Sunoco pipeline work falls further behind schedule
WEST WHITELAND >> Sunoco has again pushed back the completion date of the entire Mariner East 2 Pipeline to late 2020.
The project is already
18 months late. The most recent scheduled date for completion was pegged at September of 2018. Sunoco representatives recently reported that the pipeline was
98-percent complete. Sunoco has hit several roadblocks in Delaware and Chester counties. The pipeline builder plans to use a more than 80-year-old existing 12-inch pipeline to bypass stalled pipeline sections in a bid to ship highly volatile liquids.
About 30 Uwchlan homeowners were paid $60,000 each and given free hookups to public water after Sunoco digging fouled well water. Full pipeline construction was temporarily halted statewide. Locally in West Whiteland, the site of several sinkholes, work was, at least, temporarily forbidden.
There have also been several spills during construction in Chester and Delaware counties.
Sunoco spokesperson Lisa Dillinger said the bypass using the 12-inch line to temporarily connect incomplete sections of the 16and 20-inch Mariner East pipelines was progressing according to schedule.
“As stated on our Q3 earnings call in August, the upcoming in service of ME2 will include use of our existing 12-inch line, as well as a portion of our 16-inch,” Dillinger said.
The spokesperson also reported on Monday that there will be enough capacity to meet the company’s customer agreements.
“I would like to clarify that there has been no change to our timeline for
ME2,” Dillinger wrote. “It will be in service as soon as it is mechanically complete, which is expected to be in the next few weeks.”
In response, Food & Water Watch organizer Sam Rubin issued the following statement:
“The communities that have fought Sunoco from building a dangerous and deadly pipeline through their neighborhoods have stymied the company’s plans from the start. As the sinkholes, spills, and water contamination problems have continued to mount, there is no doubt that Sunoco is a danger. This new scheme highlights the company’s desperation to place its own polluting profits ahead to public safety. Governor Wolf had enough reasons to listen to Pennsylvanians’ calls for him to stop the pipeline before. With news of this ramshackle plan, he must act now to protect the safety of these communities.”
Melissa Haines, spokesperson for Del-Chesco United for Public Safety noted that the project has missed several deadlines.
“Sunoco has acknowledged yet another in a long series of Mariner East delays,” Haines said. “Sunoco has misled our communities about the safety risks of its highly volatile liquids export project, just as its misled investors about its ability to execute.
“Sunoco’s latest improbable plan, to cobble together
sections of an ancient pipe that’s leaked multiple times in Delaware and Chester counties, is unlikely to reassure either impacted communities or investors.”
West Goshen activist Tom Casey compared pipeline construction to Frankenstein monster.
“I find it to be an egregious error on the part of regulators and Sunoco to sell the state on the benefits of a project that, from the beginning in 2014, we have all known was never properly planned,” Casey wrote. “And now the public is being told that Sunoco is now going to string the together pieces of new 20and 16-inch pipes with the existing 12 in. pipes to make the Mariner project work.
“Mary Shelley’s original idea of piecing together things from different sources did not end well. Sunoco’s ‘Frankenpipe’ will no doubt cause similar havoc to the countryside. It was the villagers who pointed out the problem with the monster. It would appear that fiction has now become truth.”
Melissa DiBernardino is worried, and she is not alone.
“Because of Sunoco’s incompetence and inability to build Mariner 2 in a safe and timely manner, we will be forced to be threatened by a second
87-year-old pipeline carrying highly volatile liquids that it was not built for at pressures never imagined in the 1930’s – neither were critical safety measures like weld testing, coatings, wall thickness, etc.,” DiBernardino said.
Uwchlan Township resident Laura Obenski would likely agree with DiBernardino concerning the delay.
“Due to their own incompetence and inability to hit their timelines for project completion due to violations, Sunoco is now utilizing an 80-plus-year-old 12-inch pipeline that runs through even more vulnerable areas of our community,” Obenski said. “This line has been repurposed to flow a different, more dangerous product in the opposite direction again federal recommendations.
“It is unacceptable that it passes in close proximity to several of our schools and through neighborhoods. This line already had a significant leak in our region earlier this year, which was not detected by Sunoco. This product and Sunoco’s reckless way of doing business does not belong anywhere near our community or our kid’s schools.”
Susan Britton Seyler, of Better Path Coalition, Uwchlan Safety Coalition, said she recently attended a Downingtown Area School District meeting. She noted that the 12-inch line impacts five schools.
“The valve stations themselves add risk,” she said. “Changes in pipe size at high pressure are not commonplace.
“This 87-year-old line has leaked in 1988, 1989, 2000 and 2018, while carrying oil. Now they want to greatly increase the pressure to accommodate NGLs, which the industry says adds risk.
“Issues about the pipe’s integrity were found recently through testing, and a large section of the pipe was exposed on Valley Road. No details were made available by Sunoco on what repair was made.”
In other related news, a quantitative risk assessment final report was recently released.
The study was performed by Quest Consultants of Norman, Oklahoma. Clean Air Council served as fiscal agent for the project paid for with municipal and private donations totaling about $50,000.
The study found that release of hazardous, highly volatile liquids for the proposed 20-inch pipeline might extend up to 2,135 feet away from a leak or rupture.
Stated in the study was the fact that valve station points are significantly more likely to release HVLs, which was considered to be in excess of tolerable limits.
Sites for entry and exit points for directional drilling are also locations of significantly higher risks. Gases may also be released through fissures or cracks that may have been created during loss-of-drilling-fluid events.
A second pipeline in the same right of way doubles the risk of an accident, states the report.
Also noted was information that even the smallest leak of highly volatile liquids might have potentially deadly consequences.