Exposed pipelines are hazards to suburban neighborhoods

From an Article by Andrew Maykuth, Philadelphia Inquirer, February 27, 2020

State regulators on Thursday finalized a settlement with Sunoco Pipeline to atone for a 2017 leak from the aging Mariner East 1 pipeline that includes a $200,000 fine and a promise to conduct a “remaining life” study of the nearly 90-year-old pipeline.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission unanimously adopted a recommended decision by Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth H. Barnes, which requires the study be completed six months after an independent expert is selected to conduct it. A redacted summary of the study will be released to the public.

The PUC cited Sunoco in 2018 for the April 2017 leak, during which 840 gallons, or 20 barrels, of highly volatile natural gas liquids escaped from a small hole that formed in the eight-inch diameter steel pipeline in New Morgan, Berks County.

The PUC cited Sunoco for having inadequate cathodic protection of the pipeline, which allowed it to corrode and to leak ethane and propane. The material bubbled to the surface and evaporated without causing injury or explosion, but the episode heightened concerns about what might happen if the 300-mile pipeline experienced a larger failure.

Sunoco replaced an 83-foot section of pipe.

The pipeline, built by Atlantic Refining in 1931 to deliver motor fuel and heating oil from its Philadelphia refinery to Western Pennsylvania, was acquired by Sunoco in 1988. Sunoco Pipeline in 2014 patched up and converted the pipeline, now renamed Mariner East, to carry gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale fields to a terminal in Marcus Hook.

Sunoco, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer LP of Dallas, is building two new Mariner East pipelines along roughly the same path as the older pipeline to carry additional gas liquids to its Delaware County terminal. The contentious project, much delayed by construction mishaps, is nearing completion this year. But it is still being litigated in several venues, including the PUC.

The agreement allows Sunoco to recommend three independent experts to conduct the remaining life study, from which the PUC’s Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement will choose one.

The remaining life study, first publicly suggested by Gov. Tom Wolf a year ago, will assess the longevity of the Mariner East 1, including risks. “The information collected in this study will be invaluable for any determinations regarding the operations of Mariner East 1,” Gladys Brown Dutrieuille, the PUC’s chair, said Thursday.

The PUC on Thursday modified the agreement to also require the engineering firm that conducts the study to disclose any previous work for Sunoco or Energy Transfer.

If no adverse comments are received in the next 10 days, the settlement is approved. Sunoco will then have 30 days to recommend experts to the PUC, and the PUC’s enforcement unit will have a month to make a selection. Sunoco will pay the costs of the study.

Barnes, who has heard many of the complaints against the Mariner East project, dismissed suggestions from Sunoco’s adversaries that the fine was too small. She said the $200,000 penalty was reasonable, given that Sunoco had cooperated with investigators, and had agreed to additional conditions, including the study.

The settlement resolves one of several ongoing legal inquiries into Energy Transfer’s conduct in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in January fined Energy Transfer a record $30.6 million related to the 2018 explosion of its Revolution Pipeline in Beaver County. That agreement lifted an 11-month permit freeze on the company’s other pipeline projects, including the cross-state Mariner East pipelines.

Mariner pipeline route thru Chester and Delaware counties

Energy Transfer also disclosed in November that the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania had issued a subpoena for documents related to the Revolution explosion. The company, in its most recent financial filings, repeated the same language from its November disclosure, and said the scope of the federal investigation is not known.

Note potential hub locations encircled in red

Letter submitted by Eric Engle to Parkersburg News & Sentinal, October 20, 2019

An October 2nd editorial, “Storage Hub: Legislation should be a priority,” states West Virginia’s congressional delegation should continue making the Appalachian Storage Hub a top priority and supports recent legislation from West Virginia’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation to direct the Appalachian Regional Commission to provide funding to aid in creation of the Hub. This is dangerous nonsense for several reasons.

First off, the editorial itself mentions a reason why the storage hub shouldn’t be built anywhere: “having about 95 percent of U.S. ethylene production on the Gulf Coast is risky business.” Why does the writer think that is? Well, maybe it has something to do with the increased intensity of hurricane and precipitation events in the Gulf of Mexico caused by anthropogenic global climate change.

Warmer air holds more moisture and warmer ocean surfaces provide energy to increase hurricane intensity. This is well-documented climate and atmospheric science. Why does this matter for the hub? Because the storage hub plays a huge part in the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels, contributing to the climate crisis. Methane, for example, is released at every stage of oil and gas development and use, even use for the petrochemicals industry, and methane is 86 times more efficient a heat-trapping greenhouse gas over a 20-year period than carbon dioxide.

Then there is the storage of natural gas liquids. The proposed hub involves storage of these liquids (i.e. butane, ethane) in underground caverns around and even under the Ohio River. These liquids are highly combustible, for one, and the Ohio River is a drinking water source for 5 million people and already the most contaminated waterway in the country for the last 7 years running. Do we really want these highly combustible liquids stored under or near our already highly contaminated river and transported via pipelines to cracker plants up and down the Ohio River Valley?

And who really benefits from all of this liquid natural gas (LNG) production? The people of West Virginia? That MOU from China we’re not allowed to see for $84 billion might clarify, but I’m highly skeptical that the value-added benefits go to the people of our state. Our state’s history with extraction industries would suggest otherwise.

Finally, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re a world drowning in plastics that we cannot safely dispose of. The storage hub is not about energy production, as the editorialist obviously knows, it’s about the production of more plastics and polymers. No matter how you spin the industry-provided jobs and revenue numbers, that plastic will end up in our oceans and other waterways and landfills and, well, everywhere (microplastics have been found in the deepest depths of the oceans and the most remote corners of the Arctic).

Can we completely do away with plastics tomorrow? No. But 40 percent of the plastics market consists of single-use plastics we can do away with and engineering biodegradable plastics substitutes is the kind of thing Appalachian Regional Commission funds ought to go toward, not a massive increase in plastics production.

We need to say no to the Appalachian Storage Hub! For vital information on the hub and other oil, gas and petrochemicals issues, visit the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition website at ohvec.org.

>>> Eric Engle, Parkersburg, WV

Ethane would be pumped underground to likely spread and disappear

Mariner East transports Ethane to Delaware Bay for Export

From an Article by Michael P. Rellahan, Daily Local News, Chester County, PA, April 11, 2019

WEST CHESTER — Sunoco should not be permitted to construct its Mariner East pipeline through property owned by Chester County because the company improperly switched construction techniques after the county gave it access to the land through permanent easements, according to a lawsuit.

The suit filed in Chester County Common Pleas Court asks that a permanent injunction be issued against Sunoco, barring it from constructing the controversial Mariner East 2 pipeline on land at the Chester County Library in West Whiteland, as well as portions of the Chester Valley Trial that parallels Route 30 through that township, unless it uses a “bore drilling” method of constriction.

The suit, filed on behalf of the three county commissioners and the county itself, contends that Sunoco disregarded language in the agreements for supplemental permanent easements, specifically the company’s intent to undertake “open trench” construction for Mariner 2 on the Chester County Library property without county permission and in the absence of any temporary construction easement, according to a press release.

This legal action follows the county commissioners’ decision earlier this year to terminate two temporary easements though county property for pipeline construction, and the simultaneous decision to intervene in litigation filed by residents in Chester and Delaware counties before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission against the company for its pipeline plans.

The lawsuit was spurred on Friday, when Sunoco informed the county that it would begin construction of the Mariner 2 pipelines on the Chester County Library property via traditional open trench method, rather than the bore method that had been included in agreements the county signed in 2017.

That decision drew an immediate reaction from the commissioners.

“At a site meeting last Friday between county staff and Sunoco representatives it became clear that Sunoco was going to proceed with the open trench method of installation at the Chester County Library property without providing written justification or county permission,” said commissioners’ Chairwoman Michelle Kichline in the release.

“This action violates the terms of the supplemental permanent easement.”

“Normally, when it comes to the installation of pipelines, municipal and county governments are restricted in our options to regulate. State regulators and legislators have essentially made us powerless to stop the process,” added Kichline. “But in this instance, the county as the landowner has the right to insist that Sunoco follows the terms of the supplemental permanent easement to the letter of the law.”

“By Sunoco not agreeing to follow those terms I have concerns that they may place our citizens at risk,” she said.

Commissioner’s Vice Chairwoman Kathi Cozzone further noted that the commissioners, “believe that Sunoco will be unable to construct the Mariner 2 pipeline on the county library property within the existing 50-foot right-of-way and in a manner which ensures public safety and welfare.

“By Sunoco’s unauthorized action to begin construction, we deemed it necessary to file this lawsuit to ensure that any construction across county property is done properly and does not adversely impact the surrounding neighborhoods,” Cozzone added.

Commissioner Terence Farrell added, “Now that Sunoco is crossing county property, we are able to formally petition the Court of Common Pleas and request the issuance of a permanent injunction prohibiting Sunoco from constructing the Mariner 2 pipeline in a manner that could place our citizens in jeopardy.”

All three commissioners are seeking re-election to the board in the May primary.

In February, the commissioners announced that they would file a motion to intervene in the PUC action that opposes the pipeline construction because of safety concerns.

They said that for more than two years the county Department of Emergency Services had been formally requesting crucial pipeline emergency safety information and procedures from Sunoco, either directly or through the PUC and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, in order to prepare mass notification plans and neighborhood emergency practices in the event of a Mariner East pipeline disaster.

The commissioners contended those requests have gone unanswered. Thus, they said they had decided to join with the complainants in the case of Flynn vs. Sunoco because of shared interests. Other governmental entities, such as the West Chester Area School District, have also asked to intervene in opposition to the pipeline.

At that same time, the commissioners notified Sunoco that the county planned to terminate two temporary easements on the library property that were granted to the company in 2017 — a work space easement and an access road easement — for the new pipeline constriction.

Work on the property did not commence within the term of the temporary easements, the county contends, so the commissioners’ letter informs Sunoco that it no longer entitled to utilize the county’s library’s property. There were no terms for renewal of the temporary easements within the 2017 agreements.

In the news release issued Wednesday about the civil lawsuit, Kichline said, “Sunoco must understand that the County owns this property and we have the right to ensure as they cross County land that adjacent neighbors and our citizens are not adversely affected in any way.”

The suit was prepared on behalf of the county by the West Chester law firm of Buckley, Brion, McGuire & Morris. The case has been assigned to Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft. No hearing date has been set.

Marcus Hook Refinery being modified to process hydrocarbons from natural gas

From an Article by Bill Rettew, Delaware County Times, January 10, 2019

PHILADELPHIA >> A state Environmental Hearing Board ruled the state Department of Environmental Protection unlawfully issued an air-quality permit for Sunoco at its Marcus Hook facility.

The Marcus Hook facility is the end point for Sunoco and Energy Transfer Partners Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The pipeline will deliver hundreds of thousands of barrels of liquid gases such as ethane, butane and propane to the facility every day. Once there, they will be stored and eventually shipped for the most part to overseas destinations.

On Wednesday, the environmental board ruled that DEP unlawfully issued an air-quality permit for natural gas liquids processing equipment at the Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals L.P. facility in Marcus Hook. The processing equipment is designed to handle liquids from the Mariner East pipelines, which run across Pennsylvania. The decision came in response to Clean Air Council’s appeal in April 2016, leading to a trial in May 2018.

Specifically, the board said that DEP was mistaken when it considered various portions of the plan as separate entities. Instead the board noted DEP should have reviewed the project as a whole.

Alex Bomstein, senior litigation attorney for Clean Air Council, hailed the ruling. “The board’s ruling really shows that no one – not even Sunoco – is above the law,” Bomstein said. “The industry’s practice of dividing up big projects into smaller pieces that sneak under pollution thresholds, what we call segmentation, has gone on for too long. This decision is a major step towards restoring the protections that help ensure we have clean air to breathe.”

Sunoco/ETP spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger took a different view of the ruling Thursday. “Today’s ruling has no impact on the construction and operation activities authorized under Plan Approval E while the PA DEP conducts an analysis of the permit, which we feel was permitted correctly,” Dillinger said. “We will work with the PA DEP to provide them with the appropriate information for their review, and we are pleased that the overriding outcome was the Environmental Hearing Board’s denial of the Clean Air Council’s request to revoke the permit.”

The board held that the project in question was really part of an overarching project to transform the former Marcus Hook refinery into a natural gas liquids processing facility. The larger project was unlawfully broken up into smaller projects for the sake of permitting. Where separate construction activities are really all part of the same project, the emissions from all of those projects must be aggregated to determine if more stringent requirements are triggered. Ultimately, the board sent the air permit back to DEP so that DEP can re-evaluate how the project should be permitted.

The board’s decision enhances existing law by providing detailed guidance on when multiple related projects should be considered one project in a review of an air permit application.

“The Environmental Hearing Board’s decision is not only a victory for Clean Air Council, it is a victory for public health and the neighboring communities,” said Joseph Otis Minott, executive director and chief counsel for Clean Air Council. “Too often, big industry players have avoided pollution controls by creating loopholes that jeopardize air quality protections. Sunoco/ETP has been one of the worst offenders in this regard, time and again circumventing the rules and putting the public at risk. The board decision has finally closed this loophole.”

Mariner East 2 is a multi-billion dollar project that will carry liquid gases from the state’s Marcellus Shale regions across the full 350-mile width of Pennsylvania, ending in Marcus Hook. Mariner East 2 is now online, utilizing a mix of different size pipes because of delays and shutdowns on the full, 20-inch pipeline.

The board’s opinion is available in full at: http://ehb.courtapps.com/efile/documentViewer.php?documentID=44482.

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Editorial: Is it Mariner East 2 Pipeline or ‘Frankenpipe’

From the Delaware County Daily Times, West Chester, PA, January 2, 2019

Sunoco and Energy Transfer Partners decided to ring in the new year with a little announcement.

On a Saturday of a holiday weekend, they announced that their controversial – and much-delayed – Mariner East 2 pipeline was now online and ready to move liquid gases from the state’s Marcellus Shale regions to Marcus Hook.

Don’t expect the fierce critics of this project to be popping any champagne corks at this news. In fact, they are not buying the fact that this is really Mariner East 2, at least the original version Sunoco proposed. And they have a point.

Back in November 2014, Sunoco announced it would build a new, 20-inch pipeline to ferry hundreds of thousands of barrels of liquid natural gases such as ethane, butane and propane the full width of Pennsylvania. The 350-mile trek would emanate from eastern Ohio, traverse the entire width of Pennsylvania, and deliver the goods to a facility at the former Sunoco refinery in Marcus Hook, where it would be stored and then shipped out, mostly to foreign destinations.

The line basically followed the path of Mariner East 1, which is the old, original Sunoco petroleum pipeline that was refitted and already moving these highly volatile gases to Marcus Hook.

When fully up and operational, Sunoco/Energy Transfer Partners said Mariner East 2 would move hundreds of thousands of barrels of product a day. But Mariner East 2 was billed as a new, state-of-the-art 20-inch pipeline. What went online Saturday was neither of those things.

Construction of Mariner East 2 was plagued from the outset by a series of spills and runoffs. It also was met with fierce community opposition, fueled by the fear of moving these kinds of materials through densely populated neighborhoods, in close proximity to elementary schools and senior centers.

Construction was halted several times by the state, including a major shutdown after sinkholes believed linked to drilling for Mariner East 2 popped up in a neighborhood in West Whiteland, Chester County, at one point actually exposing the old Mariner East 1 pipe.

Despite the delays, Sunoco and ETP remained consistent in their stance that they would have Mariner East 2 online by the end of the year. But in order to do that, they had to alter their plan. The full, 20-inch Mariner East 2 pipeline now is not expected to be completed until 2020. In order to put what the company is referring to as “Mariner East 2″ online, the company is filling in gaps where the 20-inch line has yet to be installed with something of a hybrid mish-mash of different pipelines.

Sunoco vows all the pipes, including one that was first installed eight decades ago, have been tested and deemed safe. It mimics what the company has been saying about construction in general, that they will build and operate Mariner East 2 to the highest standards in the industry.

Its legions of critics aren’t nearly that sure. They are referring to the hybrid line put into service over the weekend as “Frankenpipe.” Pipeline foes have for months now urged anyone who would listen to shut the project down.

A state Public Utility Commission administrative law judge continues to mull a request from residents in Delaware and Chester counties to shut the project down completely. This comes after rejecting an initial plea to halt work.

Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced last week that he was opening a criminal investigation into construction of Mariner East 2, in part stemming from the company’s announcement that it would be using several older pipelines in this hybrid mix to get product moving through the line. Hogan also made it clear he was taking the action in part to reassure residents that someone is looking into their concerns and safety, something he suggested state regulatory officials and Gov. Tom Wolf have failed to do.

Tom Casey is a grassroots organizer who has been fighting Sunoco’s plans now for years. He believes the company made the announcement Saturday in order to reassure investors.

“With the announcement of the 12-inch line coming online, Sunoco can now tell their investors that they have fulfilled their promise to have it online by the end of 2018,” Casey said. “But is the service safe and reliable?” It was a concern shared by many.

Fierce critic Mike Walsh did not try to hide his feelings. “With the latest announcement by ETP, the majority of what Sunoco is calling ME2 in Chester and Delaware Counties is not ME2,” Walsh stated. “It’s a cobbled together Frankenpipe composed of a 12-inch, 16-inch and 20-inch lines of which the 12-inch line was installed in the 1930s and has a long history of leaks.”

Two public officials also weighed in on the latest news from Sunoco.

State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Whiteland, perhaps the most vehement critic of Mariner East 2, vowed the fight to ensure citizen safety is not over. In fact, he believes it is just beginning. “Our concerns regarding the safety of Sunoco/ETP’s Mariner East project and the lack of adequate emergency planning and response information are now more real than ever.”

State Rep. Chris Quinn, R-168 of Middletown, who won re-election in November despite fierce opposition from those who cited his stance on the pipeline while still a member of the township commissioners, questioned the timing of the announcement. “Using old technology without proper vetting for a project that directly impacts public safety is dangerous and irresponsible,” Quinn said. “And to do it all under the cloak of darkness on a Saturday night raises the question: What is Sunoco hiding?”

Sunoco and Energy Transfer Partners have been successful in getting Mariner East 2 – or at least some version of it – online by their projected date, the start of the new year.

But they still have a long way to go to reassure critics that the project is being done safely, and will be operated in the same way.

Seneca Lake near Watkins Glen is naturally beautiful

From an Article by Jessica A. Knoblauch, Earthjustice.org, July 27, 2018

“Do you still have that bottle of champagne? Well, get ready to put it on ice!”

After almost a decade of fighting a dangerous proposal to fill two underground salt caverns with explosive liquid petroleum gas (propane and butane) in upstate New York, Joseph Campbell and Yvonne Taylor knew it was time to celebrate when they first heard those words from Earthjustice attorney Deborah Goldberg earlier this month.

Goldberg went on to explain that the state Department of Environmental Conservation had denied a permit for the gas storage project. The agency cited concerns about cavern stability and risks to community character and the agriculture-based, tourism economy of the Finger Lakes region.

Campbell and Taylor were overjoyed — and stunned. After all, when they first took on this battle against a multi-billion dollar company in 2010, they were told they couldn’t stop plans to build a dirty energy behemoth in their backyard. But Campbell and Taylor went for it anyway, spending almost every day, including most holidays, weekends and birthdays, organizing their neighbors against the proposal.

The surprise victory is just the latest bright spot in a series of efforts led by activists in the region to keep dirty fossil fuel projects out of New York State. Finger Lakes advocates were at the core of the campaign for local fracking bans, which set the stage for the state’s historic decision to ban fracking in 2014. The permit denial is also a huge win for the coalition of residents, local elected officials, and business owners who have long fought to protect the iconic Finger Lakes region.

Each year, millions of tourists flock to the Finger Lakes to enjoy the region’s bounty of vineyards, wineries and bed and breakfasts, among other things.

It’s a world-class tourist destination. But it’s also home for people like Campbell and Taylor — partners in life and in protest. They both grew up near Seneca Lake, one of the 11 lakes left behind by glaciers that traveled through the region millions of years ago. Today, they live together in their “dream home” on property near the lake that’s been in Taylor’s family for generations.

“Seneca Lake is in my blood and bones. I drink it. I have swam, water skied, kayaked, motor boated and sailed on this lake my entire life,” says Taylor. “When I’m home, I’m always looking out the window at this gorgeous lake. It’s been the only constant I have ever had.”

In 2008, that stability was shattered after the two learned an out-of-state gas storage company planned to store millions of gallons of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) — also called “propane” — in abandoned salt caverns under the shores of Seneca Lake. They started organizing opposition to the proposal. Soon after, Gas Free Seneca was born.

“After a lot of soul searching, we decided we weren’t gonna let this slip,” says Campbell, adding that the first public forum they held on the issue packed the auditorium with more than 800 people.

But Taylor and Campbell knew that a “bunch of rag-tag environmental activists” weren’t going to stop this project alone. They needed to get local business owners on their side. At first, that wasn’t easy.

“But once they realized this gas proposal was a threat to their livelihood, they started getting involved,” says Campbell. Photo in Article: Yvonne Taylor (left) and Joseph Campbell (right) of Gas Free Seneca.

The couple also knew that they couldn’t win without a top-notch legal team. They contacted Earthjustice with a list of concerns about the proposal that ran about as deep as the lake itself.

For starters, the unlined salt caverns along Seneca Lake were never engineered for storage once their salt was mined, yet the gas company proposed storing up to 40 million barrels of explosive propane in a manner that has caused injuries and deaths, large fires, evacuations and major property loss in other places. A 2004 analysis found that between 1974 and 2004, there were ten catastrophic accidents involving underground storage sites for gas, all of them occurring in salt caverns.

Even if no major accidents occurred, the company’s proposal to build an industrialized storage facility in a rural area threatened to permanently alter the region’s bucolic character. That may sound like an innocuous side effect — until you ask yourself whether anyone wants to sip a pricey glass of Finger Lakes bubbly within view of LPG pumps and other ugly equipment. Finger Lakes’ tourism industry currently brings 60,000 jobs to the region. Crestwood’s offer for permanent jobs? Three to five.

In May 2013, Earthjustice sent a letter to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on behalf of Gas Free Seneca, demanding that state officials scrutinize the combined environmental and community impacts of the LPG project and the then-proposed expansion of a gas storage facility. At the same time, Earthjustice worked alongside Gas Free Seneca to ensure that the issue received the national attention that it deserved. After all, projects like these threaten to lock the U.S. into continued extraction and use of dirty fossil fuels and discourage the growth of renewable energy.

“From the very beginning, we knew they weren’t your average environmental attorneys,” says Taylor. “Not only did they give tremendous legal advice, Deborah [Goldberg] and Moneen [Nasmith] gave us guidance on messaging that was critical in convincing the public and eventually state leaders to speak out against the proposal.”

“They were a force to be reckoned with,” she adds. In the end, more than 450 Seneca Lake property owners, 500 local and regional businesses on the Gas Free Seneca and Finger Lakes Wine Business coalitions, hundreds of local wineries and vineyard owners, and 32 municipalities representing 1.2 million New Yorkers opposed the proposal.

Now, with the state regulators’ decision to deny the permit, the project cannot go forward. “Undaunted by an out-of-state energy company, the people of the Finger Lakes stood up to protect everything they hold dear,” says Goldberg. “Today, they won.”

But local fracktivists like Taylor and Campbell aren’t stopping yet. Building on this latest victory, as well as another victory in 2016 to stop a coal and gas plant repowering proposal, fracktivists like Taylor and Campbell are now pivoting toward fighting a waste-to-energy trash incinerator in the region. These local fights and victories are critical in maintaining momentum for clean energy and against fossil fuels at a time when the Trump administration is doubling down on dirty energy. (Earthjustice attorneys are active on the health, climate, and environmental justice aspects of the incinerator project.)

“Talk about a bad idea for the climate,” says Taylor of the incinerator proposal, adding that it would emit a million tons of carbon dioxide per year. “It’s not gas industry infrastructure, but it’s equally as damaging to the environment and to our way of life in the Finger Lakes.”

So stay tuned. With their track record, that could very well be their

Over 5 years of protests and legal activities were involved

Southeast PA & Mason-Dixon Line (circular arc) to Delaware River

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, NPR StateImpact Penna., April 17, 2018

In March, residents of Chester County’s West Whiteland Township pressed pipeline regulators for answers on Sunoco’s Mariner East construction after it produced sink holes behind some local homes.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public hearing on plans by Sunoco Pipeline to modify its construction of the controversial Mariner East pipelines at two sites in Chester County’s West Whiteland Township.

The DEP said Monday that Sunoco proposes to change its construction method for the pipelines from horizontal directional drilling (HDD) to a conventional bore at one site and from HDD to a combination of conventional bore, open trench and HDD at the other sit

The changes would mean “major modifications” to the company’s permits under the DEP’s Chapter 105 water obstruction and Chapter 102 erosion control regulations, and so require DEP approval after a public hearing, the department said in a statement.

The meeting will be held on April 30 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm at the EN Peirce Middle School in West Chester. The DEP also extended a public-comment period from April 21 until May 11.

The statement said one of the affected sites is on East Swedesford Road, where the local water utility, Aqua America, has raised concerns about a well at Hillside Drive. The other location is along North Pottstown Pike, where the new work plan has been prompted by hydrogeological analysis and seismic testing, DEP said. Sunoco submitted both plans last October.

The sites are among about 60 along the cross-state pipeline route that have been subject to a court-ordered “re-evaluation” of local geology after a string of drilling-fluid spills.

Sunoco sought the change “to ensure Aqua America’s water supply would not be impacted,” spokesperson Lisa Dillinger wrote in an email. The change would allow construction to continue “in the most efficient manner possible while keeping safety as our first priority.”

In early March, the Public Utility Commission shut down operation of the parallel Mariner East 1 pipeline at Lisa Drive in the township because of concerns that building Mariner East 2 and 2X pipelines through limestone geology might compromise the safety of the existing line. The PUC’s action was triggered by the appearance of sinkholes near two suburban developments.

In August 2017, a state court temporarily halted drilling at nearby Valleyview Drive after HDD punctured an aquifer, causing some private water wells to turn cloudy and leading Sunoco to pay for affected homeowners to be connected to public water.

David Mano, a resident of Valleyview Drive whose well water was affected, said he has no more confidence in the company’s new plans than in the previous construction because both proposals have been made by the same contractor, Tetra Tech.

“They still don’t know what they’re doing,” Mano said, referring to Sunoco. “They are going by Tetra Tech which is the company that did the first evaluation for this area, and they said, ‘It’s OK go ahead and drill.’ You saw what happened with that.

“Now, the same company is saying, ‘You can drill but not so deep,’” he said. “How can we trust them?”

The Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, an anti-pipeline group in neighboring Delaware County, said DEP staff and some 30,000 public commenters had recognized the risks to public safety from a pipeline carrying highly volatile liquids through some of Philadelphia’s densely populated western suburbs when Sunoco’s original plan was approved.

The group said in a statement that it “trusts that this time around, Gov. Wolf and his Department of Environmental Protection will fully consider the public and school safety risks and economic downsides of Sunoco’s ‘major modification’ proposal for the Exton area.”

Tetra Tech said in a letter published on the DEP’s website that the new construction would avoid problematic geology. By using the new installation methods, it said, “SPLP is able to avoid geology which would make a HDD installation difficult while maintaining the avoidance of impacts to resources and sensitive areas.”

The DEP set a three-minute limit for individual speakers at the April 30 hearing, and imposed a limit of one speaker per organization. Speakers were also asked to submit their comments in writing.

Mariner East 2, which has been under construction since February 2017, is scheduled to begin operation by the end of June. Dillinger said the change in construction method, if approved, would not affect that timeline.

When complete, the line will carry ethane, butane and propane some 350 miles from western Pennsylvania to a terminal at Marcus Hook near Philadelphia where most of it will be exported.

Is construction of Mariner East 2 causing the sinkholes on Mariner East 1?

From an Article by Jon Hurdle, NPR StateImpact PA, March 9, 2018

Sunoco scrambled to inspect an ageing pipeline on Friday in the backyards of Chester County homes where drilling for two new pipelines has caused several sinkholes to open up.

Yellow backhoes dug holes in several places among homes along Lisa Drive and Lynetree Drive in West Whiteland Township after the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ordered Sunoco to temporarily halt operations of the Mariner East 1 pipeline. The PUC cited the risk of what it called “catastrophic results” if the pipeline leaks any of its natural gas liquids.

The risk to the older pipeline stemmed from the sinkholes that have appeared during the construction of the Mariner East 2 and 2X pipelines, the PUC said. The first holes appeared in late 2017 and have multiplied over the last week, prompting the regulator’s order that Sunoco stop operating the line while it ensures its integrity for a mile on either side of the sinkholes.

The PUC, in its order on Wednesday, said the sinkholes developed because of unstable geology in the area.

Lisa Drive resident T.J. Allen’s backyard is dominated by a fenced enclosure which he says contains two sinkholes. About 10 feet from his house, another hole surrounded by orange fencing had been filled with concrete by Sunoco in an attempt to protect Mariner East 1 from the sinkholes a few feet away, Allen said.

The combination of sinkholes and a pipeline from the 1930s, which is when Mariner East 1 was built, makes Allen fear for his safety and that of his 72-year-old mother, who lives with him. “They put us all in danger, didn’t evacuate us, didn’t even tell me, didn’t knock on our door,” said Allen, 46, an independent construction contractor. “It’s crazy, man.”

Allen said he’s ready to leave at a moment’s notice. “It feels as though at any minute I might have to run out my house and get my valuables together,” he said. “I have a go bag in there with my medication, my mom’s medication, my deed, everything.”

Sunoco spokesman Jeff Shields said there are only three holes, all of which have been grouted and secured. Shields rejected complaints from some residents who say that people are asked to leave the area where Sunoco and its contractors are working.

The suspension of Mariner East 1 operations for an estimated 10-14 days will allow Sunoco to show that the pipeline is safe, as it has been since it was built, Shields said.

“This period should allow us to share what our professional geologist has established to date – that the Mariner East 1 pipeline is stable, is located in suitably safe geology, and will continue to operate safely as it has done for decades,” Shields said in a statement.

He said the company has no reports of structural damage to homes on Lisa Drive. But Andrew Neuwirth, an attorney for Allen’s next-door neighbor, Russell March, said there is damage to drywall, a chimney and a fireplace in his client’s home that has coincided with the appearance of the sink holes.

“All these homes have lost a tremendous amount of value as a result of this,” Neuwirth said in an interview on Lisa Drive. He said he is in touch with Sunoco’s lawyers but will be taking “further action.”

John Mattia, whose home also backs on to the sinkhole site, says he doubts he could sell his house if he wanted to. “I’m not sure selling is a realistic possibility at this point,” said Mattia, 48, who has lived in the house for 17 years and raised his children there. “I am not sure what action we are going to take at this point. The whole thing is very depressing.”

Mattia said he had agreed to Sunoco’s compensation for taking an easement on his land, but said the sum was lower than he wanted and that the company had threatened to take the land by eminent domain if he did not accept the offer.

The sinkholes and the remedial work on the older line are taking place about 200 yards from a rail line carrying Amtrak and Septa passenger trains. The new pipelines are due to run underneath the rail line.

The PUC said it identified three sinkholes and an unspecified number of additional holes that on March 5 were “developing” on the south side of Lisa Drive. Shields said the additional holes were identified before construction started and so are not related to the drilling.

In response, the water utility Aqua sent a crew to Lisa Drive on Friday to prepare its water main there to be shut off in the event that it was compromised by a sink hole. “Aqua is taking precautionary steps to reduce to the impact to our infrastructure and the surrounding community should the Mariner sink holes cause a failure of our infrastructure,” said Aqua spokeswoman Donna Alston.

Sunoco resumed construction on the new Mariner East lines in February after a month-long shutdown ordered by the PA Department of Environmental Protection in response to multiple violations.

Mariner East 2, carrying propane, ethane and butane across southern Pennsylvania, is due for completion by the end of the second quarter of this year.

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THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF A LEBANON COUNTY FARMER WASN’T PREPARED FOR THE TROUBLE THE ATLANTIC SUNRISE PIPELINE CAUSED.

“Devastation”: Atlantic Sunrise pipeline construction impacts Quittapahilla Creek and family farm

Ethane cracker chemical complex in planning for Ohio Valley

From a Pulse Item by Choi Jae-won and Choi Mira, Maeil Business News (Korea), January 30, 2018

Daelim Industrial Co., a South Korean construction and petrochemical company, will put up about $131 million to establish a petrochemical complex in Ohio, the United States, in partnership with Thailand’s largest petrochemical and refining firm PTT Global Chemical (PTTGC).

The company announced in a disclosure that it plans to sign an investment agreement with PTTGC’s U.S. subsidiary PTTGC America to construct and jointly operate an ethane cracking center (ECC) that discomposes ethane to produce ethylene and a polyethylene plant. It said it would invest up to 140 billion won ($130.7 million) in the joint project. Details of the plan including the size of investment and stake share will be worked out by the end of this year.

Ohio is home to shale gas reserves and rich in ethane. Its geographic proximity to the U.S. eastern region that takes up 70 percent of the country’s polyethylene market also could save logistics cost.

Once operation begins four to five years later, the complex will produce 1.5 million tons of ethylene and polyethylene a year.

Shares of Daelim Industrial are publicly traded in Seoul (South Korea).

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See also the reports on Plastics and Toxic Chemicals at “Living on Earth” (loe.org)

Entire small town evacuated in SW Penna.

From an Article by Chuck Goudie and Barb Markoff and Christine Tresse, ABC Eyewitness News, August 03, 2017

An entire Pennsylvania town is still evacuated after a freight train from Chicago ran off the tracks and burst into flames.

At least 32 cars of a CSX freight train derailed an hour before sunrise on Wednesday. Two of the rail tankers, carrying propane and molten sulfur according to investigators, burst into flames. CSX officials said authorities were letting fires burn out, as the 800 residents of Hyndman were jolted from their sleep and then evacuated.

Some people refused to leave their homes according to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, even though they were living within the danger zone. No injuries have been reported.

The train was headed from Chicago to Selkirk, New York near Albany when it derailed and caught fire. Investigators said they didn’t know what caused the train to run off the rails.

“CSX’s top priority is to work cooperatively with first responders and other officials to protect the public’s safety” said railroad spokesman Rob Doolittle. “CSX personnel are on the scene assisting first responders, providing information about the contents of the train and expertise on responding to railroad incidents,” Doolittle said.

There have been more than 1000 freight train derailments in each of the last two years, according to federal railway safety records. Through May of 2017 there have been 455 freight train derailments in the U.S., some of them involving hazardous materials.

The train that ran off the tracks in Pennsylvania on Wednesday included five locomotives and 178 rail cars total. Of those, 128 cars were carrying mixed freight, including construction materials, paper and wood pulp along with the flammable materials that are burning. Authorities also reported 50 empty rail cars on the train.

The wreckage appears similar to so-called “bomb trains” first reported by the I-Team more than four years ago involving crude oil transports. While it is not believed that the train in Pennsylvania was carrying crude oil, there do appear to be numerous tanker cars derailed and piled up along the tracks.

Since the DOT-111 tankers were found to be prone to splitting during derailment, U.S. and Canadian regulators have ordered strict new crashworthiness standards. The move followed a July 2013 oil tanker derailment that wiped out downtown Lac Megantic, Canada and left 47 people dead.

In May 2015, the Federal Railroad Administration and Transport Canada announced specs for a new DOT-117 tanker that would have to be in place by May 2025.

Locations at risk from O & G wells

Pennsylvania Declares Victory on Oil and Gas Regs While Failing to Protect Residents Health

From an Article by Nadia Steinzor, Earthworks, June 24, 2016

Thanks to a bill passed this June by the state legislature, Pennsylvania now has the dubious distinction of being the only state in the nation to abandon oil and gas regulations after they’ve been fully developed and publicly reviewed. While other states have modernized oil and gas oversight in the wake of the shale boom, no other state has exempted a major part of the oil and gas industry in the process.
MAP: The Oil and Gas Threat Map shows where all areas across the country within 1/2 mile of an active oil and gas well, and counties with elevated cancer risk due to oil and gas air toxics.

But that’s exactly what SB 279 does. Called the Penn Grade Crude Development Advisory Council bill, it wipes out updated environmental protection requirements for conventional oil and gas operations (known as Chapter 78). In effect, 178 state representatives and senators just overturned what it took five years, 12 public hearings, 30,000 public comments and affirmative votes by public regulatory commissions and the legislature to accomplish.

Unfortunately, Gov. Wolf just signed SB 279 into law, sounding the death knell for Chapter 78 in the process. Equally unfortunate, official statements from his administration have completely ignored the negative impact SB 279 will have on Pennsylvanians—even as the Governor declares victory for new rules that will go into effect only for unconventional oil and gas operations.

Such political spin may be Harrisburg’s status quo, but in this case it’s a dangerous affront to Pennsylvanians whose air, water and health is damaged by oil and gas development..

On the same day as the SB 279 vote, the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), Earthworks and the FracTracker Alliance released OilandGasThreatMap.com. Using state well location data and U.S. Census Bureau data, it shows that nearly 25 percent of Pennsylvania’s population lives within a half-mile of oil and gas wells and facilities—a distance at which serious health impacts are most clearly linked, according to the majority of peer-reviewed science.

Threatened residents include large proportions of several Pennsylvania counties including Warren (86 percent); McKean (72 percent); Venango (58 percent); and Forest (30 percent). Data from the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) show that in 2014, those four counties comprised more than 90 percent of all the conventional oil and gas wells drilled statewide.

According to the accompanying report, Fossil Fumes (by CATF with support from the Alliance of Nurses for a Healthy Environment and Earthworks), eight Pennsylvania counties have an elevated cancer risk directly attributable to toxic emissions from oil and gas operations (Armstrong, Clarion, Fayette, Forest, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson and Washington). DEP data indicate that 60-99 percent of all active oil and gas wells in these counties are conventional ones.

Throughout the long debate over Chapter 78, the oil and gas industry and its legislative champions propagated the fantasy that conventional operations have limited, if any, environmental and health impacts. Yet just like their shale-drilling cousins, modern-day conventional activities rely on hydraulic fracturing and chemicals, generate toxic waste, and cause hazardous spills and air pollution.

In fact, between 2008-2014, conventional operators were responsible for 60 percent of the cases in which oil and gas activities contaminated the private water supplies of Pennsylvanians. In 2014, conventional drillers were responsible for three-quarters of regulatory violations issued by DEP. Conventional operations are clearly a big problem with which a vastly understaffed DEP will have to continue to contend, though now without the benefit of stronger regulations.

Another part of SB 279 requires the use of public funds to run an advisory council made up primarily of oil and gas industry representatives.

So not only does the bill eliminate environmental protections from oil and gas operations, it holds any future attempts to improve them hostage to oil and gas industry interests. This runs directly counter to the public interest and epitomizes the misplaced legislative priorities that SB 279 represents.

One can only hope that going forward, elected officials will find the courage to stand up to this undue industry pressure and finally give Pennsylvanians the respect and environmental protections they deserve.

See also:

Interactive Map Shows Where Toxic Air Pollution From Oil and Gas Industry Is Threatening 12.4 Million Americans