Clean Air Council Responds to PUC Seeking Shut Down of Mariner East 1 and Growing Sinkhole Threat

PHILADELPHIA, PA (March 7, 2018) – The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s Bureau of Inspections and Enforcement filed an emergency request with the Commissioners to shut down the Mariner East 1 pipeline today as an urgent safety measure after two new sinkholes opened up in a residential neighborhood this weekend.  Sunoco’s construction work for the Mariner East 2 pipelines caused the ground to collapse, threatening a rupture in the existing Mariner East 1 hazardous liquids pipeline and raising the specter of a derailment on the Amtrak and SEPTA railroad a couple hundred feet away.

Official statement from Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel, Clean Air Council:

“Sunoco should have never been building its pipelines in this densely-populated neighborhood with busy Amtrak railroad lines and unstable geology. Mariner East 2 construction opened up a sinkhole at this same location months ago and even shook out railroad spikes.  Sunoco recklessly continued drilling anyway while DEP disregarded the danger and failed to protect the public. Clean Air Council thanks PUC regulators for taking action to respond to this growing threat to public safety.”