Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
DA serves Sunoco with formal notice
WEST CHESTER >> The Chester County District Attorney’s office served formal notice that Mariner East Pipeline builder Sunoco/Energy Transfer is threatening public health, safety or welfare.
“The district attorney’s office will do everything in its power to ensure the safety of the community and citizens and of Chester County,” Chester County First Assistant District Attorney Michel Noone said. “This action will require Energy Transfer to take steps to correct the nuisance it has created through its pipeline activities.”
Those activities include, “exposed pipeline in creeks and tributaries, a pattern and practice by Energy Transfer of violating the terms of and conditions of its work permits and discharge of inadvertent returns which dis
charge drilling fluids,” according to a September 24 DA office press release.
Sunoco/ET is building the 350-mile Sunoco Mariner East Pipeline which will stretch from Ohio and West Virginia and weave through Pennsylvania and link to the former Sunoco Refinery at Marcus Hook.
Critics have argued that Sunoco is building the pipeline dangerously through high density areas and near to 41 schools and assorted nursing homes, businesses and homes.
The pipeline will ship highly volatile ethane, propane and butane, which is odorless, for overseas production of plastics.
“These actions violate industrial waste discharge requirements in the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Act,” reads the release.
The DA’s office intends to file an action in the Chester County Court of Common Pleas in a bid to force ET to stop the “nuisance.”
ET has 60 days to abate the nuisance a and if that time expires and the nuisance has not been corrected the DA will bring a civil action in the Court of Common Pleas “alleging actions both past and present that create a public nuisance and which should be abated, restrained or such other relief granted.”
Noone: “Chester County prosecutors and detectives diligently researched to find an approach that could hold ET responsible now and force action now. Chester County citizens deserve to live peacefully in their homes, work in their communities and educate their children safely in schools. This step will force ET to begin to right their wrongs and fix these problems.”
The notice of intent released by the DA states that two exposed pipelines located in a creek that is an unnamed tributary of Valley Creek have been exposed since at least June 2019 and have not been properly buried a minimum of three feet underground. The notice of intent reads that the exposed pipes create a risk of
danger to the “health, safety and welfare” of surrounding residents and the general public. One of the pipelines is believed to be active and transporting petroleum and the status of the other pipe is unknown though it is believed to transport Natural Gas Liquids.
On Sept. 11, the Department of Environmental Protection issued an order for Sunoco to cover 49 locations statewide, within 60 days. Those two pipelines are included, based on reasonable investigation.
Ninety-eight violations of the permit have been issued, with five in Chester County.
Groundwater sources have been fouled.
“New drilling activity that causes additional damage to previously impacted or identified wells could constitute knowing, reckless, or intentional damage,” reads the notice of intent.
Noone said the DA is required to wait 60 days.
“If the 60-day period expires and the responsible parties have failed to abate the nuisance, the Chester County DA’s office will bring a civil action in the Chester
County Court of Common Please alleging that activities both past and present constitute a public nuisance under the law, and should be abated, restrained, and/ or such other relief as may be just and equitable under the circumstances,” reads the notice intent.
On Tuesday, Lisa Coleman spokesperson for Sunoco/ET responded: “We received the notice issued today by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office regarding certain areas in Chester County that are claimed to violate Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law. We believe we are already well on our way to resolving the issues identified in the notice and look forward to discussing these issues with the DA’s office in the coming weeks. To that end, we have completed all required remediation as a result of inadvertent returns or other construction related discharges from the Mariner East 2 project in Chester County consistent with our approved permits. We also have resolved associated claims with the DEP through agreed upon consent
agreements. In addition, the Company is under an order issued by the DEP to cover any exposed areas of pipes, including the two pipes in Chester County, which is subject to a schedule of work.”
Plans call for Mariner East pipeline to run feet from Jerry McMullen’s back yard and within mere yards of the Chester County Library.
“The health, safety, and welfare of residents of Chester and Delaware County are being threatened by the Mariner East Project,” McMullen wrote in an email. “It may be legal semantics, but for me, ‘public nuisance’ is a phrase that is not strong enough. This project creates ‘public endangerment.’”
Active pipelines in the same right-of-way dating to the 1930’s are now in operation.
“Energy Transfer’s use of pipes that are more than 85 years old to transport explosive liquids under high pressure is an endangerment,” McMullen said. “Ignoring federal advisories and reversing the direction of flow and changing the products
carried by these pipes is an endangerment.
“Going against federal advice and placing two pipelines one inch apart, where at least 12 inches is the recommended distance, is an endangerment. The list goes on. We are at risk because Energy Transfer’s profit-driven decisions increase the risk of a disaster in Chester County. There should be a call for emergency relief to shut down this project until all variables, especially the project’s safety record, are carefully examined.”
Kurt Knaus, spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, issued the following statement Tuesday evening:
“Like other investigations and frivolous lawsuits brought against this pipeline, this one has nothing to do with the project itself and everything to do with a certain date in November. It has all the appearances of a politically motivated filing, because the record is clear: This is a legally permitted project that underwent years of intense regulatory and public scrutiny.”