There’s no avoiding the Mariner East 2 pipeline debate

The battle lines have been drawn.

The evidence is clearly discernible along Route 452 (Pennell Road) in Delaware County, and along Boot Road in Chester County.

It’s not pretty. Clearing the way for a pipeline rarely is.

Mariner East 2 is coming.

Construction is underway for Sunoco Logistics’ pipeline, a massive undertaking that literally will traverse the 350-mile width of Pennsylvania. When it is up and running, Mariner East 2 will deliver as many as 350,000 barrels of Marcellus Shale products such as ethane, propane and butane to the former Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook. But to get there it first has to traverse a path across both Chester and Delaware counties.

Through developments, apartment complexes, and in close proximity to elementary schools.

If the construction underway to make room for the pipeline is ugly, and there really is no other way to describe it, the heated rhetoric surrounding the project is beginning to match it.

Bottom line, while many municipalities and school districts signed off on this deal early, taking Sunoco Logistics’ money in the process, more and more people in the community are beginning to question the project, and the entire notion of running these kinds of combustible materials under high pressure through densely populated areas, and in at least one case here in Delaware County, within a stone’s throw of an elementary school.

They want to know what should happen in the event of a leak, or, God forbid, an explosion. The answers are even more ugly than the earth-moving project currently underway to make room for the pipeline.

This week more than 350 residents packed a meeting out in East Goshen in Chester County. Many sounded the same kind of alarm as has been pushed here in Delaware County now for months, questioning the safety of such a proposal.

Perhaps East Goshen resident Mary McCloskey broke it down to its simplest form.

“I don’t feel safe,” she told the panel, including representatives from Sunoco.

As you might guess, that sentiment is not shared by Sunoco Logistics, which has repeatedly insisted construction and security of the pipeline is a top company concern. It should also be noted that Mariner East 1, utilizing the same pipeline that Sunoco used for decades to deliver oil, already is delivering these same types of gases safely. Granted, Mariner East 2, and the mount of material being moved, will up that ante considerably.

Then there is the economic aspect. It is not one to be ignored. Mariner East 2 already is providing hundreds of good-paying jobs in Marcus Hook, including construction crews that are refitting the plant to handle the new materials. A new report out this week lauded the potential of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania, saying the industry was contributing $24.5 billion to the state’s economy. Currently there are 178,000 jobs in the Keystone State tied to natural gas. That’s 3.1 percent of all jobs in the state. By the year 20140, industry analysts suggest 6 million jobs could be created in the state.

The Chamber of Commerce and local officials are backing the pipeline plan, noting the possibility that Marcus Hook, its economy not that long ago driven to its knees when Sunoco shut down its iconic refinery, possibly becoming an energy hub for the entire Northeast.

That has not curbed opposition in the community. A grassroots group, Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, has led the charge, in particular showing concern about the proximity of the pipeline to Glenwood Elementary School in Middletown. This week in Chester County, similar concerns were raised about SS. Peter and Paul School on Boot Road.

The question is one no one really wants to think about, let alone answer: “What if ...”

Several property owners here in Delaware County, dubbed the Middletown Six, have taken Sunoco to court, claiming the setbacks for the pipeline violate township zoning codes. A judge this week tossed that suit. A Chester County judge axed a similar plea as well.

The concerns of the community have reached the ears of some legislators. This week state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9 of Middletown, said he would introduce legislation that would allow some of the impact fees paid by the natural gas industry to be directed to communities affected by the pipeline so they can adequately address public safety needs.

You remember the impact fees. That was thenGov. Tom Corbett’s alternative to an actual severance tax. Pennsylvania happens to be the only gas-drilling state that does not utilize such a levy. Critics say it’s an unfair comparison because the state has other taxes in place that other states do not have, and, of course, there is that impact fee.

The impact fee is slapped on each well. It allowed Corbett to stand by his “no-tax pledge.” But it does not raise nearly the revenue that a severance tax on gas extraction would. Some analysts say the state is missing out on as much as a billion dollars annually because of the absence of a severance tax.

It’s hard to fathom that a state with the fiscal woes of Pennsylvania, once again swimming in a couple billion dollars of red ink, does not make this flourishing industry pay its fair share.

The debate over Mariner East 2, and whether it’s a good idea to build it in densely populated areas, is not going to go away anytime soon.

By the looks of the work currently going on, it’s not going to stop the plan either.

The challenge now is to make sure it is safe – both now and in the future.

And making sure Pennsylvania gets its money’s worth – in the form of a real severance tax – would not be a bad idea either.