By SUSAN PHILLIPS, Allegheny Front, February 9, 2018

Before the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued that penalty to Sunoco and lifted the order suspending construction on Mariner East 2, questions were being raised about how the controversial pipeline got approved by the PA-DEP in the first place. The questions stem from documents which surfaced as part of a lawsuit challenging the pipeline’s permits. They show text messages exchanged between a senior staffer in Governor Wolf’s office and the state’s chief environmental regulator. StateImpact Pennsylvania published the documents, and their reporter Susan Phillips looked into it.

A senior staffer for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf asked the state’s chief environmental regulator not to send letters to Sunoco detailing problems with its permit applications for a controversial pipeline project until the governor was updated, according to text messages obtained through a lawsuit.

The texts also show the official asking the PA state’s Department of Environmental Protection whether some deficiencies cited in Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 plans could “remain flexible for field adjustments.”

In February 2017, soon after the series of texts, PA-DEP approved Sunoco’s permits with conditions. Some landowners and environmentalists say that Wolf injected political pressure into a decision that should be based solely on environmental standards. They say those standards and regulations were subverted to help Sunoco make its projected timeline on the project.

And, they say, the texts bolster their claims.

“I don’t know if there’s a smoking gun here but there sure is a lot of smoke,” said Eric Friedman, a Delaware County landowner who, along with his homeowner’s association, is battling Sunoco’s eminent domain taking.

Source: https://www.alleghenyfront.org/mariner-east-2-texts-raise-questions-about-wolf-administration-role-in-permitting-process/

The Delaware County Times, West Chester, PA, 2/2/18

This is the Mariner East 2 version of Groundhog Day. Or at least for that much-desired risk assessment study that opponents of this massive project have been seeking now for months.

Any number of citizen groups have been seeking to have one done. At one point Middletown Council actually decided to do one. Elected officials have beseeched Gov. Tom Wolf to do one. Those calls have been met for the most part by silence.

Last week a group of citizens – many of whom have seen this behemoth cut through their neighborhoods – asked Delaware County Council to perform a risk assessment study on Mariner East 2.

The thought process has not changed, at least among those opposed to this $2.5 billion project. They believe this plan, pushing hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile material such as ethane, propane and butane under high pressure from the Marcellus Shale region across the entire width of Pennsylvania – including big swaths of Delaware and Chester counties – is not such a swell idea.

They have heard the proponents’ talk about the economic impact of the project, and they remain steadfast, wondering if whatever economic gain is derived is worth the risk of putting this pipeline into densely populated neighborhoods, next to schools and senior centers.

Last week County Council gave the initial OK for a risk assessment study. Wednesday, they woke up and apparently saw their shadow, predicting another delay in any study of the plan.

You can put those corks back in the bottles celebrating a big win for critics of Mariner East 2. Council tabled any decision, at least for another week.

In giving their initial OK last week, Council set up a committee including Republican Chairman John McBlain and new Democratic Councilman Brian Zidek to lay out the parameters of a risk assessment study.

Wednesday they returned to report their findings to the rest of Council, and that’s when things bogged down.

Chairman McBlain, who has made clear his position supporting the pipeline, suggested simply expanding on some of the studies that have already been performed by the county’s Local Emergency Planning Committee.

That didn’t sit all that well with Zidek, who has not taken a position one way or the other in terms of Mariner East 2. He questioned the depth of the study performed by the LEPC and doubted that findings from such a group likely would not ease the public’s concerns about the project, especially since so many members have strong ties to the pipeline.

But of course this didn’t end there.

The Democrat felt the need to point out McBlain’s legal ties to Sunoco, whose parent company Energy Transfer Partners is constructing the pipeline through their Sunoco Pipeline LP affiliate.

As you might expect, that didn’t sit especially well with McBlain, who pointed out that while his firm, made up of more than 100 attorneys, has represented Suncoo, he personally has never done any legal work for them. Then he fired back that he understands that Zidek is distrustful of the local committee and county government in general and the Democrat no doubt would love to “set up a different commission, made up partly of special-interest groups that are your supporters.”

Get used to it, folks. This is likely the way county government is going to work at this point, now that Zidek and fellow Democrat Kevin Madden have brought two-party government to what was the uniformity of one 5-0 vote after another through decades of all-Republican rule.

There was one more surprise at Wednesday’s council meeting. The vote to table the motion, instead of adopting McBlain’s plan, was 3-2. Republican Councilman Michael Culp sided with McBlain. But fellow Republican Colleen Morrone did something you don’t see every day – at least not in the Media Courthouse. She sided with the Democrats.

“I think there’s a little more discussion that can enhance a recommendation to make sure we’ve addressed this properly,” Morrone said. “I think we’re very close to it.”

Let’s hope so.

Because the bickering doesn’t change the angst, unease and concerns of those opposed to the pipeline.

Let’s keep one thing clear. No one asked for this project to come into their neighborhood. After winning a crucial court ruling that granted it public utility status, Sunoco went about acquiring property in a way that was contiguous with the existing pipeline, one by the way that is already in operation carrying exactly the same materials destined to flow through Mariner East 2, albeit in smaller quantities.

No one asked residents if putting this right next to Glenwood Elementary School in Middletown was a good idea. Or through heavily populated areas. Or right by several senior living centers. The state actually does not even have a panel that reviews siting for such projects.

No one at the state level seemed to think a risk assessment might be a good idea before giving the green light to this project. That much was made clear in the recent request from Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Whiteland, one of the most critical voices when it comes to the way the state has handled this project, for just such a state study.

Council will take another shot at signing off on the risk assessment study next week. We hope they do. It’s not Republican or Democratic.

It’s the right thing to do.

Source: http://www.delcotimes.com/article/DC/20180201/NEWS/180209957