MCCS Statement on Release of Drill Fluid in Middletown Township

MIDDLETOWN COALITION FOR COMMUNITY SAFETY

For Immediate Release Middletown Coalition for Community Safety

Media contact: middletowncoalition@gmail.com – (484) 441-3308

MIDDLETOWN TOWNSHIP, Pennsylvania, July 18, 2017— On Monday July 17th, Middletown Township reported to residents that the township had been made aware of a bentonite spill at Sunoco’s HDD drilling site behind Tunbridge apartments. Middletown Township reported that they had been notified around 4:30pm, and that PADEP had also been notified and was responding to the event. It is reported that the spill reached Chester Creek.

The Middletown Coalition for Community Safety is disturbed but not surprised by Sunoco's most recent accident involving a spill of drilling fluid Middletown Township.

In Pennsylvania, Sunoco's previous leaks of drilling fluid have impacted Cumberland, Berks, Chester and Delaware Counties.

On May 10, 2017 Sunoco reported a loss of drilling slurry into Chester Creek in Brookhaven, Delaware County. On June 23, 2017 Sunoco drilled into the aquifer in West Whiteland, Chester County, impacting the private well water of at least a dozen residences. These releases and their impacts on the waterways of the Commonwealth and the water supply of Pennsylvania residents were predicted in advance in Sunoco's own documents to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

PA-DEP was also warned about such impacts by the Pennsylvania American Water Company, who wrote to the PA-DEP on August 12, 2016 stating "the proposed route of the Sunoco pipeline has the potential to endanger PAWC's water supplies that are vital to the provision of public water service to over 12,000 Pennsylvanians."

For these reasons the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety calls upon the PA-DEP to revoke the prematurely issued water obstruction and encroachment permits. MCCS also calls upon Middletown Township to support a moratorium on all pipeline construction.