Another day, another chapter in the saga of Mariner East.
The news today is that the state Public Utility Commission has now shut down the entire Mariner East 1 pipeline, across the full width of Pennsylvania.
Mariner East 1's pipe was exposed - but not damaged - when a sinkhole formed in a West Whiteland neighborhood in Chester County last Sunday. It's the same area where sinkholes forced the PUC to shut down ME1 and halt construction on Mariner East 2 last year.
There is no indication as yet just how long ME1 will be shut down. ME1 is a smaller, older pipe, actually the old, original Sunoco petroleum pipeline that has been retrofitted to handle the liquid gases Sunoco is transporting from the Marcellus Shale regions of the state to Marcus Hook. It has been online carrying butane, ethane and propane for months. Some sections of ME1 date back to the 1930s.
Mariner East 2 is a larger, 20-inch pipe that will great increase production. It went online the last week of December, but because of the many delays involved in construction, the entire 20-inch line won't be finished until 2020. Instead Sunoco and parent company Energy Transfer Partners is using a mix of different size pipes to fill in the gaps, many of which are in this region.
Eventually, a third line, Mariner East 2x, will join the project. When it is finished, ETP plans to ship as much as 250,000 barrels a day of highly volatile liquid gases through the lines, which have drawn bitter opposition by residents who do not believe they should be routed through such densely populated neighborhoods, including within feet of schools and senior centers.
This week a big crowed showed up at the West Whiteland supervisors meeting in the wake of the latest sinkhole scare to find out what they can do.
You can get all the details here.
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