In this photo from May 2018, Mariner East 2 pipeline construction crews work in the backyards of homes on Lisa Drive in West Whiteland Township, Chester County. The area has dealt with a number of sinkholes, including one on July 6, 2023. The problem led to Energy Transfer buying at least five homes along Lisa Drive after the aquifer there was damaged.
Marie Cusick / StateImpact Pennsylvania
Marie Cusick / StateImpact Pennsylvania
In this photo from May 2018, Mariner East 2 pipeline construction crews work in the backyards of homes on Lisa Drive in West Whiteland Township, Chester County. The area has dealt with a number of sinkholes, including one on July 6, 2023. The problem led to Energy Transfer buying at least five homes along Lisa Drive after the aquifer there was damaged.
Jon Hurdle / StateImpact PA
Workers and contractors for Sunoco Pipeline begin an ‘additional investigation’ of geological conditions behind homes at Lisa Drive, West Whiteland Township, Chester County where the company has been drilling for construction of the Mariner East 2 and 2X pipelines. The company offered to relocate residents of the five homes whose yards are crossed by the pipeline right of way. The work is expected to take 4-6 weeks.
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.
The company sent at least one letter to homeowners at Lisa Drive, West Whiteland Township last week, saying that it would pay for their relocation, plus a food allowance for an estimated four to six weeks while it conducted an “additional investigation” of geological conditions behind their houses.
“To alleviate any inconvenience to you, SPLP has offered to relocate you and provide a per diem reimbursement for the food for the duration of the scheduled work,” said a letter dated March 30.
The letter said the company will be looking for “any subsurface anomalies and additional areas that should be investigated further.”
Sunoco spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger confirmed that the company sent the letters to Lisa Drive residents. She did not respond to questions on the reasons for the new investigation.
The company has already been working to secure the site since the Public Utility Commission ordered a halt to the operation of the Mariner East 1 pipeline on March 7 because of its concern that the sinkholes, unstable geology, and the adjacent construction work for two new Mariner pipelines could endanger public safety.
The PUC ordered Sunoco to check the integrity of ME1 – which carries natural gas liquids – for a mile either side of the Lisa Drive site.
The pipeline right-of-way where the work will be done lies in the backyards of five houses whose owners agreed to Sunoco’s offers of compensation. By early March, the area was already filled with fenced enclosures around the sink holes which are as deep as 15 feet, according to the PUC.
Critics including State Sen. Andy Dinniman say the geology is limestone “karst” that is too unstable to support the horizontal directional drilling for the new pipelines, Mariner East 2 and 2X.
John Mattia, a resident whose home backs on to the investigation site, said Sunoco had given him very little time to decide whether to move himself, his two teenage children, and the family dog out of the house where they have lived for 17 years.
“I was a little upset that they are telling me two days before proposed construction is scheduled to begin that I leave the house,” Mattia said. “It has caused a bit of stress.”
Mattia said on Sunday that he hadn’t decided whether to move out or endure what he expects will be even more disruption than he has experienced during the investigation so far.
He expects the work in his back yard to be “noisy and intrusive” and to go on from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. six or possibly seven days a week. “It sounds like it’s going to be a little disruptive,” he said.
Mattia, 48, a computer programmer, said he is trying to get more information from the PUC on the nature of the investigation and the reason for it, but assumes that it has been ordered because the regulator is not satisfied with the results of the work so far.
If he moves his family out, he said they won’t go to a hotel but he has the option of rented accommodation. He described the Sunoco’s offer of compensation for the move as “adequate.”
Andrew Neuwirth, an attorney for Mattia’s neighbors, Russell and Mary March, issued a statement saying:
“Sunoco still does not seem to know the extent of the destruction it caused five months after the sinkholes first appeared. This new ‘investigation’ is long overdue. But to add insult to injury, the ‘investigation’ may force the residents of Lisa Drive to have to relocate from their already-damaged properties. We hope Sunoco will be forthcoming about the investigation’s results.”
In its letter, the company said the investigation will include “small excavations” and “geotechnical studies” during the week of April 2-6.
It said the project “may take up to approximately 4-6 weeks.”
Read the letter to Lisa Drive residents below:
