Over the years local conservation organizations, the State
of Pennsylvania, and Chester County have spent millions of dollars protecting our
watersheds to preserve the integrity of our drinking water for our health and
safety. As noble as that sounds, protecting our watersheds constantly faced
serious opposition from developers that wanted to build housing developments,
corporate centers, and shopping malls. The small victories achieved makes
Chester County stand above many others for quality of life thanks to those
brutal battles.
Now Downingtown faces
another serious threat to its water quality. Just 0.8 miles upstream from where
the Downingtown Municipal Water Authority pipes water from the east branch of
the Brandywine Creek to supply us with clean drinking and bathing water, the
Williams Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company (Transco) wants to replace an
old 2,200-foot section of pipe with a larger diameter pipe across the
Brandywine and two crossings on Ludwig’s Run, a tributary, to improve their
ability to monitor the pipe’s safety.
What’s wrong with that, you might ask? Well, there are two
ways to do the job; the right way that protects the water quality (called
horizontal drilling) and the wrong way (the open cut/cofferdam method) that
could jeopardize our water quality. An additional problem of concern is the
obstinate resistance Transco has shown in considering doing it the right way.
The environmentally
sensitive method, horizontal drilling, consists of drilling a hole straight
down on the west bank of the creek, tunneling well under the stream bed, coming
straight up on the east bank with a U-
shaped pipe, not disturbing the creek at all.
The wrong way, open cut, basically cuts across the stream
disrupting the natural ecology of the stream bottom and increases the
opportunity for serious soil erosion into our water supply from vegetation
removal and disturbance to the stream banks. Open
cut is the cheap way and once they’re finished, they’ll leave us to deal
with, and pay for, any problems left behind.
In 2009 DEP
denied an open cut permit to Transco. So what has changed? The worry now is
that DEP is now directed by the Corbett Administration who is trashing
environmental regulations while showing strong allegiance to the gas, oil and
coal industries. The community has every right to expect and demand that DEP do
its job again and deny the open cut method.
Part of the frustration was that DEP published a notice in the April 28th
(a Saturday) issue of the Pennsylvania Bulletin but there was no indication
from the DEP during
the comment period as to whether it was going to take the additional step of
convening a public meeting/hearing on the applications involved. Once the
public notice was discovered ten days into the original 30 day deadline,
Representative Curt Schroder notified Lynda Farrell, one of the landowners, who
in turn notified Senator Andy Dinniman. Senator Dinniman quickly called a
meeting at the Brandywine Conservancy on May 15. Transco did a presentation to
the heads of Chester County’s major conservation organizations, county
officials, municipal officials, and environmental groups. Conspicuously
missing from this meeting was anyone from the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP). Also conspicuously missing was vital technical
information from Transco’s permit application.
After the May 15th meeting, Senator Dinniman, Senator
Rafferty, Pete Goodman from Trout Unlimited and many other attendees submitted a
total of 17 letters to DEP requesting a public hearing and a new 30 day public
comment period before any permits are approved.
Had the May 15th meeting not happened, it most likely would
have been too late to request a public hearing. In response to the 17 letters, DEP
said they will grant a hearing and 30 day comment period and they promised it
would happen in July. As of this writing, a date has not been confirmed.
An incredible irony with this issue is that many very
outspoken political factions attack environmental protection regulations as a
government takeover; we hear that all the time. Where are these property rights
proponents when big corporations violate individual property rights and try to
skirt public hearings to avoid having to use the responsible method of drilling
that would protect our public drinking water?
Not only are 10,000 residents’ safe drinking water and the
millions of dollars already spent to protect our water quality at stake, Victory
Brewery who arguably makes some of the finest beer on the planet, relies
totally on East Brandywine Creek water for its livelihood and the quality of
its beer. Victory supplies 29 states and the United Kingdom. If this pipeline
crossing isn’t done right, all of this could “go down the drain”.
Senator Andy Dinniman
coined it correctly when he called it, “the Second Battle of the Brandywine”. If you care about your drinking water, stay
tuned and come to a public comment session when they’re announced and demand
the horizontal drilling method.
