Mapping Sunoco’s drilling mud spills

Susan Phillips

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Susan Phillips tells stories about the consequences of political decisions on people's every day lives. She has worked as a reporter for WHYY since 2004. Susan's coverage of the 2008 Presidential election resulted in a story on the front page of the New York Times. In 2010 she traveled to Haiti to cover the earthquake. That same year she produced an award-winning series on Pennsylvania's natural gas rush called "The Shale Game." She received a 2013 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award for her work covering natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. She has also won several Edward R. Murrow awards for her work with StateImpact. In 2013/14 she spent a year at MIT as a Knight Science Journalism Fellow. She has also been a Metcalf Fellow, an MBL Logan Science Journalism Fellow and reported from Marrakech on the 2016 climate talks as an International Reporting Project Fellow. A graduate of Columbia School of Journalism, she earned her Bachelor's degree in International Relations from George Washington University.

August 1, 2017 | 9:31 AM

View map fullscreen | How FracTracker maps work

This map was created by FracTracker Alliance with data provided by the Clean Air Council.

Sunoco’s pipeline construction has resulted in 90 spills at 42 distinct locations across the state, according to new information provided as part of ongoing litigation. The amount of drilling mud spilled into aquifers, streams and wetlands across the state is estimated at about 220,000 gallons.

The Clean Air Council, which has challenged the DEP’s permits to Sunoco to build the pipeline, acquired the information as part of discovery. Responding to a petition by the Council last week, a judge with the Environmental Hearing Board halted drilling in 55 locations. On Friday, the order was lifted in three locations for safety reasons. They include one in Cumberland County, and two in Lebanon County.

Fractracker created the map above, which shows the locations of the spills. For more on our investigation of the spills, click here.

Correction: An earlier version of this story put the number of drilling mud spill locations at 61, reassessment of the data puts it at 42.