The Brief
- Reeling from a pipeline leak that spilled jet fuel into their drinking water, people in one Bucks County community continue to demand answers.
- The spill was discovered in January, but some residents say they noticed the smell of fuel in their water as far back as the fall of 2023.
- Tuesday night, the company behind the leak says it plans to take a new step to fix the problem.
UPPER MAKEFIELD TOWNSHIP, Pa.
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People living in one Bucks County community say they have more questions than answers as the company behind a pipeline leak that spilled jet fuel wants to drill recovery wells in the neighborhood.
What they’re saying
“If we’re all sitting around for months at a time sitting on a time bomb, every time we go to our water being worried about it – it has been demanding on all of us,” Kimberly Smith said.
Patience is being pushed on the people of Upper Makefield where a Sunoco jet fuel pipeline leaked underground and anger has bubbled up.
Homeowner Kimberly Smith stated, “When are we gonna understand how fuel has actually been deposited into our neighborhood because no one has really answered that.”
More questions than answers
And, it was more questions from homeowners than answers from officials for them at the latest meeting in their struggle to find normalcy in their lives, after discovering in January that there was a leak under their neighborhood in a long Sunoco jet fuel pipeline, after residents began noticing the smell and taste of fuel in their water.
“We still don’t know how much fuel was leaked in the neighborhood,” one homeowner stated.
And as wells are about to be dug to recover as much of the fuel as possible, homeowners are now wondering about all of the upheaval that work will bring to their lives – closing roads, tearing roads up and detouring them around all the digging for who knows how long.
Another homeowner said, “Due to the disruption and inconvenience, they should be required to pay every homeowner a $5,000 to $10,000 fee. An inconvenience or disruption fee.”
What’s next
More meetings are planned with all of the companies involved. Homeowners realize there’s more trouble ahead, too.
