Gladys M. Brown, the PUC's chair, granted the emergency order after PUC investigators said the sinkholes "could have catastrophic results" if not repaired. The 8-inch-diameter pipeline, which went into service in 1931 originally to transport motor fuel, now carries up to 70,000 barrels a day of high-pressure volatile natural gas liquids such as propane from the Marcellus Shale gas region to a Sunoco terminal in Marcus Hook.