Pipeline developer pleads no contest in pollution cases
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The developer of a major pipeline system that connects the Marcellus Shale gas field in western Pennsylvania to an export terminal near Philadelphia pleaded no contest Friday to criminal charges that it systematically polluted waterways and residential water wells across hundreds of miles.
Dallas-based Energy Transfer Operating agreed to independent testing of homeowners’ water and promised to remediate contamination in a settlement of two separate criminal cases brought by the Pennsylvania attorney general. Under a plea deal, the company will also pay $10 million to restore watersheds and streams along the route of its Mariner East pipeline network.
“We are holding Energy Transfer accountable for their crimes against our natural resources,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a news conference after the hearing in Harrisburg.
An Energy Transfer spokeswoman called the $10 million fund “not a fine or penalty of any kind but the product of a voluntary collaboration” with the state.
“While we understand Mr. Shapiro is running for office, it remains disappointing that he would mischaracterize the facts of this voluntary agreement to his political advantage rather than acknowledge the good faith efforts of Energy Transfer to resolve this dispute,” the spokeswoman, Laura Atchley, said in an email.
The company’s Mariner East 1, Mariner East 2 and Mariner East 2X pipelines carry propane, ethane and butane from the Marcellus and Utica shale gas fields to a refinery processing center and export terminal in Marcus Hook, a suburb of Philadelphia. Construction wrapped in February.
Mariner East has been one of the most penalized projects in state history. The owner has racked up tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties, and state regulators repeatedly halted construction over contamination.
The attorney general stepped in last October, charging Energy Transfer with releasing industrial waste at 22 sites in 11 counties and failing to report spills to regulators. The company fouled the drinking water of at least 150 families, prosecutors have said.
Under the plea agreement, residents who live near the pipeline and have private water can request independent testing.
Residents were wary of the plea deal, given their fraught history with Sunoco Pipeline LP, the Energy Transfer subsidiary that operates Mariner East.
“I’m hopeful, but knowing Sunoco’s track record, I am skeptical,” said Karen Katz, of Edgmont Township in Delaware County. She said Sunoco strong-armed residents into signing agreements to allow the pipeline, tore up the neighborhood during construction, and fouled the aquifer. She said she still does not drink her well water.
“How do you take contaminated aquifers and un-contaminate them? How many years does that take?” Katz said.
Energy Transfer’s state permits already require it to fix the damage its pipeline construction caused. But prosecutors said the plea deal goes a step further by requiring the company to submit to water testing by geologists picked by the attorney general’s office. Previously, Energy Transfer itself had been testing water.