They say turnabout is fair play.
This newspaper has spent an inordinate amount of time - to say nothing of newsprint - covering what we have come to refer as The Battler of Mariner East.
Mariner East is the massive, multi-billion dollar project being built by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners to move hundreds of thousands of barrels of highly volatile liquid gases such as ethane, butane and propane from the state's Marcellus Shale regions to a facility in Marcus Hook. ETP is parent company of what used to be Delco's iconic Sunoco. Sunoco Pipeline is actually constructing the pipeline, which traverses the full 350-mile width of Pennsylvania.
That route takes it through densely populated neighborhoods in both Delaware and Chester counties, in close proximity to schools and senior centers.
And directly into intense criticism from residents who question the safety of such actions, the wisdom of this routing, and the preparedness and ability to respond in the case of an accident.
It's difficult to straddle the middle ground on a story like this.
There is no questioning the economic upside, despite neighbors and foes of the pipeline insistence on doing just that.
There also is no doubt about the concern of the neighbors, both on what this project has done to some of their neighborhoods and what might happen in the event of an accident.
We certainly have given enough coverage to the critics. That would include a move by Delaware County Council last week to call on Gov. Tom Wolf and the state Department of Environment Protection to issue a moratorium and shut down all Mariner East work in the region.
That would include shutting down the lines that are currently up and operating, as well as halting construction.
As you might expect, that did not sit especially well with local unions, the folks who are manning those construction projects.
A couple hundreds of them showed up this week at the Media Courthouse to vent their feelings, and let council know exactly where they stand.
Yeah, we covered that angle of the story as well.
You can read it here.
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