A Pennsylvania judge issued an emergency order suspending operations and construction on the Mariner East family of NGL pipes across Pennsylvania, saying developer Sunoco Pipeline LP put profits over safety.
"Sunoco has made deliberate managerial decisions to proceed in what appears to be a rushed manner in an apparent prioritization of profit over the best engineering practices available," Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes wrote in her May 21 order halting operations on the Mariner East 1 pipeline and construction on Mariner East 2 and 2X, which run roughly parallel across the state.
Barnes' order took effect immediately but will require the eventual endorsement of the five-member state PUC, which regulates energy transportation.
Barnes laid out a laundry list of items that Sunoco and its contractors need to complete before resuming construction on Mariner East 2 and 2X and operations on Mariner East 1. The administrative law judge wants an extensive re-examination of the pipes and welds of the decades-old Mariner East 1. The 70,000-barrel-per-day line originally carried refined products west out of a refinery at Marcus Hook outside Philadelphia and now moves NGLs east from the Marcellus and Utica shales to a Marcus Hook terminal for export.
"I question whether the ME1 pipe meets today's engineering standards to hold the [high volatile liquids] of ethane, butane and methane gases, especially so close to dwellings," Barnes said in her order, issued after she heard two days of testimony from Sunoco and Chester County residents earlier in May.
The original complaint was filed by Democratic state Sen. Andrew Dinniman, who represents the southeastern Pennsylvania county. He is asking regulators to more closely examine the engineering behind Mariner East 2 and the PUC's decision to allow hazardous NGLs to be transported on Mariner East 1 after sinkholes were discovered along the pipeline's path through Chester County.
Sunoco, an Energy Transfer Equity LP affiliate, said the judge's ruling did not comport with the facts or the law. "We strongly disagree with Judge Barnes' order and believe there is no evidence or legal basis to support Senator Dinniman's claims in his Petition and the Order that followed," Sunoco said in a statement.
"The order directly contradicts the detailed work of PUC staff and the May 3, 2018 unanimous decision of PUC commissioners to return ME1 to service," Sunoco said. "Specifically, the safe operation of ME1 was verified through exhaustive geophysical testing and analysis that was verified by the PUC's Investigation & Enforcement division and their experts, which was the basis for the PUC's 5-0 decision to return the line to service."
Mariner East 1 restarted earlier in May after a previous PUC emergency order closed it after the sinkholes were discovered. Barnes ordered Sunoco to study whether the local geology can support three pipelines.
"We will pursue all legal remedies to overturn this order, including our right to request PUC review of the order, which will be filed within the next seven days," Sunoco said. The company said it still plans to complete the pipelines by the third quarter.
Sunoco was fined $12.6 million by the state's Department of Environmental Protection in February for dozens of permit violations while building Mariner East 2, then construction was shut down again by the same regulator in April after more "inadvertent fluid releases" into streams and wetlands. That suspension is still in effect until Sunoco's plan to restart construction satisfies the Department of Environmental Protection.

