Pennsylvania Suspends Mariner East 2 Pipeline Construction
Pennsylvania suspended permits for Sunoco Pipeline on Wednesday, LP’s $2.5 billion Mariner East 2 pipeline project, after finding that the company committed “egregious and willful violations” of state laws.
The order directs Sunoco, a subsidiary of Dakota Access Pipeline builder Energy Transfer Partners, to stop Mariner East II construction activities across Pennsylvania. The 306-mile pipeline project would carry 275,000 barrels a day of butane, propane and other liquid fossil fuels from Ohio and West Virginia to the Atlantic coast for export.
“Suspension of the permits described,” the order states, “is necessary to correct the egregious and willful violations described herein.”
Construction has been plagued by numerous spills and contaminated drinking water supplies for homes in Silver Lake Township, Pennsylvania. State regulators had discovered that Sunoco was drilling under streams without permits when a spill contaminated a high-quality creek in Berks County, Pennsylvania, the order notes—and then found unpermitted construction at over a half-dozen other locations along the pipeline’s route.
The 24-page order requires the company to provide a report that “fully explains the failures that led to the violations,” to outline the steps it will take to prevent recurrences, to address the private water wells contaminated in Silver Lake Township “to the satisfaction of the private well owners,” and to “properly abandon” illegally drilled pilot holes within 10 days, as well as a long list of other terms and conditions. The only activities allowed will be those associated with ensuring the shutdown is done safely and without further environmental damage.
“Until Sunoco can demonstrate that the permit conditions can and will be followed, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has no alternative but to suspend the permits,” Pennsylvania DEP Sec. Patrick McDonnell said in a statement announcing the order.
Pipeline opponents called on the department to go further.
“What we really need is a full and permanent halt to construction and a full, transparent and public assessment of the risks associated with the Mariner East 2,” Food & Water Watch organizer Sam Rubin said in a statement. A May Food & Water Watch report called attention to the role that Mariner East II would play in efforts to convert ethane from fracked gas wells into a new glut of plastics, citing the health hazards for workers and communities near petrochemical manufacturing, as well as the growing plastics gyres in the Pacific Ocean.
More directly, Sunoco has a checkered record nationwide when it comes to hazardous materials pipeline spills. Resolutions passed by eight local governments along Mariner East II’s route…
