Homeowners frustrated over Sunoco pipeline construction

CHESTER CO. (WTXF) - Sinkholes, mudslides and vibrating homes are the latest objections from some homeowners in our area. They're watching a controversial Sunoco natural gas pipeline going up literally through their backyards.

The sinkhole and mudslide happened last weekend and have at least couple of homeowners frustrated. They say they're getting few answers from those building that pipeline.

"She said, 'First off, Happy Veterans Day. Second, you got to come outside!'"

Russell Arthur March, Jr. says his wife started recording video from the back deck of their home in West Whiteland Township Saturday as "drilling mud" from nearby Sunoco pipeline construction began oozing from the growing hole in his next door neighbor's backyard.

His description of the lava flow?

"A shiny brown slick that...looks like mud, but it had a shine to it."

A small leak had occurred several weeks earlier outback of T. J. Allen's place also thanks to the multi-billion dollar Mariner East 2 pipeline project.

Allen now has an unstable backyard that has him feeling, "Unstable! Uncomfortable and unstable."

Pipeline work in nearby Uwchlan Township has just about reached Pat Colleluori's backyard. But the vibrations from the daily drilling are already shaking his home.

He let us listen to an audio recording made of the dishes rattling in his kitchen cupboard.

"This has certainly sent a negative shockwave through this community," said Colleluori. "People up in arms because this is a place that people want to live in-- a place where people want to raise families in."

Subcontractors hired by Sunoco were on the scene in TJ Allen's backyard Tuesday checking out that sinkhole.

They had a few answers for the homeowner and that's the complaint pipeline critics have heard over and over since this work began months ago.

"That's kind of what people are feeling hopeless," said Chris DiGiulio of Del-Chesco United for Public Safety. "Like there's no way they can stop this thing and they have no control over their own property and over their own land."

Reached by email, a Sunoco spokesman said Allen's backyard sinkhole is now safe and secure and that his backyard will be fully restored. Drilling in that area will resume by permission of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.