Another incident and more distrust for Mariner East

This is probably not going to engender a lot of confidence in those who for years have been complaining about the Mariner East pipeline project.

That is the multi-billion dollar project being constructed to ferry hundreds of thousands of barrels of highly volatile natural gases such as ethane, butane and propane across the width of Pennsylvania from the state’s Marcellus Shale regions to a facility at the former Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook.

It is being built by Sunoco and its parent company, Texasbased Energy Transfer Partners. The project has sparked vehement opposition from residents who fear a catastrophe in moving those liquids through densely populated residential neighborhoods, including schools and senior centers.

Not helping matters has been a seemingly constant series of hiccups and other problems in construction of the pipeline, which traverses the state including 23 miles through the heart of Chester County.

What happened last Friday is not going to help matters.

Another sinkhole formed along the construction site. It was not the first. This one formed near Sleighton Park in Middletown Township. Opponents quickly jumped on the situation, noting it is not far from homes and fields where youth soccer games are held.

The 15x15-foot sinkhole occurred within the right-of-way of the pipeline. It exposed the company’s old 12-inch pipe that was pressed into service to start delivery of materials when construction on the full 20-inch Mariner East 2 pipeline got bogged down.

The company noted the hole was quickly filled in by workers, stressing there was no damage to the pipeline, no leak of materials and no injuries were reported.

The state Public Utility Commission quickly confirmed the incident and said a safety investigation has been launched by the Pipeline Safety Division of the Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement, the independent investigation and enforcement bureau of the PUC.

It was the second sinkhole reported in Middletown Township. Last spring the ground opened up along Baltimore Pike near the state police barracks. That comes on the heels of issues in a neighborhood in West Whiteland, Chester County, where a similar sinkhole also exposed the old Mariner East 1 existing pipeline. That incident forced the state to shut down materials being moved through the pipeline and halt construction. That since has been lifted and work has resumed.

Then there was the “backfire” – which residents explained as more like an explosion, that shook houses and knocked things off the wall during a restart of a transfer station in West Goshen a month ago.

Middletown residents already had planned an evacuation drill Saturday at Glenwood Elementary School – just a few hundreds miles from the route of Mariner East 2 – to demonstrate their concerns about the lack of emergency preparedness and instructions on what residents should do in the event of a leak along the pipeline.

That rally was quickly scrapped in favor of a protest at the site of Friday’s sinkhole site.

Two weeks ago, Gov. Tom Wolf finally came to Chester County and met face to face with residents about the concerns they’ve raised about the pipeline, including safety, the value of their homes, and emergency preparedness.

Wolf stressed that he shared their concerns that the pipeline be constructed and operated to the highest safety standards – something Energy Transfer has insisted all along it is doing. But he also made it crystal clear he has no intention of shutting down the project.

“At what point do you stop caring about the safety of your children,” anti-pipeline activist Eric Friedman, who used a drone to get aerial photos of the sinkhole, noted at Saturday’s protest.

The saga of Mariner East 2 drags on. It is now apparent that the state is not going to stop construction.

The least they can do is hold Energy Transfer’s feet to the fire and assure local residents that there is a plan in place should the unthinkable happen. It’s that unthinkable that has invaded the everyday thoughts of residents in the path of the pipeline.

And it’s not going away anytime soon.