A tale of two pipeline studies - & results
This is a tale of two pipelines. Actually, it’s only one pipeline, but two very different ways of looking at it – and the potential danger it presents to those living near it and the rest of the community.
This, of course, is all about Mariner East 2, the massive, multi-billion dollar project by which Sunoco plans to deliver hundreds of thousands of gallons of volatile liquid gases every day to a facility at the old Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook.
To get there, the material will traverse nearly the entire length of Pennsylvania, including 23 miles through the heart of Chester County, and another 11 miles in the western and lower end of Delaware County as it snakes its way to Marcus Hook.
That path takes it through densely populated neighborhoods, including a stone’s throw from several elementary schools and senior centers.
As you can probably surmise, this did not sit particularly well with neighbors, who for years now have been begging anyone who would listen – including their local elected officials, county government, state legislators and even Gov. Tom Wolf to shut the project down.
They even raised the money to have their own risk assessment study done on Mariner East 2. That study suggested some serious problems – and risks – with putting this kind of project through these kinds of residential neighborhoods.
The din got the attention of Delaware County Council, which finally decided to have their own risk assessment study done. Last week the results came in.
It’s amazing how differently people can view the same results.
The study, done by Texas-based G2 Integrated Solutions and which cost the county $115,000, suggested residents living near the path of the pipeline faced no greater danger from an accident involving the pipeline than they do from any other daily occurrences, such as a fatal traffic accident or house fire. In fact, the study went so far as to suggest residents might be more likely to be seriously injured in a fall down the stairs.
Proponents of the pipeline, including Sunoco and its parent company, Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners, as well as energy field boosters, trumpeted the news as proof of what they have been saying to their critics for years. That is that the pipeline is being constructed and will be operated to the highest safety standards of the industry.
Sunoco and Energy Transfer Partners, through spokesperson Lisa Dillinger, said the study merely reaffirmed their stance, that the G2 study “supports what we have been communicating all along about the safety of the Mariner East 2 pipeline.”
This despite the series of incidents and delays that have plagued construction, delaying the arrival of Mariner East 2 several times. The company now is pushing to have Mariner East 2 online by the end of the month.
But the opponents of Mariner East 2 view the results of the study in an entirely different manner.
Del-Chesco United for Pipeline Safety, a grassroots group representing residents concerned about the pipeline in both Chester and Delaware counties, called the results “frightening.” They zeroed in on the findings of the study that identified a potential blast radius in a possible accident of 1.3 miles, terming that scenario “frightening.”
“It is now abundantly clear that the rupture of a hazardous, highly volatile liquids transmission pipeline in Delaware County is going to be a mass casualty event,” said Eric Friedman, speaking on behalf of the group. “And the odds of this happening are disturbingly high.”
The group now wants Delaware County Council, which ordered the study, to take action “based on the alarming public safety implications in this report.”
Friedman also noted several other aspects of the study that he said are cause for concern, noting that the G2 study actually showed a danger zone that was three times that foreseen in the Quest study. He also said the G2 study omitted another critical factor, that Mariner East 2 will be operated in conjunction with several other pipelines in the same right-of-way.
“This omission is important because, everything else being equal, two pipelines doubles the probability of a release over a single pipeline. Doubling probability also doubles risk. Three pipelines triples the risk and so on.”
For their part, County Council has vowed they will deliver the full report and discuss its ramifications at a yet-to-be-determined public hearing.
Why do we get the feeling there will be two distinct chains of thought delivered at the hearing as well.