Citizens go it alone on pipeline-hazard evaluation
Delaware County Council may pick vendor for its study on Wednesday
A group of citizens’ advocacy groups has hired a consultant who is undergoing a risk assessment of the Mariner East 2 pipelines in Delaware and Chester counties. And Delaware County Council may be moving closer to hiring its own consultant as well.
“It’s the citizens plus the impacted communities stepping up to do the job the commonwealth wouldn’t do,” said Eric Friedman of Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety.
After Delaware County Council deadlocked for the second time in hiring a vendor to do a similar study last month, concerned citizens decided to move ahead with doing their own, Friedman said.
“The scope of work is basically an evaluation of the overall route in Delaware and Chester counties,” he said.
The study is being conducted by Norman, Okla.based Quest Consultants Inc. The firm began its work at the end of June and is expected to take about six weeks to be completed.
It’s expected to identify hazards associated with the pipeline, potential failures that could occur with Mariner East 2, conduct calculations to describe potential impacts to residents near the pipeline and provide an analysis of risk due to pipeline failures.
To do so, Quest is anticipated to calculate risk for three locations along the pipeline in the Del-Chesco area, with at least one each in Delaware County and in Chester County.
The Mariner East projects link the Marcellus and Utica shales to Marcus Hook to move butane, ethane and propane through pipelines to be processed, stored and distributed domestically and internationally. The first phase involved the repurposing of a former petroleum line to transport the natural gas liquids.
Mariner East 2 is a 307mile project under construction that has been subject to a variety of issues such as sinkholes, water issues and others that have caused concern for community residents along the construction, especially in Chester and Delaware counties.
The cost of the new study is about $50,000 study, financed by Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety and East Goshen Safety and Environment Advocates with support from state Sen. Andrew Dinniman, D-19, of West Whiteland, Protect Penn Delco, Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, Edgmont Community Safety Coalition, Goshen United for Public Safety, West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety, Mountain Watershed Association, Meadowbrook Manor Homeowners Association, Sierra Club of Chester County and Food & Water Watch.
In addition, East Goshen Township contributed $5,000 to the study, Westtown Township gave $2,000 and Delaware County Councilman Brian Zidek donated the proceeds of one of his county paychecks, $1,500, to the cause.
Friedman said Quest was selected to do the work because that was the firm Delaware County had been considering. Councilmen Zidek and Kevin Madden, both Democrats, voted for the measure. Council Vice Chairman Colleen Morrone, along with Councilman Michael Culp, both Republicans, did not after she voiced concerns about the integrity of the report as Quest had been associated with a group opposing the pipeline and a concern that the specifications of the bid had narrowed in the process.
Council Chairman John McBlain, a Republican, has recused himself as his law firm Swartz Campbell has done work for Sunoco, although he himself has not.
In March 2017, Quest Consultants did perform a hazards study for the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety in which the group said that in the event of a leak along the line with immediate ignition, extensive casualties and serious thermal injuries could occur in densely-populated areas.
The report was largely criticized by Sunoco which said it “combines flawed data with amateur calculations performed by the coalition.”
Friedman said the groups decided to step in when county council did not hire Quest to perform its study.
“This just presented an opportunity to engage a vendor that had already been vetted by the government,” he said.
Zidek shared a similar perspective.
“We’ve been working for months and months and months on county council to try to get a risk assessment,” he said. “If government’s not doing, it’s left to the citizens to do it themselves.”
Madden said he also would donate a paycheck to the effort – if he thinks the county’s attempt to get a risk assessment have been exhausted.
But he doesn’t think that point has yet been reached.
“I’m expecting that we’re going to have a contract for consideration possibly this coming week,” Madden said. “So far, I think we’re going to be able to get one done for the county. If it doesn’t, I will be right there with (Zidek).”
Zidek added that Tim Boyce, director of Delaware County’s Emergency Services, had been speaking to potential vendors.
“He may as soon as next week recommend a vendor for us to hire,” he said.
Zidek said he wants to get an evaluation completed to determine what the facts are surrounding safety, risk and how to respond to that.
“It is government’s very first role and responsibility to look out for the safety of its citizens,” he said. “That shouldn’t be a partisan position. Doing a risk assessment study is looking out for the safety of our citizens.”
Not all are in favor of risk assessments.
Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, differed.
“The selection of Quest Consultants by a local pipeline opposition group for a duplicative risk analysis is proof that this process has less to do with assessing risk and more to ensure that the outcome is controversial,” he said.
Knaus said Quest had performed a discredited analysis for the Middletown Coalition and that due to a bias were unable to get approved by Delaware County Council.
“Generating a credible analysis does not seem to be the goal of Sen. Dinniman and his financiers,” Knaus said. “Construction of Mariner East 2 has been undertaken with full regulatory approval and in accordance with all applicable laws. Pennsylvania desperately needs the clean, affordable energy that Mariner East 2 will provide and this essential project must be completed.”
Friedman, however, said residents have a right to learn all they can about the project.
“The public deserves to have an understanding of the safety risks that Sunoco is trying to impose on the
(community) and this information hasn’t been available,” Friedman said. “It makes it difficult to have an informed public conversation ... We’re stepping up to make this information available after the government has failed to do so.”
In other pipeline issues, there was a portion of pipeline near Crump Road in Uwchlan Township, Chester County that was exposed – and with it came a fair amount of confusion.
According to Dinniman’s office, staff received calls from residents earlier this week about the line. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission staff allegedly told the senator’s staff that the exposed pipeline was Mariner East 1 and that they had known about it for weeks, telling Sunoco to monitor it and that the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration had been notified.
By Thursday, Paul Metro, manager of PUC’s Safety Division, e-mailed the senator’s office that the exposed line was abandoned and no product was in the pipe. In fact, Vicki Granado, vice president of corporate communications for Sunoco-parent Energy Transfer Partners, said this abandoned section of line was taken out of service in 2015 and had been capped and filled with grout.
“One has to wonder how and why neither the PUC nor Sunoco released this information sooner,” Dinniman said. “If the PUC had been notified as Sunoco indicated it was, why didn’t they properly identify the line as inactive?”