I'm trying to think about a topic I have about more than the Mariner East project.
Forget it. There isn't one.
I have spent the last couple of years chronicling what is easily - in my opinion - the biggest economic project in the region.
It involves the massive task of constructing a pipeline to move hundreds of thousands of barrels of highly volatile liquid gases every day from the Marcellus Shale regions across the full width of Pennsylvania to a facility in Marcus Hook.
It is the brainchild of Energy Transfer Partners and its subsidiary, Sunoco Logistics. All of this is a remnant of a magical name in Delaware County business. That would be Sunoco. In fact, Mariner East 2 is basically following the same path as Mariner East 1, which is the old, original Sunoco petroleum pipeline.
That pipeline has been in the ground in Delaware County for decades, going back to the 1930s. It has been retrofitted and is now carrying the very same liquid gases - butane, propane and ethane - as Mariner East 2, but in much smaller quantities.
That is part of the concern of pipeline opponents, who point out the liquid gases flowing through these pipes constitute a much graver danger in the event of an accident than the old petroleum pipeline, and that is why they should not have been routed through these very same now densely populated neighborhoods, in close proximity to senior centers and elementary schools.
Mariner East 1 has now been shut down after sinkholes formed in a Chester County neighborhood for the second time in a year. Mariner East 2 came online the last week of December, although not in the fashion that Energy Transfer initially proposed. A series of delays left gaps in the pipeline. The company has filled in those gaps with older, smaller pipes. The entire 20-inch pipeline now will likely not be finished until sometime in 2020. Pipeline foes are not exactly thrilled about the aspect of this hybrid pipeline - which they have dubbed 'Frankenpipe' - being in operation.
All of this and more sparked Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan to announce last month that he was launching a criminal investigation of the Mariner East project.
Now he has followed up on that by impaneling an investigative grand jury to hear testimony from witnesses and review documents. The grand jury will be tasked with deciding if any indictments are warranted.
I know all this because I was called for service as part of the grand jury pool.
Yeah, I know, it's more than a little ironic.
You can read about my experience in this week's Letter From the Editor.
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