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ME 2 pipeline construction site near the Chester County Library and business route 30. (Susan Phillips/WHYY)
This article originally appeared on StateImpact Pennsylvania.
The Chester County District Attorney’s office, using a novel approach to try to hold polluters accountable, filed a consent decree with Mariner East pipeline builder Sunoco Pipeline and Energy Transfer following a civil suit the office filed under the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law.
The law allows county district attorneys to bring public nuisance claims in order to stop polluting activities. The agreement allows the Chester County Court of Common Pleas to hold the company accountable for any future violations of permits issued by the Department of Environmental Protection and the Public Utility Commission.
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The Commonwealth Court has upheld an award of more than $13,000 in court costs and attorney’s fees to a Huntingdon County couple who vigorously protested the construction of a Sunoco pipeline across their 27 acres of land bordering Trough Creek Valley Pike.
An opinion Monday by a three-judge panel upheld an order issued by the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board awarding $13,135 in costs and attorneys fees to Stephen and Ellen Gerhart.
The payment, according to the Hearing Board’s order, is to be made by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which appealed the order to the Commonwealth Court.