Pipeline project across Pa. is not going away

The biggest economic story in the region is not going away.

No one is questioning the huge economic upside of the Mariner East 2 pipeline. The project, under the realm of Sunoco Pipeline L.P., will traverse the breadth of Pennsylvania, including about 25 miles across Chester County.

When fully up and running, Mariner East 2 will have the capability of delivering as much as 350,000 barrels a day of liquid gases such as propane, ethane and butane. It will run from the state’s Marcellus Shale region to Marcus Hook, where it will be stored and then shipped to ports both foreign and domestic.

You don’t have to sell Mariner East 2 to many business leaders or labor unions. They’ve largely been on board from the get-go, realizing the potential economic bonanza.

But there is another side to Mariner East 2, one that also will not go away.

Most people are not thrilled about the prospect of having a pipeline carrying highly volatile gases at high pressure running through their back yard.

The pipeline project has been met with criticism in one community after another. In Chester County, when the horizontal directional drilling techniques employed by the company disturbed several residents’ wells, that type of work was halted across the state.

An agreement between Sunoco and several environmental groups that called for more oversight, better communication between the company and property owners, as well as more transparency, allowed work to continue.

It did not stop the complaints.

The latest comes from the residents of the Andover development in Thornbury Township, at the intersection of Routes 352 and 926 near the Chester-Delaware county border.

Much like other communities, residents watched in horror from the decks of their very pricey homes as crews removed trees and other plantings in preparation for laying the pipe that will carry those gases.

It’s a pretty safe bet that never in their wildest imaginations did these folks ever consider having a pipeline installed in their back yard when making what for many of them will be the biggest investment of their lives.

Sunoco understands neighbors’ concerns. A spokesman vows that trees will be replanted, the landscape will be restored. And they also point out that they are in compliance with all local, state and federal requirements to protect not only their workers, but also their neighbors and the environment. They insist those are the priorities.

Residents of the Andover development don’t seem convinced.

This week they decided to fight the pipeline in court. They filed a motion in state Commonwealth Court seeking an injunction to halt construction in their neighborhood.

They are using a novel approach. The original Andover development allowed 39 single-family homes on approximately 42 acres, and includes language mandated by township code that 40 percent be set aside as open space.

The residents now are saying that the easements granted to Sunoco for the pipeline violate that open space restriction.

They also point out that the land, once an apple orchard, could have issues with pesticides that were long used on the tract, and which could possibly cause harm now with the land being disturbed for the pipeline.

They say the original developer took precautions for those facts, but Sunoco is not. Obviously the company sees it another way.

Don’t look for this gambit to work.

At best look for some kind of agreement that perhaps Sunoco will take extra care in dealing with potentially contaminated soil.

The fact that community grass roots organizations have formed to hold Sunoco’s feet to the fire is not a bad thing.

But no one should kid themselves.

Rightly or wrongly, Mariner East 2 is coming.

In fact it is already here. Those ‘What If’ questions likely will linger.

But Mariner East 2 is not going away.