DEP to issue significant fine against Sunoco over Mariner East spills
The state Department of Environmental Protection is preparing to impose a large fine against Sunoco Pipeline over releases of a nontoxic drilling mud at its Mariner East project, including two that reached Mingo Creek in Washington County in September.
The fine will involve citations against the company for failure to control erosion and take precautionary measures to prevent the discharges and spilling of industrial waste and pollution onto roads and into waterways and wetlands in Washington, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, said John Poister, the DEP’s spokesman in Pittsburgh.
“It’s going to be a significant fine,” Poister said Monday.
He said the penalty against Sunoco also will include money to recover the cost of inspecting the spills that fell onto local conservation districts.
Sunoco was building a 53-mile pipeline from Houston to Delmont, using Precision Pipeline LLC as a subcontractor, when nearly 5,300 gallons of bentonite surfaced into Froman Run near Mingo Creek Presbyterian Church along Route 88 in Union Township. That spill reached a nearby unnamed creek that also is a tributary to Mingo Creek, and preceded yet another spill involving the project into Gillespie Run in Forward Township in Allegheny County.
In all, there were six inadvertent spills of bentonite from the drilling project, which is designed to ship Marcellus Shale natural gas by-products across Pennsylvania to Delaware.
“These were obvious clean stream violations,” Poister said.
He said the DEP was working with Philadelphia-based Sunoco on reaching a consent agreement on the civil penalty.
Sunoco declined to comment on the case Monday, company spokesman Jeffrey P. Shields said.