Residents of Upper Makefield Township in Bucks County sought answers and accountability on Tuesday (July 15, 2025)  during a town hall meeting that addressed concerns over the town’s drinking water getting contaminated with jet fuel. 

 

State officials told Upper Makefield residents Tuesday that new testing near a pipeline leak showing “elevated” levels of certain toxic chemicals is surprising and needs to be investigated.

 

“We are not dealing with a good actor here,” said state Sen. Steve Santarsiero, D-10 of Lower Makefield. “They have not done the right thing from day 1.”

 

 

DEP still hasn’t responded to a June letter from Santarsiero and state Rep. Perry Warren, D-31 of Newtown, asking DEP to take more enforcement actions, Santarsiero said.

 

“I’m irritated,” Santarsiero said. “There needs to be an enforcement action.”

 

U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick called for the EPA to intervene earlier this month, citing the “lack of information” from DEP after months of outreach.

 

Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer said Sunday that his office was investigating this weekend’s large fuel spill in Brookhaven to determine if anyone involved committed a crime as thousands of gallons of gasoline poured into nearby waterways.

 

The spill killed dozens of frogs, turtles, and fish, and contaminated Chester Creek and an elementary school’s retention pond. The leak resulted in a “large wildlife kill,” and forced the temporary closure of a sewage plant… gasoline also caused significant damage to nearby soil, and pooled at Coebourn Elementary School, which will be closed for at least two days while the damage is assessed.

 

Timothy Boyce, director of emergency services for Delaware County, said separately Sunday that it appeared as if the spillover was the result of a botched fuel delivery* to the Gas ‘N’ Go at the corner of Coebourn Boulevard and Edgmont Avenue.

 

As many as 4,700 gallons of gasoline intended to fill up tanks at the station instead flowed into nearby waterways, Boyce said. He called the spill a “very obvious and uncontrolled release of the product,” but said neither the gas station nor the supplier reported the leak, and that it didn’t come to the attention of officials until residents half a mile away began reporting the smell of gasoline Saturday morning.