Recent media reports stemming from a Public Utility Commission hearing made incorrect claims regarding our Mariner East pipeline system’s safety, as well as our extensive public outreach efforts.

Claim: “Local first responders have not been provided with adequate information or training to respond to a pipeline incident.”

FACT: Pipeline training is available through a number of different venues. Our emergency response professionals work and train with local first responders and county emergency services officials to ensure a coordinated response. In fact, a total of 2,018 emergency responders from Pennsylvania attended one of our 71 Mariner Emergency Response Outreach (MERO) sessions since 2013.  Through our MERO program, we meet with emergency responders in all the counties we pass through to train them on the products we transport and assist them in refining their own emergency response plans. Our MERO program is based off the content in the Pipeline Emergencies curriculum, which can be found for free online. The Pipeline Emergencies curriculum is a national curriculum that was developed by both the PHMSA and the pipeline industry to provide a uniform curriculum for the delivery of pipeline emergencies training.

We also take part in the annual Paradigm meetings with first responders which include a coordinated response exercise, or CoRE. Last year, 2,027 people attended the Paradigm meetings in Pennsylvania, including 1,354 emergency responders. Meetings for 2019 will be conducted this fall.

There is also the Pennsylvania Pipeline Emergency Response Initiative (PERI) which is a PHMSA-developed program to advance the abilities of emergency responders to plan, manage and train for pipeline emergencies through improved training, cooperation and communication with pipeline operators.

Under Pennsylvania regulations, each county emergency management agency is responsible for the development of a county-level emergency operations plan. The information we provided in the MERO program contains key elements in the development of an emergency plan, and includes public protective action options.

Claim: “The operator should pay for the development of early-detection and warning systems, including an alarm system.”

FACT: We have long had warning and early-detection systems in place that monitor any variances in pressure, temperature, flow rate, and more. If a variance is detected, our sophisticated computational pipeline monitoring (CPM) system alerts trained personnel and computerized valves are closed immediately. We quickly dispatch trained personnel to the location and notify local emergency responders.

According to John Zurcher who is an expert in pipeline integrity and was formerly the chairman of the Gas Research Institute and helped write many regulatory standards, public detection systems and alarms have proven to not work. He says gas detectors are unreliable for many reasons. They can be incorrectly set off by detecting methane from cows, gas from the sewer or gas produced by swamps, and diesel from idling trucks or a train going by, to name a few. The inadvertent triggering of these devices could set off false alarms everywhere all the time. False alarms could cause panic and put people in unnecessary danger prior to first responders being able to execute proper protocol. Separately, adding odorant to transmission pipelines is not of value as determined by both PHMSA and the NTSB. Odorant in pipelines is sulphur-based which can be corrosive to the internal surfaces of the pipe.

Our sophisticated early-detection systems are installed on all pipelines and monitored 24/7 by specially trained personnel. We are able to close valves quickly and coordinate an appropriate response with local emergency responders. Safety is the utmost importance to us which is why we exceed regulatory standards for pipeline safety inspections. We fly pipeline routes twice per week and spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year maintain and improve our assets.

Claim: “The operator is using unsafe foreign steel pipe that is dumped into the market.”

FACT: Untrue. Mariner East 2 and 2X are using more than 85,000 tons of domestic steel pipe milled, rolled and coated in the U.S. for all 350 miles of 20-inch pipeline and 50 miles of the 16-inch pipeline. Furthermore, all new pipe used for our Mariner East pipeline system is thoroughly tested and inspected to ensure that it meets or exceeds industry standards and meets or exceeds all state and federal safety requirements.

The remaining 200 miles of the 16-inch pipeline is made of European steel that meets PHMSA regulations. While there is no legal or regulatory requirement to use American-made steel, we place a high priority on “buying American” first.

Here are the important details:

• Every single joint of pipe is pressure tested first in the pipe mill. It is then pressure tested again after it is installed.
• All newly installed steel pipelines are treated with a fusion bonded epoxy anti-corrosion coating to prevent damage and corrosion. This coating is UV-resistant. For horizontal directional drills, we add an abrasion-resistant overcoat that provides a hard, mechanically strong, abrasion- and impact-resistant topcoat for further protection. This additional coating is also UV-resistant.
• One hundred percent of all welds on the Mariner East pipeline are tested by an independent, third-party inspector checks and using X-ray technology. Regulation requires only 10 percent.

Claim: “The operator should improve its public awareness programs.”

FACT: We have a very robust Public Awareness Program that involves direct outreach to communities throughout the state along with a number of written safety information brochures. Our team has attended more than 750 meetings with counties and local municipalities and has responded to nearly 600 community hotline inquiries throughout the past two years. We also communicate regularly on our Mariner East website and in our monthly newsletter, which is mailed to more than 5,500 landowners and stakeholders across the 350-mile project.

We also have annual and bi-annual mailings of safety brochures to stakeholders along the pipeline route. In 2018, our mailings reached more than 64,000 stakeholders along the Mariner East pipelines in Pennsylvania, and over 200,000 stakeholders throughout the state. The mailers use the same wording as the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, explaining how to identify and react to a pipeline emergency.

We follow the requirements of CFR 195.440, which states that all pipeline operators must develop and implement a written continuing public education program that follows the guidance provided in the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Recommended Practice (RP) 1162. We are also a member of Pennsylvania 811.