UPPER MAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A pipeline leak didn’t just contaminate their water. Residents say it disrupted their lives.
More than 150 people attended a community meeting in Upper Makefield Township, Bucks County, on Tuesday night to voice their frustrations and concerns over the recent response to a pipeline that leaked jet fuel into the groundwater.
The Mt. Eyre community is still dealing with the leak that Sunoco and its parent company, Energy Transfer, identified on Jan. 31. However, residents have complained of an odor since September 2023.
While Energy Transfer has been working over the last six weeks to correct the problem, resident Kimberly Smith has taken issue with the company’s communication and lack of transparency.
“Their ‘product,’ they keep calling it, is our pollution, and they’re not calling it a contaminant or pollution. They’re calling it a ‘product,’ which is not what it is,” she said.
Mt. Eyre residents formed a task force after Energy Transfer tried to bargain with individual households.
“We’re looking for safe, sustainable drinking water,” said task force co-chair Dan LaHart, “not Band-Aids, not things that we have to maintain in our house to make sure that it’s safe. We’re looking for restitution for our time, compensation for the loss of value of our homes, and confirmation that we are indeed safe.”
LaHart said monitoring the leak response is all-consuming.
“Many of us are barely keeping up with our day jobs because we have to work together to communicate and make sure people are informed and supported,” he said.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has forced Energy Transfer to provide bottled water and install water treatment systems for affected residents, but even as remediation goes on, LaHart said the damage is done.
“I hit the lottery by getting into this community, and it is great,” he added. “We had families, we had friends, and it was quiet — and that is all gone now.”
And, Smith said bottled water presents an entirely new issue. She has avoided single-use plastics for a decade, but this temporary measure gives her no choice.
“Now we have extreme levels of waste,” she said. “It takes 10 bottles of water to boil pasta. It takes three bottles of water to give to my dogs.”
In a statement, Energy Transfer said it is working closely with the DEP, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, and Upper Makefield Township to ensure all impacted areas are fully remediated.