Letter From the Editor: Mariner East & Marple, taking the heat
It’s amazing the difference a few miles can make.
Out in the western end of the county, citizens have galvanized to fight an intruder in their midst.
Along 11 miles traversing Edgmont, Middletown and snaking toward the lower end of the county, they are doing battle with the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
Jump on the Media Bypass, drive a few miles, get off on Route 320, hang a left and proceed a few miles on Sproul Road, just past Cardinal O’Hara, and you come to another battlefield. Funny, it doesn’t look like one. Looks can be deceiving. There in this bucolic, heavily wooded tract that was once the longtime home of the Don Guanella School, they also are waging an intense fight. It’s not so much about the school site, what you can see from the road; this is about the gorgeous forest and wooded acres behind it.
This newspaper has covered these stories – both of which mean massive change for the Delco landscape and the residents directly involved – intensely. That means offering the opportunity to look at fierce sentiments on both sides of the issues. Yes, I assure you there are still two sides to every story. Sometimes those involved don’t see it that way. Instead they see the newspaper as tilting coverage in favor of one position over another. Sometimes there is collateral damage. Sitting in the middle I’ve learned to take fire from both sides.
Many of the most vocal critics of Sunoco’s massive, multi-billion dollar Mariner East project, which will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile gases through densely populated neighborhoods, believe I’m in the pocket of Sunoco Logistics.
Maybe that’s because I’ve written several times that while I understand their concerns, I don’t think they’re going to stop it. Not now. The die was cast on this story several years ago, when the state Public Utility Commission granted Sunoco public utility status for the project.
Do I agree with residents that routing this project through residential neighborhoods, even in close proximity to elementary schools, was not the best idea? Absolutely. And the myriad problems with spills, runoff and sinkholes have not helped. But the project, according to Sunoco, is 95 percent completed. I don’t think it’s going to be derailed now.
Of course, that was before the latest – and perhaps most egregious – “hiccup” took place along the construction site. An Aqua America crew doing some main work in Middletown was doing some digging. They were told the Mariner East 2 pipeline was buried at 9 feet. Unfortunately, they hit it at 6. How exactly this happened is not yet clear. It’s being investigated by both the company and the state.
Pipeline opponents hate it when stories note the economic aspects of the project, or quote company officials saying they will build and operate the pipeline to the highest industry standards. They question Sunoco’s claims, mock its safety record, and continue to protest. Recently a few moms and grandmoms – known as the “Mama Bear Brigade” – held a sit-in at a construction site. Two were arrested.
In Marple, just the opposite is taking place. I’m accused of being in the tank for those who oppose the development being proposed for the Don Guanella site.
This is not the first plan for what is one of the last large, open tracts in the central part of the county. Remember Cardinal Crossing? Developer Bruce Goodman wanted to build a massive complex that would have seen nearly the entire 213 acres developed, featuring a Wegmans supermarket, movie theater, along with office buildings and townhouses.
Much of that gorgeous forest would have been bulldozed.
Community opposition was fierce and the township commissioners rejected the plan.
Fast-forward a couple of years. Now the Carlino Development Group is pitching a new plan, one that would build on the imprint of Don Guanella, while preserving much of the open space – and providing much-needed athletic fields for the community.
Open space activists – including a group called Save Marple Greenspace – is only slightly less irked by this proposal. They still consider it way too big – larger than the entire nearby Springfield Mall plot – and have actively waged war to stop it.
They are now at war with forces in the community who see the benefit in the Carlino plan. That would include the Marple Newtown Soccer Association.
Now the fighting is getting personal. The two sides have traded accusations on our oped page.
It’s been pointed out that the chief spokesperson for Save Marple Greenspace is not a township resident. It’s the old “outside agitator” routine, this despite the fact Ken Hemphill grew up nearby in Springfield, attended Cardinal O’Hara high, and spent much of his youth in those woods.
Some folks also have pointed out to me what they see as a clear bit of hypocrisy on the part of the Save Marple Greenspace. The treasurer of the group is a realtor who is marketing a fairly big chunk of open space herself.
So in Middletown and Edgmont, I’m in the pocket of Sunoco.
Just down the road a stretch, I’m in cahoots with the tree huggers.
One thing people keep saying about Mariner East 2 is that five years from now no one will know it’s there. The pipeline will traverse 350 miles, nearly the full width of Pennsylvania. Look at it as it sits in open fields along the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the middle of the state, and it looks pretty harmless.
Put it next to an elementary school or senior center, in densely populated neighborhoods and in the back yards of $500,000 dollar homes, and it looks like something else entirely. It looks like hell.
And then there is the one answer no one can answer: What if? That’s the question that keeps people up at night, and likely is motivating those moms and grandmoms to sit down in their attempts to halt construction.
On the other hand, five years from now, people will know exactly what the Don Guanella tract will look like. It very likely will feature a new Wegmans, and other stores. The question now seems to be just how much of the open space can be salvaged.
And we’ll be there to detail it. No doubt taking fire from both sides.