One step up & two steps back for pipeline

For Sunoco Logistics' controversial Mariner East 2 pipeline project, it seems like a replay of the classic Bruce Springsteen song, "One Step Up."

That would be, "one step up and two steps back."

Last week the state Public Utility Commission gave Sunoco the green light to resume construction of the pipeline in sections of West Whiteland Township in Chester County where problems including sinkholes had caused the state to shut down all work in the area.

Sunoco says the project is 95 percent done, but they are already behind schedule and anxious to finish things off and put the pipeline online, when it will ferry hundreds of thousands of barrels of volatile gases such as ethane, propane and butane from the state's Marcellus Shale region to a facility in Marcus Hook.

That includes cutting through the heart of central Chester County and an 11-mile swath of western Delaware County.

Residents are not happy. They are not satisfied with routing such a project through densely populated neighborhoods, including right next to elementary schools and senior centers.

They don't know quite what to expect should a problem occur.

They have raised money to have a firm do their own independent risk assessment of the pipeline project. Delaware County is now doing the same.

But nothing has stopped the project.

Yesterday the state Department of Environmental Protection slapped another $148,000 in fines on Sunoco for problems associated with disturbing water supplies in Berks, Chester and Lebanon counties.

And we're hearing there could be more trouble for Sunoco today in connection with a spot here in Delco. We hear the DEP will be announcing new penalties against the firm in connection with a spill that caused problems on the Elwyn property in Aston that wreaked havoc on the center's workshop used by those with disabilities and other challenges.

We'll let you know.

One step up and two steps back.

Everyone always says that five years from now, no one will even know there is a pipeline running across this region. It will join the dozens other lines that crisscross the area.

I certainly hope so.

I also don't think for a second that is going to ease the concerns of residents.