It is completely unacceptable that the corporations in charge of the Mariner East project have attempted to push dangerous natural gas liquids through our communities, especially in a thin and aging pipe. Energy Transfer and Sunoco continue to receive fines and citations for permit violations and still fail to provide us with any credible public safety plans; therefore, we need to step up to protect our schools, parks, and neighborhoods from these natural gas liquids.
In 2013, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court Case (Butler v. Charles Powers Estate, April 24, 2013, 65 A.3rd 885) held that Marcellus Shale gas was not included in an old deed that referred to the rights to “minerals and petroleum oils” because gas from Marcellus Shale was unknown at that time. If we were to take this court decision and apply it to the old recorded easements for this pipeline, it could mean that Sunoco would have no right to use the old pipeline for Natural Gas Liquids from Marcellus Shale without new signed easement agreements.
I am not an attorney nor am I attempting to give legal advice, but I could see a world in which folks are able to push back here and file for compensation for the potential loss in property value due to the hazardous gases flowing in close proximity to their homes.
Hopefully, Sunoco and Energy Transfer would then come to the table and improve the safety of the pipelines, even re-siting them in some instances, especially near our schools. Sunoco must understand that they cannot put our residents in harm’s way and they should not be running natural gas liquids that put our communities at risk through those old pipes.
This is just one of the points in my plan for environmental safety in our county.
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