Good news & bad news on pipeline risk

I guess one way of looking at is that there is good news and bad news when it comes to that risk assessment study Delaware County Council had done on the controversial Mariner East 2 pipeline project.

The Good News (and this depends on what side of the issue you are on): G2 Integrated Solutions, the firm the county paid $115,000 to perform the study, concluded people are about as likely to be involved in a serious car crash or house fire as they are in some kind of incident involving the pipeline.

So what's the bad news? Well, in the event that there is a leak or other problem with the pipeline, a worse-case scenario, if you will, it would be devastating. An explosion involving the pipeline would have a blast zone of 1.3 miles. The study concluded that in the event of a cataclysmic explosion, everyone in that blast zone could be killed.

So it's not likely to happen, but if it does happen it would be very bad.

We were the first news outlet to report on the results of the risk analysis, and when we noted on the front page that, among other things G2 noted you're more likely to be injured in a fall down the stairs, it was not especially well-received by opponents of the pipeline.

That was part of the subhed that ran on Page One with the lead hed, 'What's the Risk?'

Part of the argument in this extremely heated topic has to do with the notion of whether it's a good idea to put this kind of pipeline, carrying these volatile liquid gases, through densely populated residential neighborhoods, including right next to schools and senior centers.

That's also something noted by the G2 risk analysis. As you might expect, they concluded that an accident in a highly populated area such as Delaware County would be much more problematic - and deadly - than what would occur in a more rural neighborhood.

Of course, supporters of Mariner East 2, including lots of folks in the energy field, are using it to trumpet what they've been saying all along, that there is little risk involved and that the pipeline is clearly the safest method to transport these materials.

Now G2 and County Council are expected to set up a hearing to discuss the results of the risk analysis. That should be interesting.