Deal will not alleviate pipeline concerns
Last week’s agreement between environmental groups and Sunoco Pipeline LP offered residents a bit of security in knowing that the company agreed to increased scrutiny on its controversial Mariner East 2 pipeline project. And the company got what it wanted when a state Environmental Hearing Board judge signed off on the deal. They can now resume their horizontal directional drilling that has caused problems in several locations along the route.
It did not, however, make residents’ concerns go away.
Just ask the members of Middletown Council.
Without a quorum for their August meeting, the township board decided to cancel Monday’s regular monthly meeting.
That’s when members of the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, the grassroots group that has led opposition to the pipeline project, stepped in to fill the breach. The group held an informational meeting for residents. More than 50 people showed up. Not in attendance were some officials the group invited as well, namely Gov. Tom Wolf, state Sen. Tom Killion, R-9, of Middletown, state Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168, of Edgmont, representatives from the company, township council and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
While a scheduling conflict meant he would not be able to attend, a spokesman for Killion indicated both he and Rep. Quinn are working to schedule a meeting with Sunoco, the state Public Utility Commission and the DEP.
Once again those in attendance heard several presentations that will no doubt not help them sleep soundly at night.
MCCS commissioned a study on the potential hazards of Mariner East 2 – in particular what could happen in the event that something goes wrong. The study, done by Quest Consultants of Oklahoma, does not paint a pretty picture.
In particular the study addressed one of the primary concerns of residents, that pushing these natural gas liquids such as ethane, butane and propane via the pipeline through densely populated areas is not a good idea.
Particularly troublesome is the idea that the path of the pipeline will take it a mere 650 feet from the playground at Glenwood Elementary School. It gets even closer to several schools in Chester County, to say nothing of going through back yards, through developments, even through the parking lots of some apartment complexes.
Sunoco downplays these concerns, trying to assure residents that the pipeline construction is being done with every precaution possible, and vowing to operate it in a similar manner. They said as much in a statement issued after the state board gave the green light for construction to resume.
But incidents such as what happened in West Whiteland, where several homes’ private wells were disturbed by the horizontal directional drilling employed by the company, don’t do much to ease residents’ fears.
Which brings us back to the essential quandary this project has represented from Day One. Mariner East 2, which once up and fully functioning will ferry as much as 350,000 barrels of these materials every day from the state’s Marcellus Shale regions to Sunoco’s former refinery at Marcus Hook, has a huge economic upside. That is what makes dollar signs appear in the eyes of folks like Delaware County Council and the Chamber of Commerce. It translates to jobs, lots of good-paying, family sustaining jobs.
Some people believe the move could make the lower end of Delaware County an energy hub for the entire northeast.
But the supporters don’t like to talk about the potential down side. Yes, Mariner East 1, Sunoco’s old petroleum pipeline, has been retrofitted and is already delivering similar material. But Mariner East 2 represents a huge jump in the amount of material being delivered – as well as increasing the scary proposition of what could happen should something go wrong.
Then there is the point hammered away at again and again by foes of the project. Make no mistake, they proclaim, this pipeline is not delivering oil, as the old line did. These are volatile materials, being pushed through the pipeline at high pressure.
Those are the kinds of things residents heard Monday night. They are the kinds of things that will continue to haunt this project.
And they are the kind of things that Sunoco Pipeline LP must work to alleviate.