DV Journal

(From a press release) 

Attorney General Dave Sunday and The Foundation for Delaware County announce that, after an 11th hour meeting Sunday in Harrisburg, an agreement has been reached that will keep Crozer Health open for the immediate future while permanent restructuring of the system is solidified.

As the system faced imminent closure, a Texas federal bankruptcy court judge convened a meeting between all parties on Sunday, where  Sunday emphasized the urgency to reach a deal and maintain accessible healthcare for southeastern Pennsylvanians.

Sunday and his senior staff attended the meeting, along with board members and the president of the Foundation for Delaware County, which was formed with the nonprofit assets from the purchase of the Crozer-Keystone Health system to Prospect Medical Holdings in 2016.

“I am pleased that the parties focused on how to move forward on behalf of Pennsylvanians, instead of how we got here, and worked to an agreement after more than six hours of negotiations,” Sunday said. “I thank all parties for their good faith negotiations and sacrifices made to make this happen. This work was done on behalf of the thousands of people and families who depend on Crozer Health System for essential services — and the many hardworking professionals who provide that care.

”My office will remain engaged in this process as we work to find a long-term solution.”

The Foundation for Delaware County committed essential funding that remedies immediate shortfalls that would have led to closure of the system, likely in coming days.

The Foundation’s President Frances Sheehan said, “We are encouraged by this outcome and hopeful it will lead to a long-term solution with a nonprofit provider. For three years, we have advocated for the residents of Delaware County, supporting negotiations and exploring every available option to keep the healthcare system from closing. While we cannot sustain an entire health system, we remain committed to ensuring continued access to care.”

Also at the meeting Sunday at the Office of Attorney General’s Harrisburg headquarters were Delaware County government leaders (virtually), and representatives from FTI Consulting, the court-appointed receiver who will oversee management of the hospital for the immediate future, as well as Crozer CEO Anthony Esposito, and representatives from Prospect Medical Holdings.

The Office of Attorney General has been advocating for Pennsylvanians for years, since Prospect’s mismanagement — and eventual bankruptcy — led to closures of facilities and cuts in services. Most recently, the Office of Attorney General filed a civil lawsuit against Prospect and partners, alleging Prospect violated a 2016 purchase agreement and seeking payment of outstanding costs and court-appointment of new management that would rescue the failing system.

”The future of Crozer Health has dominated my first month in office,”  Sunday said. “And it deserves that full attention, as this system is an asset to the communities it serves and an economic driver for Delaware County.”

More details  will be released in coming weeks as a permanent solution is pursued.

In the wake of last year’s spill of non-toxic drilling fluid into Marsh Creek, Energy Transfer — the company building the Mariner East 2 pipeline — went to the state and asked for a modification to its permit, essentially saying, “Let us finish the final section of this $2.5 billion, 350-mile project using traditional open cut trenching rather than the horizontal directional drilling (HDD) we’ve been using.”

On Monday, the state Departments of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Conservation and Natural Resources jointly announced they had reached an agreement with Energy Transfer that allows the major modification. The agreement also permits a minor adjustment to the pipeline’s final path in Upper Uwchlan Township in Chester County.

As a result, after years of heated opposition from green activists, the completion of the Mariner East 2 pipeline is now all but certain.

“We are pleased that our permit modifications have been approved for the installation of our final pipeline segment in Chester County,” ET’s Lisa Coleman said in a statement. “Once installed, construction of the full Mariner East pipeline will be complete, of which the majority is already in service.”

The modification was part of a larger settlement to address the damage done in the Marsh Creek area during the HDD process. The company is paying a $4 million fine and has agreed to “dredging at minimum the top 6 inches of sediment in about 15 acres of Ranger Cove” at Marsh Creek State Park. The company will also make some cosmetic repairs to the area and pay a civil penalty of $341,000 to the Clean Water Fund.

Ironically, ET chose the more expensive and complex HDD process, as opposed to the traditional open-trench system, in an attempt to reduce the impact of the pipeline’s construction on local communities.

For supporters of the pipeline and the energy jobs it supports, the settlement is viewed as a win.

“This modification has broad support because it’s best for the community, good for the environment, and safe for workers,” said Kurt Knaus, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance (PEIA). Knaus also notes that, if pipeline opponents hadn’t continued their “delay-at-all-costs” strategy, the pipeline could be delivering propane to southeastern Pennsylvania right now.

“The news of this approval comes at a time when many Pennsylvanians are worried about rising energy prices,” Knaus said. “Mariner East delivers valuable natural gas resources like propane, which heats homes and powers businesses.

“Our hope was that this project would have been completed by the onset of the colder winter months when the market needs it most, but the delay in the permit approval makes this improbable. At least now we can finally get to work to finish this project and soon realize its full potential in Pennsylvania,” he said.

Critics of the project dismiss any local impact on energy supplies, claiming that most of the products that make it to the Marcus Hook Terminal are exported abroad. In fact, according to ET more than 44 percent of the propane sold from Marcus Hook stays in Pennsylvania. And more than 90 percent stays within the four-state region (Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey).

While other forms of natural gas liquids (NGLs) that come through the facility may be mostly sold as exports, “the volume of propane sold from truck racks at Marcus Hook every day is enough to meet up to 22 percent of Pennsylvania’s total propane demand in winter months,” ET reports. It’s a valuable resource should there be a repeat of the 2014 polar vortex, helping prevent the skyrocketing costs and lack of supply.

However, as recently as October 28, local Democratic state Reps. Dianne Herrin, Danielle Friel Otten, and state Sen. Katie Muth were still demanding the state shut down the entire pipeline, even in the face of rising energy costs and predictions of winter supply shortages.

“I am once again calling on Gov. Tom Wolf, the DEP, and the PUC to revoke Energy Transfer’s permits to operate in Pennsylvania,” Friel Otten said.

Thanks to Monday’s settlement agreement, that is highly unlikely to happen.

“The NGLs transported through Mariner East are critical to our supply chain as the building blocks used to manufacture the products we use daily,” Coleman said. “Also part of today’s approval is our agreement with the DEP and Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to remediate and restore the impacted portion of Marsh Creek Lake that occurred in August 2020 during pipeline construction. We look forward to working with them on this restoration effort.”

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