Pipeline risk assessment discussed
WEST GOSHEN » As part of a risk assessment study, an expert told about 250 listeners at Fugett Middle School, Tuesday night, that the risk associated with the Mariner East pipeline is “unacceptable” in certain locations.
As part of a consequence and risk analysis report, Jeff Marx, senior engineer with Quest Consultants Inc., of Norman, Oklahoma, was referring specifically to valve stations used to pump highly volatile fuels, butane, ethane and propane along the 350mile pipeline. He used internationally recognized standards.
Marx and Quest studied public data to formulate conclusions. The consulting firm calculated that a release along the pipeline, based on the industry average, will occur in the state along the Mariner East right of way, every 2.8 years. That number is not Mariner East pipeline builder, Sunoco-specific.
The pipeline hole size and weather conditions would affect the impact. The risk is higher the closer someone is to the pipeline and whether they are located inside.
A consequence analysis showed that a delayed ignition and rupture might cause
a flammable vapor cloud for up to a half-mile, an immediate ignition might cause a jet fire at 1,010 feet, while there could also be a leak without ignition.
The risk assessment was funded through crowd sourcing (a first time for Quest) and with the assistance of several municipalities, with more than $50,000 raised to date. DelChesco United for Pipeline Safety spearheaded the funding drive and Clean Air Council served as the fiscal agent. A written report will be issued next month.
George Alexander, Media resident, summed up by listing several takeaways: there is a higher risk at valve stations; more of a danger at Horizontal Directional Drilling entry and exit points; multiple pipelines increase the risk; based on industry data, there will be an accident every two to three years; and even the smallest leak can cause a lethal fire and explosions.
“We’re talking about fatalities — these are deaths,” Alexander said. “Yes, they are numbers, but they represent people who die.”
But what to do? asked an audience member.
There are various strategies, and shelter in place
is often offered as an option, an East Goshen resident said.
Marx said, in case of a leak, to consider securing a mostly air tight building and sit it out.
“It takes quite a while for flammable gas outside to come inside,” Marx said. “Shelter in place is perhaps the best practice in certain scenarios.”
“Sunoco and PHMSA said to go away on foot,” said Eric Friedman of DelChesco United for Pipeline Safety.
The Mariner East pipeline weaves close by 40 Pennsylvania schools.
Another audience member asked if other states have established siting rules near to schools.
Friedman said that both Texas, at a distance of 1,000 feet, and California, have limited pipelines to a certain distance from school children.
State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19, implored residents to go door to door to “protect ourselves and our children.”
“Ask your representatives, where do you stand on this issue and have you accepted money from the interests we feel is jeopardizing our safety?” Dinniman asked. “It’s up to you to make this a key issue.
“Good, reasonable people do not put other people at risk.”
Caroline Hughes, of East
Goshen, cited numbers and statistics.
“While hazardous pipelines account for 10 percent of all pipelines in the United States, in 2017, a typical year, they account for 64 percent of pipeline accidents,” Hughes said. “Material/welds/equipment failure was the cause of over 45 percent of all pipeline accidents in 2017.”
She said the pipeline will zig-zag through high density areas of Chester and Delaware counties and there have been over 1,000 pipeline accidents involving highly volatile liquids since 1998, and in 2017, a record year, 76 accidents.
Digging by trench versus horizontal directional drilling (HDD) makes a difference, said Marx.
When dug by trench, the pipe is usually shallower and would blow out dirt above the leak. With HDD, sometimes buried at 100 feet underground, the gas follows the path of least resistance.
State Rep. Duane Milne, R-167, watched from the audience.
“I listened intently to the presentation, and I certainly learned quite a bit from the data,” Milne said through an email. “The risk factor analysis points to a strategic path forward for where legislative and regulatory activity should focus.
“The first is the placement and monitoring of
valves, which clearly hold the greatest risk of potential problems. Secondly, the key is to look at how to keep pipeline routes about one half-mile away from homes and businesses. Beyond this zone, the risk factor, fortunately falls close to zero.”
Some favor shipping via pipelines, including Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance.
“This project has nothing to do with assessing risk and everything to do with efforts aimed at shutting down the Mariner East pipeline projects,” Knaus said through an email. “This is not the first pipeline to run through local communities.
“A number of pipelines currently run through southeastern Pennsylvania and carry the very same energy resources that the Mariner East pipelines will deliver. None of them required these studies and all of them are operated safely.”
Would you shut down the Pennsylvania Turnpike or Philadelphia International Airport? asked Brigham A. McCown, chairman of the Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure.
“The idea that risk is associated with everyday life,” he said as part of an email. “When you take a trip on an airplane or hop in a car, there are risks involved.”
Freidman said Wednesday that the public is in harm’s way.
“The risk assessment defines the size of what Sunoco calls the blast radius as being nearly half a mile,”
Friedman said. “The public deserves a credible notification system and self-evacuation plan — but we’ve been provided neither.”
Caroline Hughes addressed the audience.
“These preliminary findings confirm what citizens have feared all along: both the consequences and the probability of an accident on this project are too high,” said Hughes, a spokesperson for Del-Chesco United. “This first look at the risk to individuals who live, work, and attend school along the pipeline path clearly demonstrates the need for mitigation to protect the dense, vulnerable populations in our area.”
Lisa Dillinger, Sunoco spokesperson released the following statement on Wednesday:
“Pipelines have been safely operating for decades in America, quietly powering our daily lives. In fact, there are multiple pipelines running through your county that are safely carrying natural gas or natural gas liquids at this very moment. They safely pass close to schools, hospitals, senior living facilities and homes, and have done so for decades. So the argument that this can’t be done safely just doesn’t match up with the infrastructure in place at this time and are continuing to develop.”
Safety and risk reduction are built into the federal regulations that pipeline operators have to follow, and we have performed the required safety analyses for our systems and shared
information with our regulators and emergency services officials. Additionally, we have included enhanced maintenance and operational systems into the Mariner East pipeline system that go above and beyond those regulations in many cases; a fact which has been acknowledged by Richard Kuprewicz who has been hired by both the Middletown and West Goshen Townships for his expertise on pipeline safety. In response to a request from West Goshen Township, he concluded that “Sunoco has incorporated additional processes in excess of minimum federal pipeline safety regulations that should assure the safety of this proposal across the township.” It is important to note that those same enhancements are incorporated across the full pipeline route, including in Middletown Township, he added.
“Of America’s 2.5 millionmile network of energy infrastructure, approximately 199,000 miles are liquids pipelines transporting approximately 16 billion barrels of oil and petroleum products every year. The Mariner East 2 pipeline will do more than deliver access to clean, abundant, affordable petroleum products — it will also bring jobs and revenue to local communities, and will do it in accordance with all state and federal laws, rules and regulations, while employing the industry’s best practices and advanced technology to protect Pennsylvania’s valuable lands.”