DV Journal

Sam Gigliotti has been in the water filtration business in Bucks County for 19 years, and says he’s never been busier than he is right now, weeks after a jet fuel leak in Upper Makefield.

Gigliotti and his partner, Clark Dilatush, run The Water Cleaner. It provides water filtration systems, testing, and other services.

“Between our normal client list and the new clients, this has definitely added an extra dynamic that has got us working overtime for sure,” said Gigliotti.

Much of that work is being paid for by Energy Transfer/Sunoco which operates the Twin Oaks pipeline that delivers fuel to the airport in Newark, N.J. When the leak was discovered at the end of January, the company began widespread testing and pledged to provide water treatment systems to residents who needed them.

The Water Cleaner is one of several companies adding point of entry (POET) treatment systems to homeowners in the Mount Eyre Manor neighborhood. Because Gigliotti has been in business for so long and has many clients in the Washington Crossing area, he’s getting a lot of calls for testing and filtration systems.

He explained the filtration systems use charcoal to remove the volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which comprise jet fuel or gasoline, from water.

His company usually charges about $6,000 for those systems, depending on what is needed, he said. “Sunoco reimburses (homeowners) up to $7,500,” he said.

Gigliotti called the situation “a real mess.”

Sunoco Project Manager Matt Gordon told residents at a public meeting earlier this month that the company is “committed to cleaning this up. The DEP issued a notice of violation. And issued an administrative order for actions they were already taking.”

Paying businesses like Gigliotti’s is one of those actions.

More than 500 samples have been taken in the area and, as of March 10, six properties had VOC readings above the allowable limit.

But the company has paid for filtration systems like those installed by Gigliotti at 60 properties, Gordon said, and plans to install 34 more.

Sunoco has also completed various tests of the soil and used ground radar to detect what lies underneath. They are going to start on “packer testing” of wells, which is “an EPA-recogized test to help determine the permeability of the well.” It shows fractures in the bedrock, he said.

“Hopefully we’ll get approvals to install monitoring wells,” Gordon added.

Local property owners are still angry.

“Residents are pushing for 25 years paid monitoring (of their wells), but Sunoco has offered them 10 years,” Gigliotti said.

And the state Attorney General’s Office is now among the agencies investigating the leak, a spokesperson confirmed.

Several local elected officials have called for the pipeline to be shutdown entirely, including Upper Makefield Supervisors Chair Yvette Taylor.

“How can we look into the eyes of the impacted residents and demand anything less than transparency? They suffer and we suffer with them as we demand relief from this crisis. Again, shut down this pipeline.”

The township recently hired geologist David Fennimore of Earth Data Northeast. He will conduct a replacement study for a long-term clean water source.

“We recognize their wells have (filter) systems on them now but this is a long-term solution,” said Fennimore. He is starting with three options: reconstruction of the wells, a community water system, and hooking up to public water.

Sunoco officials declined to answer questions at the March 11 meeting because of a pending residents’ lawsuit.

The pipeline is still operating at 20 percent less volume. There has been no evidence of additional leaks, he said. They plan to do tests by running “in-line tools” through the pipeline to ensure there are no other cracks.

Joe McGinn, vice president of public affairs for Sunoco, again apologized to affected residents. McGinn said the company is providing bottled water and paying for POET systems. The company is giving water testing results to the DEP and the township. And Sunoco excavated soil from the area of the leak.

“We will be able to say the product that’s in the ground has been removed,” said McGinn.

Although the DEP has now mandated the Act 2 process, they are “committed to do it voluntarily and right away. To the stringent-ist amount, the statewide standard,” said McGinn.

Sunoco plans an online town hall for March 27.

Jet fuel leaking from a Bucks County pipeline has directly impacted fewer than a dozen wells, but it has caused widespread concern — and anger — across the Upper Makefield community.

That anger was on display Thursday night at Sol Feinstone Elementary in Newtown during a contentious and crowded meeting where residents and elected officials called on Energy Transfer/Sunoco to shut down the pipeline entirely.

The Twin Oaks pipeline, which carries jet fuel from Delaware County to Newark, N.J., remains active with a 20 percent reduction in pressure, after the company repaired the leak.

The release of the jet fuel was confirmed on Jan. 31, impacting some residents in the Mt. Eyre Manor neighborhood, officials said. Out of 359 wells tested, six were found to contain hydrocarbons above statewide health standard amounts, while four others had lesser amounts, company officials said during a presentation.

That was cold comfort to the families directly affected or to the community members who said they’d been smelling and tasting gas in their water for months.

One of those residents is Kristine Wojnovich, who said the pipeline company told her in 2023 that there was no leak and that the odor she was experiencing could have been caused by bacteria. The company did a dig near the home looking for a leak and none was found.

Now jet fuel has been found in her well.

“To date, they recovered more jet fuel from my property than anywhere else,” she said. “Not just measurable. Feet of jet fuel.”

“Described to residents as a slow drip, explain to me how wells, with five, six or 12 feet [of jet fuel] in them, could possibly have been detected shortly after it began?” she asked.

Energy Transfer Vice President of Public Affairs Joe McGinn apologized for the jet fuel leak and said the company’s “focus and goal is to restore the community to its original state.”

The company has installed full point-of-entry water treatment systems (POET) for the six wells that tested above the statewide health standard. It is also offering water testing at cost for the area.

Energy Transfer is also providing bottled water for residents, has purchased a house at 108 Spencer Road, and has posted a website to share information with concerned residents.

Project Manager Matthew Gordon said company officials are continuing to inspect the pipeline.

“We hear you, and we’re taking steps to clean this up and make sure the pipeline operates safely,” said Gordon. An ultrasonic tool will be used inside the pipeline to find cracks.

Brian Jimenez, director of pipeline safety, said Energy Transfer is working on a full remediation plan that it will share it with the United States Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the federal agency in charge of pipelines.

A third-party company is doing an investigation to find out how the leak occurred in the 105-mile-long Twin Oaks pipeline.

Not good enough, said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks), whose representative read a letter to the meeting.

“I will not stop until we get answers and accountability your families deserve,” the letter read. “From day one, I’ve been working to seek answers and transparency. While I appreciate the involvement of PHSMA and DOT, the answers we received do not go far enough…The answers we received so far are woefully short of transparent.”

“What we need as a community is clear: number one, the pipeline needs to be shut down,” he wrote. “Number two, water testing needs to be expanded and expedited. Lead and benzene need to be included and reported publicly.”

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously for an ordinance directing Energy Transfer to shut down the pipeline.

Longtime pipeline opponent state Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) also called for a shutdown.

“This Twin Oak pipeline, they have had a problem, and they’ve not been effective in managing it. We need to shut this pipeline down. It needs to be shut down now.”

Resident Bryan Roberts said the pipeline is 67 years old, and the leak occurred at a type-A sleeve previously repaired 30 years ago. Those sleeves are known in the industry to be problematic, he claimed.

On Jan. 24, he said a resident had a private test performed on their well water that detected the jet fuel after Sunoco again failed to detect a leak, he said. When the company opened up the ground at the sleeve, it was found to be leaking. The company removed the leaking sleeve in the middle of the night, he said.

“Shut down the pipeline,” he said to applause.

The Newark airport is a key transport hub for New York City and the surrounding region, and commercial airlines rely on the fuel from the pipeline. And the Pennsylvania energy sector transports billions of dollars in fuels each year via the network of pipelines crisscrossing the state.

The Liquid Energy Pipeline Association reports incidents involving pipelines were down 23 percent over the five years 2019 through 2023, according to federal data. The pipeline association released a report that found operations and maintenance incidents impacting people or the environment declined 54 percent between 2019 and 2023. Also, total equipment failure incidents impacting people or the environment decreased by 50 percent during that period.

Residents can call a 24/7 community hotline: 877-397-3383.

Five people died from flash floods in Upper Makefield Township in Bucks County on Saturday evening. On Monday, searchers continued looking for a missing baby and a 2-year-old child.

“With these five deaths, this is a mass casualty incident the likes of which we have not seen before,” the Upper Makefield Police posted on Facebook. “This has been unbelievably devastating to all the families involved, all of our first responders, and to our community as a whole. We are all grieving over the loss of life we have seen. However, our commitment to finding the two children who are still missing is unwavering as we will do all that we can to bring them home to their loved ones.”

On Monday, first responders used teams on foot and in boats, divers in the Delaware River, as well as drones and sonar technology trying to locate the children.

Police said their mother is among the five victims, and the family was visiting the area from Charleston, S.C.  Officials said the father, a 4-year-old brother, and a grandmother survived.

“I got to thank many of the first responders who have been working around the clock to rescue those caught in a flash flood on Washington Crossing Road in Upper Makefield last night,” State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) said in a statement.

“I joined Upper Makefield Township Supervisor Ben Weldon, Bucks County Commissioners Bob Harvie and Diane Marseglia, state Rep. Perry Warren, Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Sen. Bob Casey on a tour of the damage to Washington Crossing and Taylorsville roads. Our prayers are for the family, friends, and neighbors of the five who lost their lives and the two young children still missing.

I will continue to work with local, state, and federal officials to restore the roadways.”

Officials, including Gov. Josh Shapiro (center), look at flash flood damage.

Bucks County is no stranger to severe flooding. According to the Neshaminy Valley Watershed Association, historical records cite a terrible flood on July 17, 1865, caused “several deaths,” flooded homes, and washed away thousands of dollars of crops.

According to the Delaware River Basin Commission, another severe flood struck on Oct. 11, 1903, washing away nine wooden bridges across the Delaware River.

Hurricane Diane caused a monumental flood in 1955 on Aug. 19 and 20 of that year. That flood destroyed or damaged several bridges and left 1,000 people homeless.

Other significant Bucks County floods happened in 1999 when Hurricane Floyd hit the area, dumping 10 inches of rain on Doylestown. The Tohickon Creek crested at 11.84 feet in Pipersville, and the Neshaminy Creek in Langhorne crested at 21.91 feet. Floyd killed eight people in southeastern Pennsylvania and flooded 1,000 homes.

In June 2001, Hurricane Allison dumped the most rain on Bucks County since Floyd. The Neshaminy Creek crested at 17 feet, twice its flood stage. There were widespread power outages as well.

In 2021, Hurricane Ida brought three tornadoes and flooding to Bucks County. One person died.

While most severe floods resulted from tropical storms or hurricanes that came up the East Coast, the latest flooding was due to moisture in the atmosphere, said AccuWeather meteorologist Mary Gilbert.

“Too much rain came down too fast,” she explained. She said Saturday evening’s storm resulted in a 500-to-1,000-year flood. “There is a very low chance of it happening again. It was a very abnormal event. It’s something not likely to happen frequently.”

But if people hear news reports of flash flooding, they need to be cautious and avoid those areas.

“It can happen fast when it does happen,” said Gilbert. “It’s incredibly dangerous.”

Upper Makefield Township was declared a disaster emergency. Residents with property damage were asked to call the township, and people were warned not to go around barricades to try to drive on closed roads.

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