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Bentonite clay extends to Marsh Creek Lake (courtesy of Chris DiGiuilo)
Construction of Sunoco’s Mariner East pipeline spilled about 10,000 gallons of drilling sludge, or bentonite clay, into Marsh Creek and Marsh Creek Lake in a state park in Chester County this week. The Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, has closed two underground drilling in the municipalities of West Whiteland and Upper Uwchlan pending investigation.
Ginny Kerslake, a resident of West Whiteland, said she began to realize the drilling dust leaking into her backyard on Saturday morning and that during the afternoon she had “a river of dust on my property. “
At Marsh Creek State Park in Upper Uwchlan, thousands of gallons of drilling dust leaked into the creek and entered the lake, according to the DEP. The lake is a popular recreation and supplies drinking water to residents of Chester County. the source of drinking water has been or will be affected.
Kerslake, who is a member of the opposition group of the Del-Chesco United for Public Safety pipeline, went out to the lake with his pedal boat on Monday.
“And when I came in, they gave me more and more murky, and then it looked milky,” she says.
Photographs of drones taken through a local resident show a column of dust across the lake.
Drilling sludge, or bentonite clay, is non-toxic, but in giant amounts, it creates turbidity, which can have an effect on smaller aquatic life. PE spokeswoman Virginia Cain said no fish had been killed, but an investigation into the Effects on Other Aquatic Species was underway. Officials from the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Fisheries and Boat Commission are also on site and are helping to close with ramps and vacuum trucks.
The DEP stated that affected sites were being investigated at an apartment complex in West Whiteland Township.
The allocation of the $3 billion, 350-mile-long pipeline began to be structured in February 2017 after the DEP learned a lot of unresolved deficiencies in its permits. Since then, the DEP has issued about one hundred violations of the company for high-value wetland pollutants. watercourses and personal wells.
In the summer of 2017, Sunoco, now owned by Energy Transfer, agreed to a consent order governing how it responds to spills. If the DEP concludes that spills are the result of what is known as “inadvertent return” or “division,” “then it will close until the company produces a DEP-approved report so that it can be restarted.
After structural incidents and delays, the formation of chasms in Chester County, the company used an older and smaller pipeline as a solution to send herbal fuel liquids to Marcus Hook, from where they are exported to a plastics manufacturer in Scotland.
An Energy Transfer spokesman said the company was an “accidental return,” or spillage, into a creek that flows into Lake Marsh Creek.
“We recognize the importance of this water framework and are committed to allocating all mandatory resources to absolutely clean and repair the area; that includes cutting the aggregate of bentonite clay and non-toxic water, called “drilling sludge,” spokeswoman Lisa Coleman wrote in an email.
“While RIs are not unexpected, we strive to take all mandatory precautions and minimize effects when they occur. RIs are covered in our approved permit programs through the Department of Environmental Protection. We met an emergency recoil plan inadvertently through inadvertently responding and containing the return to any negative impact, and reporting to the DEP,” he said.
Environmental teams and citizens frustrated by ongoing incidents, such as the recent spill, have asked the DEP to avoid all structures in the Mariner East pipeline.
“Sunoco will continue to sell and contaminate our water materials until they close, and the DEP has the strength to do so,” said Alex Bomstein, a lawyer at the Clean Air Council, an organization that sued the company for pollution. “There comes a time when you don’t give a second, third and fourth chances. “
Del-Chesco United is making plans for a chance to paddle at the lake on Wednesday morning.
DEP suggested that citizens report any suspected contamination to a 24/7 hotline: 484-250-5900.
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