Jun 25, 2015 2 min read

Sunoco Logistics has been fined $95,000 by the state Department of Environmental Protection for a series of industrial waste spills during construction of the Mariner East pipeline in Washington, Allegheny and Westmoreland counties.

The Sinking Spring-based company also must reimburse conservation districts in Washington and Allegheny counties $1,012 and $894, respectively, for their costs to respond to the spills of nontoxic bentonite, also known as drilling mud, the DEP consent agreement states.

Sunoco “caused pollution to waters of the Commonwealth … by allowing sediment-laden runoff from locations along the Mariner East pipeline to discharge to waters,” spills that were not authorized in its DEP permit, the agreement states. The spills also violated the Clean Streams Law.

The spills took place last year while Sunoco was building a 53-mile pipeline from Houston to Delmont to ship Marcellus Shale natural gas byproducts to Delaware.

The company should have taken precautionary measures to prevent the spills that reached roads, waterways and wetlands, the document indicates.

One of the six spills resulted in the release of more than 5,000 gallons of industrial waste into Froman Run in Union Township Sept. 18, a spill that trailed for 1.6 miles and reached Mingo Creek.

A second spill occurred Nov. 7 that resulted in an undetermined amount of the waste reaching the Peters Creek streambank along Munntown Road in Eighty Four. The other spill in Washington County took place two days later, damaging a wetland and Linden Creek along Ross Road in Eighty Four.

There was a spill in Forward Township in Allegheny into Gillespie Run in September and two others last year in Westmoreland.

“The fine will be deposited into programs managed by the state’s Clean Water Fund,” DEP spokesman John Poister said.

Jeffrey P. Shields, company spokesman, said Sunoco does not have a comment on the agreement.