{"id":101299,"date":"2026-01-31T02:36:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T02:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/101299\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T02:36:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T02:36:36","slug":"pa-lawmakers-push-for-new-stricter-environmental-clean-up-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/101299\/","title":{"rendered":"PA lawmakers push for new stricter environmental clean up law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents still don\u2019t know how much fuel leaked, how far it spread, what chemicals were in the pipeline, how long the leak was occurring before detection and why recovery is slow, Weldon said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSunoco has been able to delay, deflect and avoid accountability, in large part because the agencies overseeing this process are constrained by existing laws that must change,\u201d Weldon said.\n<\/p>\n

Energy Transfer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.\n<\/p>\n

Last year, the company created a website<\/a> with resources for impacted community members and has hosted a series of public meetings.\n <\/p>\n

Mt. Eyre residents are \u2018living in limbo\u2019<\/p>\n

Kristine Wojnovich said she and her family first reported the smell of jet fuel in their water in September 2023 to pipeline operator Energy Transfer. Water sampling did not show any contamination. Wojnovich reported it again in January 2025, and the leak was identified by Energy Transfer on Jan. 31, 2025.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of our neighborhood task force and our whole community, many, many who could not be here today, but wish they could have been, we greatly appreciate any legislation that will accelerate the speed of which pipeline leaks are identified, and legislation that requires the spill to be completely cleaned up, completely, restoring the contaminated environment to its original state,\u201d Wojnovich said Friday.
\n\"KristineKristine Wojnovich, right, speaks at the announcement of the Pennsylvania Environmental Cleanup and Responsibility Act on January 30, 2026. The announcement came almost a year to the date that a Sunoco pipeline leak was discovered. The leak contaminated six wells with jet fuel. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Ruth Kuenzig and Melissa Tenzer are neighbors who live adjacent to Wojnovich\u2019s property. They described how constant digging and visits from Energy Transfer\u2019s technicians to recover the leaked jet fuel and monitor the pipeline have upended life in the once quiet neighborhood.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cleanup act has not been quick enough for my liking,\u201d Tenzer said. \u201cI cannot believe, and [I] feel emotional coming a year later, that we\u2019re still in this position, and we don\u2019t have any answers.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

They told WHYY News that they continue to use bottled drinking water. Energy Transfer reimbursed them for filtration systems, but they are still fearful of how contaminants in their tap water could impact them and their family members.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not fully contaminated, but it\u2019s still higher than the normal standards of the drinking water that is a privilege and the law and the right of human citizens to be able to have clean water, to shower, to drink,\u201d Tenzer said.\n<\/p>\n

Tenzer said she also uses bottled water for cooking and washing her face, although she uses tap water for showering.\n<\/p>\n

Tenzer, who has lived in her house for more than 24 years, said she wanted to \u201cmove out immediately\u201d when she first learned of the leak, and was \u201creally nervous and scared and very upset all the time.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But she said she loves the neighborhood, her house and the surrounding nature, including the parks and canal where she walks her dog every day. She added that her 21-year-old daughter, who is away at college, also \u201cloves the house and its stability in her life.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Tenzer\u2019s concerns about health impacts of contaminated water remain, especially for her daughter and stepdaughter. She said she and other impacted residents are \u201cliving in limbo\u201d as cleanup continues.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about if something happens, I\u2019ll never forgive myself for not moving, and that\u2019s a burden I have to live with, in making that decision to go or to stay,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents still don\u2019t know how much fuel leaked, how far it spread, what chemicals were in the pipeline,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[197,28,30,29,49334,49335,2878],"class_list":["post-101299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-bucks-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-sunoco-pipeline","tag-upper-makefield-township","tag-water-pollution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}