WSKG (https://wskg.org/author/jhurdle/)
Listen Live - WSKG Listen Live - WSKG Classical
Coronavirus cases at Limerick nuclear station raised concerns. Pa. plants say they’re working to prevent outbreaks during refueling outages.
Cheryl LaFleur fears regulator’s credibility is hurt by more party-line voting
Almost a year after lines opened, residents will say the project remains a risk to public safety
The Commonwealth Court said last week that the Democratic senator, an outspoken critic of Sunoco, did not have personal or legislative standing to bring a complaint
Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission demanded information from Sunoco Pipeline last year about what would happen if its Mariner East natural gas liquids pipelines failed, according to a newly discovered letter.
For now, independent pipeline experts say the blast appears to have been caused by the relighting of a pilot in a flare used by Sunoco for burning off excess gases, at a time when vapor had accumulated there.
The company did not explain what caused the backfire but apologized for the noise, which alarmed neighbors and fueled longstanding concerns about the safety of the new pipelines, which carry highly volatile natural gas liquids.
HARRISBURG (WITF) – A Lancaster County judge on Monday dismissed trespassing charges against seven protesters who blocked construction of the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline almost two years ago. Judge Howard Knisely of the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas released the defendants without charge after the district attorney dropped the misdemeanors in exchange for community service. The judge welcomed the agreement and said peaceful, nonviolent protest is protected, albeit with limitations, by state and federal law. Legislatures, not the courts, are the proper place to protect the natural environment and public safety, he said. But he urged citizens to elect lawmakers who truly represent public interests rather than their own.
Pennsylvania’s impact fee on natural gas producers raised more money in 2018 to offset the effects of shale development than at any time in the fee’s seven-year history
Environmental group asks appeals court to order Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection to set health standard
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is also represented on the Delaware River Basin Commission, was invited to the event but was unable to attend
“When a water system is contaminated with PFAS, treatment will lower the concentration but not completely remove it. So the contamination is still there.”
A renewed legislative effort to curb the use of disposable plastic shopping bags in Pennsylvania is milder than measures enacted in some other states.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said it will sample more than 300 water systems starting in May in a program that is due to last a year.
If approved, company will pay $200,000 fine and step up safety inspections of aging pipeline
The suit accused Sunoco of negligence and several other counts in its construction practices.
Sunoco’s parent company admitted it made mistakes in building the Mariner East pipelines through Pennsylvania, and told investors that it will do better in future, but its assurances failed to persuade critics that the project will become any safer for the public or more protective of the environment.
Pennsylvania will begin the process of setting its own health limits for two toxic PFAS chemicals because it’s unclear when the federal government will set national standards, the Department of Environmental Protection said late Thursday.
The U.S. EPA said Thursday it will this year begin the process of setting maximum contaminant limits for PFOA and PFOS, two toxic chemicals that are linked to cancer and other illnesses and are widespread in drinking water and soil.
A raft of bills on pipeline safety may have a better chance of becoming law in Pennsylvania after Gov. Tom Wolf formally backed some of them in a statement that strongly criticized Sunoco’s construction of the Mariner East pipelines.
Chester County community meeting airs continuing public concerns on safety of Mariner East pipelines
Pennsylvania lawmakers on Tuesday slammed the reported decision of the federal government not to regulate two chemicals that have been linked to cancer and other illnesses when present in drinking water.
Joanne Stanton is watching Pennsylvania’s fledgling efforts to curb toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water, and wondering why PFAS-contaminated water is still being found below several communities in Bucks and Montgomery counties, several miles from the water’s origin on a nearby military base.
A worker on Sunoco’s Mariner East project has threatened a Chester County opponent of the pipeline on social media in two posts that included an obscenity.
A Pennsylvania court said the Department of Environmental Protection unlawfully issued air-quality permits to Sunoco for its natural gas liquids plant at Marcus Hook in Delaware County, and it ordered the department to re-do its analysis over whether the plant should be subject to two sets of emissions rules.
New Jersey’s attorney general says PennEast Pipeline Co. can’t legally sue the state for access to more than 40 parcels of protected land, and argues that a federal judge was wrong to rule that the company could do so.
Homeowners focus on integrity of repurposed 12-inch pipeline first built in 1930s
Sunoco said in November that it would start operations of the frequently delayed Mariner East 2 pipeline by the end of 2018.
Investigators at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said on Tuesday they didn’t confirm that the 12-inch pipeline component of Mariner East 2 was safe, despite a statement by Sunoco that they had done so.
The Chester County District Attorney said Wednesday he is opening a criminal investigation into Sunoco’s Mariner East pipeline project because it has caused sinkholes, contaminated water and has resulted in “not so subtle bullying” of residents.
Investigators at the Public Utility Commission blamed corrosion for a leak of natural gas liquids from Sunoco’s Mariner East 1 pipeline in April 2017, and said they are concerned about the company’s corrosion-control program throughout the ageing statewide line.
The PennEast Pipeline Co. can take private land through eminent domain to build a natural gas pipeline, a New Jersey federal judge ruled on Friday.
Suit brought by seven residents fails on all four requirements
A federal judge granted PennEast Pipeline Co. the right of eminent domain to build its pipeline on a property in Carbon County, in the first ruling of its kind over the controversial project in a Pennsylvania court.
A worst-case explosion of the Mariner East 2 pipeline in PA’s Delaware County would kill anyone within about a mile of the rupture, a new report says, but it concludes the chances of someone dying from a pipeline incident are less than that of dying in a car crash or from falling down stairs.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – A 12-inch pipeline that Sunoco plans to use as a temporary part of the Mariner East project has passed state and federal safety inspections, according to a letter from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission’s head of pipeline safety.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline across Pennsylvania will begin operating in the current quarter, the company’s parent, Energy Transfer, said on Thursday.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA — Sunoco said late Wednesday it will begin to pump natural gas liquids across the state by joining three new and existing pipes because its long-delayed Mariner East pipeline project won’t be ready for another two years.
Advocates: Move is a positive step but won’t protect public unless health limits are set
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – The Delaware River Basin Commission asked a federal regulator to prevent PennEast cutting trees in the basin before it issues any approval for its controversial natural gas pipeline project in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to documents released on Wednesday.
Drillers withheld information on at least one chemical in some 2,500 wells, citing trade secrets
At Congressional hearing, advocates say federal government needs to address contamination concerns
Aging pipeline, which has leaked before, will be used to temporarily carry natural gas liquids
Campaigners raised $46,000 for independent evaluation after governor and PUC denied requests
Legislation aims to improve detection, spur cooperation between federal and state governments
Environmentalists call for new agreement to manage flows; NYC says accord was agreed between itself and four states
Delaware County township confirms excavation of new line. It’s scheduled to be operational in about a month.
Marcellus region shows smallest increase in water use but quadruples frack waste from 2011-16
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Environmental groups are suing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission over its approval of the proposed PennEast natural gas pipeline, saying the regulator ignored legal requirements to consider the project’s climate-change impacts, and failed to establish that the pipeline is needed.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Sunoco is facing more challenges to its troubled Mariner East pipelines with a major spill of drilling fluids into a Cambria County wetland and the exposure of a section of the existing Mariner East 1 line in Chester County near Philadelphia.
Community group commissions ‘quantitative risk analysis’ after county council deadlocks on proposal
A Pennsylvania family that lost more than 500 trees to make way for the stalled Constitution Pipeline project asked a court on Thursday to dissolve an injunction that gave the company access to their property, and to determine compensation that remains unpaid.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick called on Monday for the resignation of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, saying Pruitt had tried to block the release of a federal health study on chemicals that have contaminated public water supplies in some places.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – A federal agency released recommendations on Wednesday on how to protect the public from a class of chemicals that are linked to a range of illnesses including some cancers, immune system problems, decreased fertility, and thyroid disease.
Delaware Riverkeeper Network says Sunoco has violated conditions on drilling and water pollution
Delaware Riverkeeper says Mariner East 2 construction has broken state and federal water standards
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Fifty-three public-interest organizations are pressing the federal government to release a study on the health effects of a class of chemicals that have been linked to cancer, immune-system problems and developmental issues in young children.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Opponents of the Mariner East pipelines urged Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and the Public Utility Commission on Saturday to permanently shut down the troubled project, extending a current halt in one Chester County township to the entire 350-mile line.
Damage was minor, but critics say incident highlights public safety risks
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that municipalities may not issue permits for oil and gas development in areas that are zoned for non-industrial use — unless they first amend their zoning codes.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – A Pennsylvania Republican Congressman accused EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt of continuing to block publication of a federal government study that reportedly shows public health is at greater risk from a class of chemicals in the environment than the EPA says it is.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – A Pennsylvania judge on Thursday halted construction of Sunoco’s two new Mariner East pipelines, as well as the operation of the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline in Chester County’s West Whiteland Township, granting an emergency petition by state Sen. Andy Dinniman.
At national summit, administrator says concern about PFAS chemicals has become a national issue
A federal agency plans new limits on a class of toxic chemicals that are stricter than those issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, and which would cause a “public relations nightmare” if they were published without coordination with other agencies, EPA officials have warned.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Safety inspectors at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission are recommending that Sunoco’s Mariner East 1 pipeline be restarted after a nearly two-month shutdown prompted by sinkholes that appeared at a pipeline-construction site in Chester County’s West Whiteland Township.
ATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Denise McCarthy held up a large photograph of her grand nephew, Jack, at a public hearing in West Whiteland Township on Monday night, and urged state officials to stop Sunoco building its two Mariner East pipelines past the boy’s house.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – Sunoco is offering to relocate residents at a Chester County site where drilling for the Mariner East pipelines has caused sinkholes to open up in recent weeks.
STATE IMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – FERC says it will limit public interventions in its pipeline review process if they are submitted outside the prescribed time, in a new policy that’s being attacked by the agency’s critics as an attempt to stifle comment.
Sunoco spilled more drilling fluid into a Lebanon County creek on Thursday as it resumed construction for its controversial Mariner East pipelines at that location.
A field outside Bob and Deborah Hoffman’s Delaware County home is filled with orange construction fencing, a 20-foot industrial curtain blocking their view of some surrounding houses, and hundreds of yards of steel pipeline waiting to be laid as part of the controversial Mariner East project.
Sunoco scrambled to inspect an ageing pipeline on Friday in the backyards of Chester County homes where drilling for two new pipelines has caused several sinkholes to open up.
(State Impact PA) – Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission on Wednesday ordered a temporary shutdown of the Mariner East 1 natural gas liquids pipeline, saying it could have a “catastrophic” effect on public safety if it leaks.
Federal regulators have effectively denied a request to reconsider their approval of the planned PennEast Pipeline, the agency’s critics say.
Sunoco said Thursday it aims to begin operating its Mariner East 2 pipeline across southern Pennsylvania by the end of the second quarter of this year, the same target it announced three months ago.
Sunoco won a court battle over the siting of its Mariner East 2 pipeline on Tuesday when a panel of judges ruled against an effort to assert local control over where the pipeline can be built.
Albertine Anthony has been living in the same picturesque Carbon County farmhouse since she was born 93 years ago, and she’s not going anywhere even if PennEast builds a natural gas pipeline across her land.
Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection said Thursday that Sunoco can restart drilling for the Mariner East 2 pipeline at a Chester County site where some private well owners experienced cloudy water last summer.
The $12.6 million penalty being paid by Sunoco for multiple violations during construction of the Mariner East 2 pipelines will be used to improve water quality and the safety of dams across Pennsylvania, and will be in addition to the company’s work to correct environmental damage caused during the project, current and former state officials said.
The PennEast Pipeline Co. filed eminent domain notices in federal court to obtain access to land owned by dozens of people in New Jersey and Pennsylvania who have refused its offers of compensation for building the proposed natural gas pipeline on their property.
Pennsylvania’s decision on Thursday to allow Sunoco to resume construction on the Mariner East 2 pipeline after a month-long shutdown failed to convince critics that the company will do so with any more respect for environmental regulations than they say it has had since starting the project a year ago.