Community Corner

Sunoco Halts Drilling After Marsh Creek Lake Fluid Spill

Energy Transfer's drilling has stopped for now, as 10,000 gallons of drilling fluid migrates from wetlands into the Chester County lake.

WEST WHITELAND TOWNSHIP, PA — An estimated 10,000 gallons of drilling fluid from Sunoco's Mariner East 2 Pipeline construction poured a murky stream into Marsh Creek Lake in Upper Uwchlan Township beginning late Monday.

Early estimates said the spill was only 1,000 gallons, but state officials later changed the figure to 10,000 gallons. Video posted by residents showed murky, sludge-like waters around the lake.

Sen. Katie Muth (D-Chester) reported drilling fluid from a Mariner East horizontal directional drilling (HDD) site upstream of Marsh Creek State Park spilled into a tributary of Marsh Creek Lake and ultimately into the lake itself in an incident the industry refers to as an "inadvertent return."

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"Sunoco/Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) initially claimed that 1,000 gallons of drilling fluid were spilled from the site, along pipeline segment HDD-290 in Upper Uwchlan Township. As of (Tuesday afternoon) the PA Department of Environmental Protection has increased that estimate to at least 10,000 gallons," Muth said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection responded Tuesday saying that downstream users along the Brandywine Creek and River had been notified and that there were no reports of drilling fluid released to other water intakes.

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Virginia Cain, Community Relations Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said work at both sites has stopped until further notice as DEP continues its investigations.

The DEP said the event at Marsh Creek State Park was reported to DEP by Sunoco on Monday Aug. 10. Sunoco reported a "potential inadvertent return at HDD 290, a drill site off Green Valley Road in Marsh Creek State Park in Upper Uwchlan Township, Chester County."

DEP reported Wednesday, "An unconfirmed amount of drilling fluid (mud and water) spilled into wetlands and a tributary to Marsh Creek Lake and migrated to the lake itself."

The DEP said it is "actively investigating issues at two ETP Mariner East two sites in Southeast PA; these sites are known as HDD 360 in West Whiteland Township and HDD 290 in Upper Uwchlan Township. Work at both sites has stopped until further notice as DEP continues its investigations."

Marsh Creek State Park issued a statement saying it is also investigating. " We will update you as often as we can. Our goal right now is to help mitigate and clean this spill up." Park officials advised people to stay out of the water but said boating is still permitted.

A group of activists gathered at the lake on Wednesday morning if front of a sign that read: "Water is life." Several elected officials spoke.

PA Rep. Danielle Friel Otten (D-155th District) said the current spill was a "drop in the bucket" of a larger problem. "We can no longer tolerate 'pay-to-pollute policies in Pennsylvania." She called on those present to help change these policies, and to "pull the permits" of polluters.

The day before, Friel Otten posted a video of the spill on social media, saying that she "took a paddle out Marsh Creek Lake to document Energy Transfer’s mess. I want you all to see this. They do not. This is an environmental crime. A violation of the Clean Streams law and their Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Permit."

Muth told the group at Marsh Creek State Park "there's a lack of accountability of those who have oversight."

"The actual volume of the spill and the full extent of this damage are not yet known. With a history of operational negligence, this latest incident is typical of ETP. The DEP, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Fish and Boat Commission have been on site to survey the damage," according to Muth.

West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety issued a statement saying some of its members went to investigate "a cloudy plume" into Marsh Creek Lake from the direction of Little Conestoga Rd in the vicinity of a Mariner East HDD drill. "It appeared to be a frac-out of drilling mud. Unfortunately, that is what it is."

"As we paddled to the end of an inlet, we found recently placed barriers and increased turbidity of the water," the group reported. "Once over the first barrier we were in water milky with drilling mud and found a pump and two pipeline workers on the shore. The creek upstream toward the drill site was thick with drilling mud," the group reported.

PA Sen. Andy Dinniman (I-19th District) was at the lake Wednesday morning.

"What we see here today is a failure of government to represent the people of PA and the people of this area." He compared the spill to Groundhog day for Chester County, saying, "They investigate but you don't hear the results for 2 or 3 years," Dinniman said.

“This latest failure by the operators at the Mariner East pipeline is unacceptable. Drinking water has now been contaminated; public health is at stake,” Muth said. “Sunoco’s permits for Mariner East should’ve never been approved in the first place, and it is long overdue for these permits to be permanently withdrawn. ETP has proven time and time again that they are either not able or not willing to operate safely, and the ongoing risk to our public and environmental health and safety is too great for Sunoco to continue its activity in Chester County. The risk was too great for this project to ever be approved in the first place.”

The renovated Mariner East 1, along with the Mariner East 2, and Mariner East 2x pipelines, aim to transport distant Marcellus shale natural gas from western Pennsylvania and Ohio to Marcus Hook, on the Delaware River. All of the pipelines pass through Chester and Delaware counties.

Dinniman and other leaders have criticized the oversight of the Pennsylvania Utility Commission (PUC), the body in charge of pipeline regulation. A 2018 report from the Public Accountability Initiative raises concerns that the PUC's handling of the Mariner East project indicates a conflict of interest, as four of the five members of the PUC decision-making board have ties to the natural gas industry.

The Department of Environmental Protection also said an early report came on Aug. 8, when the DEP received reports of a discharge in a swale across the road from the drill site at 103 Shoen Rd. "DEP responded, along with Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC), and conducted a field investigation which included testing of water to determine if the water coming from the ground contained drilling fluids that would constitute an Inadvertent Return (IR)," Cain said.

An IR requires a shutdown, explained Cain, under a 2017 Consent Order and Agreement (CO&A).

To determine whether an IR occurred, the Department considers three criteria: pH, conductivity, and color. These results are still under analysis, DEP said Wednesday. However, Cain said drilling activity remains stopped at this site.

"If it is determined that an IR occurred, the site will be shut down in accordance with the COA and a restart report will be required. If it is determined that there was no IR, work may resume pursuant to the conditions of the Permit, the CO&A, and other applicable authorities," the DEP stated.


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