Feds say Sunoco hazardous pipeline leaked fuel in Bucks Co. for at least 16 months

The federal agency overseeing fuel pipelines said Thursday that a Sunoco pipeline that tainted the wells of Bucks County homeowners with jet fuel leaked for at least 16 months, saying the line poses a “risk to public safety, property, or the environment.”

The preliminary report by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) ordered Sunoco, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer, to reduce the flow of the pipeline by 20% — but did not order it to shut down as requested by area legislators, local officials, and residents.

Sunoco initially shut down the line until the repair was made and then continued operations at a reduced flow. The leak was detected Jan. 31, weeks after residents reported smelling a petroleum odor.

PHMSA did not give an estimate as to how much petroleum product might have leaked. The pipeline carries a mix of fuels, depending on demand.

In a statement, Energy Transfer said, “We are reviewing the order and plan to submit a written response ... . We remain fully committed to working with PHMSA and any other applicable regulatory agencies, the Upper Makefield Township and impacted landowners to safely and swiftly resolve this situation.”

When Sunoco detected the leak, the company told the federal government that 156 barrels of jet fuel had been released through a “slow drip” in the Mount Eyre neighborhood of Upper Makefield, Bucks County.

The fuel seeped into an underground aquifer, and contaminated at least six home drinking water wells with hydrocarbons. Four of those wells exceeded contaminant levels for drinking water.

However, PHMSA noted in its report that neighbors began complaining of odors in their wells and faucets as far back as Sept. 25, 2023. At that time, Sunoco said it tested wells, but did not detect anything. Yet complaints from neighbors about odors continued.

Responding to a complaint in early January, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) told PHMSA it had sampled a well on Spencer Road and found kerosene, a component of Jet Propellent 8 (JP-8) jet fuel, widely used by the military.

The Spencer Road home is about 2,000 feet from the Delaware River, just south of Washington Crossing.

The 14-inch steel Twin Oaks Pipeline, built in 1958, transports mostly jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline from Sunoco’s Twin Oaks Terminal in Aston, Delaware County, to the company’s Newark Terminal in Newark, N.J. It includes a pump station in Bucks County.

PHMSA noted that the pipeline runs about 106 miles mostly through suburbs, crossing numerous rivers, including the Delaware, and runs adjacent to numerous state and local parks.

The report said the leak occurred in a sleeve installed in the mid-1990s. It said at least 44 other sleeves at other locations “may be at risk of experiencing a similar leak in the future.”

The sleeve identified as causing the leak in January had been installed in 1995 to reinforce a dent in the ¼-inch-thick pipe. After locating the leak, Sunoco shut part of the line by closing a valve at a pump station. The company cut out the sleeve and had sent it for a metallurgical analysis by a third party.

Before the leak in Upper Makefield, PHMSA said there had been two other failures on the Twin Oaks Pipeline since 1986.

One, on Oct. 7, 1986, occurred in Montgomery County and released 5,260 barrels of petroleum product. Another, on March 19, 2004, occurred in Delaware County and released 50.

PHMSA did not give an estimate of the size of the release in Upper Makefield since the first reports of odor in 2023, but issued a caution about the line, saying “conditions and threats described” in the report “potentially exist throughout the Twin 7 Oaks Pipeline.”

It continued, “Sunoco’s apparent inability to effectively detect the leak has potentially exacerbated the impacts of the release over an extended period of time.”

PHMSA ordered the company to take certain corrective actions “necessary to mitigate the pipeline integrity risk of the pipeline system to protect public safety, property, and the environment.”

Besides ordering Sunoco to keep pressure reduced in the line, PHMSA gave 90 days to come up with a plan to evaluate the integrity of sleeves along the line. It also ordered a variety of other testing and evaluations, a leak detection plan, and a better way of notifying the public.

State Sen. Steven J. Santarsiero and State Rep. Perry S. Warren, both Democrats representing Bucks County, wrote to PHMSA before Monday’s report requesting that the Twin Oak line be shut down, “until a full investigation is completed and a clear cause for all leaks are identified and repaired.”

And neighbors have been outraged over the leak. They met with PHMSA and the DEP last Thursday night.

Sunoco also operates the Mariner East Pipeline.