we can do.”

There is a danger here for Gov. Wolf who is running for re-election in a battle against Republican Scott Wagner.

Maybe that’s why Wolf remains so quiet on an issue that is clearly growing by the day here in southeastern Pa.

The protesters have invited the governor to sit down with them.

Hopefully, that will take place someplace other than a pipeline construction site.

These “Mama Bears” have a message for the guy they see as the big, bad Wolf. And also for Sunoco.

We are not going away.