Battle to stop pipeline shows no sign of ending

Residents continue to mount legal challenges to Sunoco’s $2.5 billion Mariner East 2 pipeline project.

The Battle of Mariner East 2 shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

In recent weeks, residents opposed to the massive, $2.5 billion project that will push hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile gases across the full width of Pennsylvania to Marcus Hook have celebrated several key victories.

The state Public Utility Commission shut down operations on the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline, which was already ferrying ethane, butane and propane, after drilling on Mariner East 2 was linked to several sinkholes in a West Whiteland neighborhood.

The sinkholes actually exposed the old pipeline, creating a situation the PUC described as “potentially catastrophic.”

Sunoco Pipeline LP, a spinoff of Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, was ordered to do a series of tests on the ground and several other procedures before the state will allow them to resume the flow of materials.

Opponents who remain outraged that the state would allow the pipeline to be routed through densely populated neighborhoods, near several elementary schools and senior centers, took the occasion to call on state officials once again to shut down construction on Mariner East 2.

They converged on Harrisburg, gathering outside a Senate hearing at which several local elected officials castigated state agencies for their lack of adequate oversight of the project.

Citizens even went so far as to attempt to deliver a mock “summons” to Gov. Tom Wolf, demanding he come here to the region and meet face-to-face with residents who now will have Mariner East 2 as their back yard neighbor.

But this week the pendulum swung back the other way.

Sunoco Pipeline won a key court ruling against citizens trying to block further construction of Mariner East 2.

In its ruling, the state Commonwealth Court fell back on a similar ruling they had applied in a case from West Goshen, where the environmental group Delaware Riverkeeper Network tried to block pipeline construction.

Both rulings echoed a previous ruling that has been the linchpin in Sunoco Pipeline’s plan – and the nemesis of those trying to stop it.

The court ruled landowners could not state a cause of action because Sunoco Pipeline has been granted public utility status by the state Public Utility Commission.

That crucial ruling in 2014 cleared the path for Sunoco Pipeline to acquire the land rights it needed – including use of eminent domain where necessary – because it was deemed to be an action taken for the public good.

Now sinkholes have been developing in one Chester County neighborhood. State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Goshen, one of the most vociferous opponents to the plan among elected officials, indicated that the problem was typical of what could be expected when drilling in the region, which is dotted by karst formations, ground sitting on old limestone base that has been weakened over the years. It is particularly susceptible to sinkholes.

Residents have pleaded with state officials for an independent, risk assessment study be done on the Mariner East 2 project by an outside agency.

Proponents of the pipeline – and its supposed economic benefits – scoff at such a study as a waste of time and money. For its part, Sunoco Pipeline continues to stick to its main talking point. They look forward to completing the project, which they maintain is being constructed to the highest safety standards in the industry, and vow to operate it in similar fashion.

In fact, before the latest hiccup they were intimating that they still expected to complete the project and have Mariner East 2 online and operating by the end of June.

We have been clear on Mariner East 2. We at least acknowledge the economic benefits that Sunoco, some local officials and labor unions constantly preach will come along with the pipeline.

But we do not discount the deep concerns of residents who fear for their safety, let alone their property values and quality of life.

Delaware County already has indicated they plan to perform a risk assessment study of their own. The state should do the same. It might be the only way to alleviate the concerns of residents who have to live with this thing, something no amount of court victories by Sunoco LP is likely to do.