The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fined Sunoco Pipeline’s Mariner East 2 pipeline for violations in four counties.
According to the DEP, Sunoco spilled drilling fluids during construction of the pipeline into wetlands in Blair, Cumberland and Juniata counties and a creek in Lebanon County between February and August 2020. Sunoco notified the DEP of 13 “inadvertent returns” that spilled more than 400 gallons of fluid into the waterways.
The $85,666 fine was part of a consent assessment of civil penalty signed earlier this month by the DEP, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and Sunoco.
Most of the fine — $84,500 — will be put in the state’s Clean Water Fund. The Blair County, Cumberland County and Juniata County conservation districts will split the rest.
Sunoco will also pay the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission $12,424 for civil damages.
Past issues
Sunoco was fined $497,000 earlier this year for spilling drilling fluid into a creek in Lebanon County and failing to notify the DEP of multiple losses of circulation. There were a dozen spills between September and October 2020.
The DEP issued a nearly $2 million civil penalty to Sunoco last January for spilling drilling fluids in a central Pennsylvania lake.
The Mariner East 2 pipeline is an expansion of the Mariner East pipeline that was converted from a gasoline line to move natural gas liquids from Ohio and the Pittsburgh area to a processor near Philadelphia. It runs more than 300 miles across the southern portion of the state, crossing through 17 counties.
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