State Hits Sunoco With $355K Penalty For 2018-19 Violations

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection today hit Sunoco Pipeline L.P. with a $355,636 penalty for violations in eight counties between August 2018 and April 2019.

The violations are related to construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline Berks, Blair, Cambria, Cumberland, Delaware, Lebanon, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. The DEP said today the penalty was part of a Consent Assessment of Civil Penalty (CACP) signed earlier this month.

"Protecting the waters of the Commonwealth is one of the top priorities of DEP and we will continue to hold polluters of those waters accountable," said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell.

Sunoco’s horizontal drilling activities resulted in unauthorized discharges of drilling fluids consisting of bentonite clay and water, also known as inadvertent returns, (IRs) to Piney Creek in Blair County; tributaries and wetlands connected to Hinckston Run, Stewart Run, and Little Conemaugh Creek in Cambria County; Letort Run and wetlands and tributaries to the Yellow Breeches Creek in Cumberland County; a tributary to Chester Creek in Delaware County; Snitz Creek in Lebanon County; a tributary to Peters Creek in Washington County; and a tributary to the Conemaugh River in Westmoreland County.

As part of the agreement, DEP has assessed a civil penalty of $355,636 for the violations, which Sunoco has agreed to pay to the Commonwealth.

A portion of the civil penalty, $5,912, will be paid to the county conservation districts to reimburse them for their costs incurred during their investigation of the inadvertent returns. The remaining penalty, $349,724, will be paid to the Clean Water Fund.

Additional information and documents, can be found on DEP's Mariner East 2 webpage.

The DEP also today issued two violations to Sunoco related to a spill and sinkhole at Marsh Creek State Park and a groundwater release on Shoen Road, both in Chester County. Related story here.