Study: Traffic more dangerous than pipeline for nearby residents
A long-awaited study of two pipelines planned for Delaware County found that the risk they present to residents is in line with those of other common hazards.
The reportby G2 Integrated Solutions found that residents living directly adjacent to pipelines are 20 times more likely to die in a traffic accident than to be killed by a rupture of the Mariner East 2 pipeline, or 27 times more likely than to be killed by the Adelphia Gateway pipeline.
Fatal house fires and falls down the stairs are also more likely than deaths from the pipelines, according to the study.
Mariner East 2 is part of Sunoco Logistics' $5.1 billion effort to transport natural gas liquids from Western Pennsylvania to the Marcus Hook refinery, and is expected to be fully installed and in operation in the coming months.
Adelphia Gateway LLC's eponymous line is already installed in the county - the project would repurpose a hybrid oil/ natural gas pipeline to ferry natural gas liquids from Northampton County to Marcus Hook.
The full results of the study will be presented by analysts from G2 at a hearing organized by the County Council. No date has been set, but officials estimate it will convene sometime in the next few weeks.
It's a conversation more than a year in the making. In January, then-newly elected County Councilmen Kevin Madden and Brian Zidek began pushing for an independent risk-assessment of the pipelines.
For months, the two Democrats were blocked along party lines by their GOP colleagues on the council.
Debate raged over the necessity of the study, and whether any engineering firm would be able to provide a truly objective analysis. Finally, in July, the council came to a consensus, hiring G2, headquartered in Texas, to complete the$115,000 assessment.
Lisa Dillinger, a spokeswoman for Sunoco parent company Energy Transfer Partners, said Monday that the company was pleased the G2 study “supports what we have been communicating all along about the safety of the Mariner East 2 pipeline.”