Free radicals as “reactive oxidative species” (ROS) are highly reactive and damaging

Submitted to the Morgantown Dominion Post, WVU Today (6/27/21), June 28, 2021

Every day, our bodies face a bombardment of UV rays, ozone, cigarette smoke, industrial chemicals and other hazards.

This exposure can lead to free-radical production in our bodies, which damages our DNA and tissues. A new study from West Virginia University researcher Eric E. Kelley — in collaboration with the University of Minnesota — suggests that unrepaired DNA damage can increase the speed of aging. — The study appears in the journal Nature.

Kelley and his team created genetically-modified mice with a crucial DNA-repair protein missing from their hematopoietic stem cells, immature immune cells that develop into white blood cells. Without this repair protein, the mice were unable to fix damaged DNA accrued in their immune cells.

“By the time the genetically-modified mouse is 5 months old, it’s like a 2-year-old mouse,” said Kelley, associate professor and associate chair of research in the School of Medicine’s department of physiology and pharmacology. “It has all the symptoms and physical characteristics. It has hearing loss, osteoporosis, renal dysfunction, visual impairment, hypertension, as well as other age-related issues. It’s prematurely aged just because it has lost its ability to repair its DNA.”

According to Kelley, a normal 2-year-old mouse is about equivalent in age to a human in their late 70s to early 80s.

Kelley and his colleagues found that markers for cell aging, or senescence, as well as for cell damage and oxidation were significantly greater in the immune cells of genetically-modified mice compared to normal, wild-type mice. But the damage was not limited to the immune system; the modified mice also demonstrated aged, damaged cells in organs such as the liver and kidney.

These results suggest that unrepaired DNA damage may cause the entire body to age prematurely.

When we are exposed to a pollutant, such as radiation for cancer treatment, energy is transferred to the water in our body, breaking the water apart. This creates highly reactive molecules — free radicals — that will quickly interact with another molecule in order to gain electrons. When these free radicals interact with important biomolecules, such as a protein or DNA, it causes damage that can keep that biomolecule from working properly.

Some exposure to pollutants is unavoidable, but there are several lifestyle choices that increase exposure to pollution and thus increase free radicals in the body. Smoking, drinking and exposure to pesticides and other chemicals through occupational hazards all significantly increase free radicals.

“A cigarette has over 10 to the 16th free radicals per puff, just from combusted carbon materials,” Kelley said.

In addition to free radicals produced by pollutant exposure, the human body is constantly producing free radicals during a process used to turn food into energy, called oxidative phosphorylation.

“We have mechanisms in the mitochondria that mop free radicals up for us, but if they become overwhelmed — if we have over-nutrition, if we eat too much junk, if we smoke — the defense mechanism absolutely cannot keep up,” Kelley said.

As bodies age, the amount of damage caused by free-radical formation becomes greater than the antioxidant defenses. Eventually, the balance between the two tips over to the oxidant side, and damage starts to win out over repair. If we are exposed to a greater amount of pollutants and accumulate more free radicals, this balance will be disrupted even sooner, causing premature aging.

The issue of premature aging due to free-radical damage is especially important in West Virginia. The state has the greatest percentage of obese citizens in the nation and a high rate of smokers and workers in high-pollution-exposure occupations.
“I come from an Appalachian background,” Kelley said. “And, you know, I’d go to funerals that were in some old house — an in-the-living-room-with-a-casket kind of deal — and I’d look at people in there, and they’d be 39 or 42 and look like they were 80 because of their occupation and their nutrition.”

Many West Virginians also have comorbidities, such as diabetes, enhanced cardiovascular disease, stroke and renal issues, that complicate the situation further.
Although there are drugs, called senolytics, that help to slow the aging process, Kelley believes it is best to prevent premature aging through lifestyle change. He says that focusing on slowing the aging process through preventive measures can improve the outcome for each comorbidity and add more healthy years to people’s lives.

“The impact is less on lifespan and more on healthspan,” he said. “If you could get people better access to healthcare, better education, easier ways for them to participate in healthier eating and a healthier lifestyle, then you could improve the overall economic burden on the population of West Virginia and have a much better outcome all the way around.”

High pressure pipelines in residential areas are clearly a safety issue

From the Daily Local News, Chester County, PA, December 23, 2020

Following an August spill of drilling fluid at Marsh Creek Lake, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection shut down construction and told pipeline builder Sunoco/Energy Transfer to find alternative route.

Sunoco appealed the ruling and Judge Bernard Labuskes Jr. ruled that the PA-DEP should be tasked with making any final decision on a restart at the site that feeds drinking water to residents and businesses to the south along the Brandywine Creek watershed.

The PA-DEP also required Sunoco/ET to restore resources impacted by Mariner East 2 pipeline installation in Upper Uwchlan Township.

The August spill of over 8,000 gallons of drilling fluid, an industrial waste, created a 15-foot wide by 8-foot deep subsidence, adversely impacting wetlands, two tributaries to Marsh Creek Lake, and the lake itself, in Marsh Creek State Park.

The drilling fluid spill caused the park to close off 33 acres of the lake from boating and other recreational uses and access.

Two new subsidences, or sinkholes recently developed in the vicinity of the active 8 inch Mariner pipeline. One sinkhole measures 6 by 9, by 4 feet deep, and the other is 9 feet around and 11 feet deep. The active pipe is about four feet deep.

The Mariner East pipeline right-of-way weaves 350 miles from Marcellus shale deposits in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to the refinery in Marcus Hook, Delaware County. The pipe passes by more than 40 schools statewide, the Chester County Library in Exton, through a children’s baseball field and high density areas in both Chester and Delaware counties.

“These incidents are yet another instance where Sunoco has blatantly disregarded the citizens and resources of Chester County with careless actions while installing the Mariner East 2 Pipeline,” PA-DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said. “We will not stand for more of the same.

“An alternate route must be used. The department is holding Sunoco responsible for its unlawful actions and demanding a proper cleanup,” McDonnell said. “To the fullest extent possible under our laws and regulations, we will continue to hold this company accountable for their actions, impacts, and behavior.”

In the Notice of Violation, PA-DEP requested, among other things, that Sunoco provide plans to address the impacts of the drilling fluid spill and subsidence events.

PA-DEP reported that a pipeline reroute in the Marsh Creek area was previously evaluated by Sunoco and found to be technically feasible. The order requires that this technically feasible route be used rather than the current pathway, which has resulted in multiple drilling fluid spills and subsidence in a wetland area.

Former State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19 of West Whiteland fought the project for several years and recently at Marsh Creek announced for the first time that the project should be discontinued.

“While it’s good to see that PA-DEP taking responsibility for the ongoing and very severe impacts of the Mariner East pipeline project, I hope it will also reconsider and rethink the pipeline route and construction activities that have led to a series of sinkholes and other serious geologic problems along karst formations in the West Whiteland area,” Dinniman said.

State Rep. Carolyn Comitta, D-156th of West Chester, has organized several informational pipeline events.

“I applaud the PA-DEP order to reroute the Sunoco pipeline in Upper Uwchlan Township,” Comitta said. “We’ve seen the continuous violations by Sunoco on our natural resources and the disruption of everyday life in the community.

“Our residents deserve to feel safe at home and know that their right to clean air and water is protected.”

Food & Water Action organizer Sam Rubin released the following statement:

“Sunoco’s negligence has created a series of entirely predictable disasters, the most recent being the massive spill at Marsh Creek Lake. This dangerous, unnecessary pipeline does not need to be re-routed. It must be shut down entirely. The Wolf administration has given Sunoco a green light to pollute communities across the commonwealth, in order to build a dangerous explosive pipeline that only serves to deliver raw materials to make plastic junk. Sunoco’s record of negligence and malfeasance speaks for itself; the only question is whether Governor Wolf will finally protect Pennsylvania from this corporate menace.”

Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance: “PA-DEP’s order to reroute this portion of the project is no small matter, especially when you consider the pipe in this area is meant to connect two existing pipes that are already in the ground…….”

“……Communities that thought this project was coming to an end now face potentially many more months of disruption, because this action has the potential of dramatically extending the construction life of a pipeline project that was nearly finished……”

“……The economic impacts are just as real. Hundreds of local jobs are at stake downstream at Marcus Hook and along the line itself because of potential construction delays. This is Pennsylvania’s largest infrastructure project and it remains vital to the entire commonwealth, which is why it needs to move forward, not backward.”

#####. #####. #####. #####. #####.

See also: PA Pipeline Shift Will ‘Share The Wealth’ With Midwest Markets, Michael Sandoval, Inside Sources, December 15, 2020

Energy Transfer’s (ET) recent announcement that it will convert the Mariner East 1 pipeline to help transport refined products from the Midwest to Pennsylvania and the northeast will be a boon to both northeast energy consumers and midwest producers, industry analysts say.

“PA Access will utilize part of our Mariner East 1 pipeline to provide about 20,000 – 25,000 barrels per day of refined products from the Midwest supply regions through our Allegheny Access pipeline system into Pennsylvania and to markets in the Northeast,” the company said in November. The service will begin in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Work underway in Marsh Creek State Park

From an Article by Joe Brandt, NBC News (Philadelphia), September 11, 2020

More than 8,100 gallons of drilling fluid spilled into Marsh Creek Lake, Chester County, PA, in August of this year.

An natural gas liquids pipeline under construction in Pennsylvania will be rerouted after thousands of gallons of industrial waste spilled into a creek last month.

The PA state Department of Environmental Protection ordered Sunoco to reroute the Mariner East II pipeline and divert it around the Marsh Creek Lake and wetlands, a PA-DEP news release says.

In August, more than 8,100 gallons of drilling fluid spilled into a tributary of the lake before flowing into the lake itself. Some 33 acres of the lake were closed off from boating and other recreational uses after the spill.

Sunoco has proposed adjusting the pipeline route so it would cross under the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Conestoga Road.

Secretary Patrick McDonnell of the PA-DEP called the spill “yet another instance where Sunoco has blatantly disregarded the citizens and resources of Chester County with careless actions while installing the Mariner East II Pipeline.”

“We will not stand for more of the same,” McDonnell added in the news statement. “An alternate route must be used. The department is holding Sunoco responsible for its unlawful actions and demanding a proper cleanup.”

The department says Sunoco hasn’t turned over plans on how it will remediate the impacts of drilling fluid spills and sinkholes. The company told the state that spills are “readily contained and cleaned up with minimal affect to natural resources.”

Cleanup is still underway with state supervision.

The pipeline runs through Chester and Delaware counties and feeds into the Marcus Hook refinery. Drilling in the booming Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale fields – and shipping natural gas liquids through Mariner East pipelines and Marcus Hook – have helped the U.S. become the world’s leading ethane exporter, the Associated Press reported in 2019.

Marsh Creek State Park is one the most visited state parks and the lake is a key habitat for migrating birds, according to a state document on the pipeline.

################################

1975 TANKER COLLISION RESULTED IN EXPLOSIONS & FIRE —

NOTE: Some “25 Reported Missing and 2 Dead In Pennsylvania Tanker Wreck,” Multiple Explosions & Fire at Marcus Hook — The New York Times, February 1, 1975

Photo from West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety

From an Article by Frank Kummer, Philadelphia Inquirer, August 11, 2020

Drilling fluid used in Sunoco Pipeline LP’s Mariner East project in Chester County leaked into Marsh Creek Lake in a state park of the same name on Monday — one of three incidents in recent days along the pipeline construction project route.

Virginia Cain, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said the agency is investigating the three incidents, which occurred at two project sites, in West Whiteland and Upper Uwchlan Townships.

The PA-DEP said the first leak occurred on the 100 block of Shoen Road in West Whiteland on Saturday. Both the PD-DEP and the Fish and Boat Commission responded and tested water to see if it contained drilling fluids. Drilling was stopped to await an analysis of the liquid.

If the liquid is found to be that used for drilling, which typically contains bentonite clay and water, the site will be shut down until an application to restart is filed. Usually, the liquid is injected into a bore during the horizontal drilling process. The mixture is not normally hazardous, though environmental groups say it could contain other chemicals.

On Sunday, the same agencies were called after discharges related to the same site were reported “at multiple areas in the West Whiteland Apartment Complex.” The PA-DEP is reviewing permits and plans Sunoco filed pertaining to the location to see if regulations were followed.

Then, on Monday, the PA-DEP was called to another drill site off Green Valley Road in Marsh Creek State Park in Upper Uwchlan. There, drilling fluid leaked into wetlands and a tributary to Marsh Creek Lake, then finally into the lake. Sunoco is working on a cleanup in coordination with the two state agencies.

Environmental groups and residents who have been battling the pipeline for years were outraged. When complete, the pipeline will transport gas liquids, such as propane, ethane, and butane.

The Clean Air Council estimated that 1,000 gallons of the drilling fluid were released into Marsh Creek Lake, which also serves as a drinking water reservoir. The nonprofit environmental organization said the fluid contains chemical additives and can “smother aquatic life.” The group said photographs show “a large plume of gray water snaking hundreds of feet into the lake.”

The potential impact on the overall health of the lake was not immediately clear as of Tuesday. Environmental groups in the past have urged the PA-DEP to prevent Sunoco from drilling near the park because of the risk of spills. “Sunoco again has failed to take seriously the danger its construction poses to drinking water supplies and other water resources,” the Clean Air Council said in a statement.

Alex Bomstein, an attorney at Clean Air Council, said a Sunoco geologist had included in a previous report before drilling began that there was a “moderate to high risk of a spill” in the area.

West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety, a citizens group, posted a picture of muddied water and what it identified as Sunoco workers at the scene.

Ginny Kerslake, a member of the West Whiteland group, said she was at the lake Monday night and again Tuesday. “I have seen it firsthand,” she said of the spill. “Like many people, we frequently enjoy that lake. It’s devastating this has been allowed to happen.”

Marsh Creek State Park is in north-central Chester County. The 1,784-acre park contains the 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake, widely used for fishing and boating.

The pipeline has caused a number of incidents over the years. In July, inspectors found a new series of sinkholes that have opened up along the pipeline’s route in Chester County after cracks were reported in the pavement of Business Route 30 in Exton.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

See also: Paddle protest at Marsh Creek Lake calls for Mariner East shutdown, Susan Phillips, StateImpact Pennsylvania, August 11, 2020

As cleanup crews worked to remove thousands of gallons of drilling mud from a Chester County lake on Wednesday, residents gathered to protest the Mariner East pipeline project, citing a litany of environmental damage.

Construction on the line caused about 8,000 gallons of drilling mud to seep into a stream that feeds the lake, which is popular for boating, fishing and birding.

Following a rally on the banks of the 530-acre Marsh Creek Lake, several dozen protesters paddled out to the site of a plume of muddy water caused by nearby horizontal directional drilling (HDD). HDD uses bentonite clay, often referred to as drilling mud, to lubricate a large drill bit that bores beneath the surface, making way for the 20-inch pipe. The project, which is mostly complete, includes three separate pipes that carry natural gas liquids from the shale fields of western Pennsylvania to an export terminal in Delaware County.

Construction of the line has hit several snags in Chester County, where the karst, or limestone geology, creates difficulties for large-scale industrial projects that use underground drilling.

Welded joints on Mariner East pipelines are supposed to be safe

From an Article by Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, March 19, 2020

A pipeline worker from Westmoreland County is expected to plead guilty to a felony for forging documents that said a weld on the Mariner East pipeline was properly X-rayed when, in reality, it was not.

Joshua Springer, of Scottdale, worked on Texas-based Energy Transfer’s Mariner East 2 pipeline project between May 2017 and June 2018, according to court documents.

For the most part, he was assigned to work on a 20-mile segment between Houston and Delmont. His job involved taking X-rays of welds, interpreting that data to ensure the weld was good and recording his findings in records that would go to Energy Transfer. It is not clear from the court records which company Mr. Springer worked for.

Documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania indicate Mr. Springer is scheduled to plead guilty to the charge during an April 1 hearing. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000.

But that’s unlikely to be the end of the story. A notification about Mr. Springer’s felony charge posted on the state Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General’s website indicates the investigation is ongoing and is being conducted with the FBI.

Energy Transfer spokeswoman Lisa Coleman said that the company’s outside auditors discovered the falsified records at some point in 2018, before the pipeline was put into service. The company X-rays all of its welds, which it credited with being able to detect the forged report.

“Immediately upon learning of the situation, we reported it to the appropriate regulatory agencies and the individual was terminated by his employer,” Ms. Coleman said. “We subsequently reinspected all welds in the section of pipeline where this individual worked and confirmed that the welds were in compliance with our welding specifications and Title 195 Code requirements.”

She said Energy Transfer cooperated with regulatory agencies, which “determined that we were not in violation of any regulations.”

The Mariner East pipelines — there are three that run mostly parallel to each other — carry natural gas liquids between the Marcellus and Utica Shales in Ohio, West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania to processing facilities near Philadelphia.

The $3 billion construction project has been plagued by a number of problems, including sinkholes, landslides, water contamination and other environmental permit violations.

On the pipeline safety and integrity front, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has sent Energy Transfer numerous warning letters over the course of Mariner East pipeline construction, alleging noncompliance with federal regulations and its own company policies.

############################

Energy Transfer wants security, but the residents want safe neighborhoods

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.

Open Trench Method not acceptable to Chester County

From an Article by Michael P. Rellahan, Daily Local News, Chester County. PA, January 23, 2020

WEST CHESTER — A Chester County Common Pleas Court judge on January 23rd denied the county’s request for an injunction against Sunoco Pipeline to halt construction on the controversial Mariner East 2 project on two county-owned properties after deciding he did not have the authority to decide the case.

Judge Edward Griffith issued a terse ruling after an hour-long hearing involving attorneys from the county and the pipeline company, saying that he did not have “subject matter jurisdiction” to rule on the matter. He issued no explanation, but his decision effectively means that work on the pipeline at the Chester County Library and Chester Valley Trail can start tomorrow.

A spokeswomen for Energy Transfers, Sunoco’s parent company, company Vice President Vicki Anderson Granado, hailed the decision and indicated that work would begin soon.

The county commissioners, who had filed the request for an emergency injunction last week after being notified by Sunoco that work would commence at their properties on Friday, issued the following statement after Griffith’s ruling.

“The county is disappointed with the court’s ruling and is exploring all legal options that remain available to ensure that Sunoco Pipeline LP adheres to the provisions and terms of the easement that Sunoco drafted,” it read.

But since the judge essentially accepted Sunoco’s argument that the case involves permitting questions involving the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and approvals by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC), neither of which was included in the county’s injunction request. Thus, the county’s attempt to put a stop to the work was flawed and should be rejected.

Lead attorney Robert L. Byer of the Philadelphia law firm of Duane Morris, noted that the PA DEP and the PA PUC both had given permission for the pipeline to be built and that the company’s use of the “open-trench” construction method was justified in order to protect the public water supply.

Louis Kupperman, the attorney from the West Chester law firm of Buckley, Brion, Morris & McGuire, on the other hand, urged Griffith to find that the issue at hand was purely a contract dispute, over which he had authority, between the county and Sunoco involving a provision in the county’s easement that it have a say in what type of construction method is used in the pipeline as it crossed the library and trail property.

In the hearing, Judge Griffith peppered both sides with questions about the legal case, but also about Sunoco’s need to hasten project construction. The company had been granted permission to resume construction by the PA DEP earlier this month after it levied a $30 million fine against its parent company, Energy Transfer Inc. of Texas. “What’s the rush?”

Mariner East goes 23 miles through the heart of Chester County – including the two county-owned plots — and then another 11 miles through western Delaware County. Eventually, the pipeline will transport hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile liquid natural gases from the state’s Marcellus Shale region to a facility in Marcus Hook. It has drawn severe attacks from local governments, environmental activists, and residents in both counties.

The project has been plagued by spills and runoffs, while work has been halted several times by the state. Pennsylvania also has slapped millions in fines against the company, but has been unable to stop the multi-billion dollar project, which has the support of labor groups, the chamber of commerce and some public officials.

More than 80 years ago, Sunoco LP’s predecessors acquired a pipeline right-of-way over privately owned lands in West Whiteland. The county subsequently purchased portions of the land, and in February 2017, Sunoco sought supplemental easements for the properties.

Those supplemental easements required Sunoco to install its pipelines using road bore method or horizontal directional drilling method, which would not disturb the surface of the property, or use the traditional open-trench method should conditions necessitate it, according to the county.

The easements stated that the open-trench method of construction may not proceed unless Sunoco provided substantial evidence to the county that conditions beyond Sunoco’s reasonable control necessitate the use of the open-trench method, or that Sunoco received written permission from the county, according to the commissioners’ motion.

However, the company has responded that the county’s suit cannot proceed because it does not list as parties to the action either the PA DEP, which issued approval of the construction permits initially and again this month, and the state Public Utilities Commission, which certified the pipeline project as a public service. Those are the agencies that granted approval for the type of construction, and the county cannot counter their decisions, the company attorneys wrote.

“The county’s petition flatly ignores that the permanent easements specifically contemplate the use of the ‘open-trench’ method,” the company’s motion to dismiss the petition for an injunction stated. “They do not require the county’s written consent to the change.”

###########################

Major Ethane Pipeline Seeking Customers

From a Notice by Paul J. Gough, Pittsburgh Business Journal, February 3, 2020

A major pipeline between Washington County (PA) and Ontario, Canada, is seeking customers that would want to ship ethane.

Energy Transfer LP said it had declared open season for the Mariner West pipeline, which connects the MarkWest plant in Houston, PA, to Michigan and near the industrial center of Sarnia, Ontario.

The binding open season solicits customers for a pipeline, where the companies will be guaranteed transportation of their fluids — in this case, natural gas byproduct ethane — to a certain point.

Mariner West is a project of Sunoco Pipeline LP, a division of Energy Transfer. The 395-mile pipeline, which started operations in late 2013, carries Marcellus Shale ethane from Houston, PA, and other points in Pennsylvania to Marysville, Michigan. It has a capacity of 50,000 barrels a day of ethane.

Revolution pipeline blast site in Center Twp. Beaver County, PA

From an Article by Reid Frazier, State Impact PA, January 6, 2020

STATEIMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced an agreement Friday that includes a record fine against the company responsible for a 2018 natural gas pipeline explosion in Beaver County.

The settlement also lifts a nearly year-long permit freeze on the company’s other pipeline projects, including the cross-state Mariner East pipelines.

As part of the settlement, the PA-DEP assessed a $30.6 million fine against ETC Northeast Pipeline, a subsidiary of the pipeline company Energy Transfer, the largest ever issued by the regulator. PA-DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said in a statement the fine’s size was in part due to the company’s failure to comply with an order the agency issued one month after the blast.

“ETC’s lack of oversight during construction of the Revolution Pipeline and their failure to comply with PA-DEP’s October 2018 compliance order demanded serious accountability. Their inaction led directly to this unprecedented civil penalty,” McDonnell said.

At the heart of the settlement was the Sept. 10, 2018 explosion along the Revolution pipeline. A landslide near Ivy Lane in Center Township caused the pipeline to rupture. The subsequent blast shot flames 150 feet into the air, forced evacuations and burned one house to the ground. The fire damaged power lines and destroyed two garages, a barn and several vehicles.

The Revolution had only been in service a week, carrying gas along a 40-mile route between Butler and Washington counties, when the blast occurred. In the Consent Agreement, the PA-DEP determined that “neither temporary nor permanent stabilization … had been achieved” along the pipeline when the landslide and rupture occurred.

As part of its consent agreement, the PA-DEP outlined a laundry list of violations and oversights. Those violations extended well beyond the blast site and included failure to stabilize more than a dozen hillsides, poor stormwater management and more than 2,000 other deficiencies, resulting in impacts to “numerous” streams and wetlands.

The PA-DEP says it found that between February 2018 and December 2019, 19 different hillside sections of the pipeline weren’t stabilized, “resulting in numerous slides”; 352 separate occurrences of accelerated erosion and sedimentation; and 540 different occasions when sediment-laden water was discharged into several western Pennsylvania creeks and wetlands. In addition, the agency found over 2,000 instances where the company failed to properly implement “best management practices,” construction standards required by state permits.

The state found that the company “eliminated at least twenty-three (23) streams by removing and/or filling the stream channels with soil,” resulting in a loss of 1,857 feet of stream channel. It also “(e)liminated at least seventeen (17) and altered at least seventy (70) wetland areas by manipulating and/or filling wetlands with soil.”

The PA-DEP also found the company had plenty of warning signs the hillside was slip-prone but failed to properly manage the site. It says a January 2016 Energy Transfer analysis “concluded that the area of the Incident Site had a high susceptibility to slope failure.” Three months before the blast, a “slip” occurred on the hillside about 30 feet from where the pipe would rupture.

While the company tried to restore the hillside, the PA-DEP said, “neither an engineer nor any other geotechnical expert was consulted by field staff.” The settlement binds the company to restore the site of the blast and other wetlands it damaged, and to monitor the blast site for a minimum of five years.

The PA-DEP says that despite these deficiencies, the company hired a new management team for the pipeline and “has demonstrated its intention to correct its unlawful conduct to PA-DEP’s satisfaction.” Therefore, it’s lifting a hold on permits for Energy Transfer’s other projects in the state. These include the Mariner East pipeline, which carries natural gas products from west of Pittsburgh to an export facility near Philadelphia.

McDonnell said PA-DEP will continue to monitor the company’s activities. “The conditions imposed by this agreement seek to ensure that (Energy Transfer) will get this right. Anything less is unacceptable.”

Environmental groups renewed their criticisms of Energy Transfer, which has already racked up more than $12 million in fines for its violations along the Mariner East.

PennFuture CEO Jacqueline Bonomo said in a statement that the organization “applauds the DEP for holding this bad actor accountable for its environmental degradation and repeated violations.”

The Better Path Coalition, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement that many Pennsylvanians “will shudder at the thought that the company will be able once again to get permits for its projects.”

Kurt Knaus, a spokesman for Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, a statewide pipeline industry group, praised the settlement, saying it shows PA-DEP is ensuring pipelines in the state will meet “the highest environmental standards.”

“Skilled laborers who have been waiting to get back to work will finally be back on the job, putting their training to use for the safe, responsible development of critical infrastructure,” Knaus said, in a statement.

Construction of Mariner East 2 in Penna.

From an Article by Katie Meyer, StateImpact Penna., October 17, 2019

(Harrisburg) — Democratic Governor Tom Wolf got some unexpected visitors Wednesday—or at least, the hallway outside his office did. When a crowd of about 60 protesters with the groups Halt Mariner Now and the Mama Bear Brigade gathered outside Wolf’s door to ask him to close down a major, nearly completed pipeline project, Wolf wasn’t there and Capitol police wouldn’t open the door. They rallied anyway.

There are three pipelines at the heart of the advocacy effort, which dates back several years: the Mariner East 1, 2, and 2X. All carry, or are designed to one day carry, natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale region in Ohio (& WV) and Western Pennsylvania to a Delaware County processing terminal.

The project has been slowed and stopped many times by issues that include a rash of sinkholes caused by construction, and mud from drilling polluting wells and waterways.

People who live in the southeast, where construction has been heavy in residential areas, are also worried that the highly flammable liquids in the line could combust.

Luke Bauerlein, an organizer with the Halt Mariner Now group, said that’s one of his big concerns. “Our community residents aren’t lying when they say this has the potential to be a bomb,” he said, adding that he doesn’t think Sunoco has given them good enough evacuation advice. “I’m not going to be able to forgive myself if I don’t stand up and there’s an accident that happens. We’ve been living on luck for way too long.”

Wolf met with the protesters in Chester County several months ago, in August of this year.

He told them while he shares some of their safety and environmental concerns, the gas liquids need to be moved and the administration is trying to keep the process safe.

“We are trying to make transmission of this stuff, and the alternatives to this, I think, are even worse,” he told them at the time. “So, we’ve got to figure out how to do a better job, I fully agree. What we disagree on [is] in terms of whether we should keep doing this or not.”

Throughout the Mariner project, Sunoco and pro-gas groups have maintained that the pipeline is safe, and that sinkholes and contamination are just a result of construction.

“Oversight of this project is ongoing and strict, as actions by regulators demonstrate,” the pro-pipeline Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance said in a statement. “The project is legally permitted and operated, as courts have ruled repeatedly.”

The alliance added, pipeline work has provided a number of temporary union jobs in the commonwealth.

Bauerlein said he and his fellow demonstrators aren’t necessarily discouraged by Wolf’s refusal to stop the Mariner project. He merely sees it as a cue to move their protests out of the Capitol.

“I’m not sure I can speak to that today,” he said. “But stay tuned, there will be more plans to come.”

#########################

Mariner East: A pipeline project plagued by mishaps and delays

Explainer Article by Jon Hurdle / StateImpact Penna.

A Mariner East 2 construction site in rural Pennsylvania is shown in the photo above. The Public Utility Commission lifted a ban on construction of a valve, removing one obstacle to completion of the troubled project.

Sunoco Logistics Mariner East pipeline project includes three lines — the Mariner East 1, the Mariner East 2, and the Mariner East 2X, all of which carry or will soon carry natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the Marcellus and Utica Shale plays in eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania across the state to a processing and export terminal in Marcus Hook, Delaware.

Mariner East pipeline involves dangerous conditions over 300 miles

From Susan Phillips, StateImpact Penna., August 29, 2019

Energy Transfer/Sunoco Logistics will pay a combined $313,000 for two penalties related to Mariner East 2 construction violations in 2017 and 2018. This latest assessment brings the total financial penalties assessed to the company for Mariner East construction to more than $13 million.

One penalty stems from the pipeline company’s horizontal directional drilling activities, which caused drilling mud spills in 16 streams and wetlands in 10 counties in 2018. Drilling mud consists of bentonite clay, which is not toxic but can damage aquatic life. The company’s actions violated the Clean Streams Law and the Dam Safety and Encroachment Act. The penalty assessed for that violation is $240,840.

“PA-DEP is committed to ensuring that Sunoco and other companies are held to the highest standard possible. These actions, which resulted in violations of permits and laws that are meant to protect our waterways, are unacceptable,” PA-DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said in a statement. “PA-DEP will maintain the stringent oversight that we have consistently exercised by monitoring Sunoco and taking all steps necessary to ensure that the company complies with its permits and the law.”

The company also violated the Clean Streams Law during 2017 pipeline construction, which led to erosion and sedimentation at a number of waterways in Cumberland County. The company will pay $78,621 to the state and the Cumberland County Conservation District.

Construction on the $2.5 billion Mariner East project began in February 2017, after the Department of Environmental Protection identified hundreds of deficiencies in its water-crossing and earth-moving permits. Since then, the PA-DEP has issued more than 80 violations to the company for polluting wetlands, waterways, and destroying about a dozen private water wells.

“We are happy to have resolved this issue with the PA-DEP as we remain focused on safely completing construction of this important pipeline,” Energy Transfer spokesperson Lisa Coleman said.

The pipeline brings natural gas liquids from eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania to an export terminal near Philadelphia. The majority of the product shipped through the pipelines will go to Scotland to make plastics. Completion of the third and final pipeline in the project, the Mariner East 2x, is expected by the end of this year.

In the summer of 2017, PA-DEP, along with several environmental groups, agreed to a consent decree with Sunoco after dozens of drilling mud spills led to the pollution of high value wetlands and trout streams, and the loss of drinking water for residents of a Chester County community.

As part of the consent decree, the agency is developing new permit conditions and policy guidelines for future pipeline projects.

>>> About StateImpact Pennsylvania — StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, WESA, and The Allegheny Front.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

See also:
Criminal Defense Counsel Represents PA-DEP in Mariner East Probe, Susan Phillips, StateImpact Penna., August 30, 2019

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has engaged a criminal defense attorney to represent at least one employee with regard to a criminal investigation of the Mariner East pipeline project — a move several environmental attorneys said is unusual and possibly unprecedented for the regulatory agency. Agency says it’s routine to have outside counsel, but several environmental lawyers say they haven’t seen it before.