Upper Makefield residents are suing the pipeline operators after an undetected crack leaked jet fuel into their private wells, contaminating at least 12.
The complaint, which was filed March 27, accuses pipeline operator Sunoco LP and its parent company, Energy Transfer, of negligence. Plaintiffs alleged that the companies failed to properly maintain the 70-year-old pipeline, identify leaks and investigate potential damage.
Following the leak in the Mount Eyre Road neighborhood, which the companies apparently did not detect for at least 16 months, 12 homes have tested positive for chemicals related to jet fuel, including benzene.
Although residents of the Mount Eyre Road neighborhood reported an unusual odor in their water as early as September 2023, the pipeline operators failed to detect a leak, and additional residents reported water taste and smell changes in 2024.
In 2023, the pipeline companies dug just yards away from where the leak was ultimately discovered*, but they didn't find the leak until January 2025 after consulting service records and digging at the location of a 1990s dent repair.
The complaint seeks to allow most residents within a 1-mile radius of the leak to join the suit, extending from around Hough's Creek in Upper Makefield to Woodside Road in Lower Makefield.
*The company tested a couple of isolated areas in Newtown Twp and did not find any leak. However, who knows if there is a leak "just yards away" from where they tested just as in UM!
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