A tip Friday afternoon from a passer-by walking in a park resulted in the recovery of dynamite and blasting caps stolen last weekend from an Atlantic Sunrise pipeline construction site.

Authorities said they recovered 320 sticks of dynamite and 404 detonators abandoned in a creek under a bridge in Riverfront Park, East Donegal Township.

The recovered dynamite sticks total “exactly half” of what was originally recorded, while around 400 detonators were believed lost, said Special Agent Charlene Hennessy of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that there was a paperwork error, and the 320 sticks of dynamite are all that were stolen. In the meantime, they’re continuing to treat 320 sticks as unaccounted for, Hennessy said.

The ATF is running the investigation, with the cooperation of state and Susquehanna Regional police.

Agents are interviewing approximately 900 workers, Hennessy said. About 200 interviews were conducted Friday, and more will take place today as investigators continue their efforts to identify the person or persons responsible for the theft.

Gregory General Contracting is a sub-contractor of Williams Partners, which is managing the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project in Lancaster County.

Permit suspended

Neil Shader, press secretary for the state Department of Environmental Protection, confirmed Friday that the DEP has suspended a blasting activity permit for Gregory.

“DEP will be pursuing appropriate enforcement actions against the permittee,” Shader said, when asked if the state was considering additional charges or penalties against the company for the loss.

Gregory is a sub-contractor of Williams Partners, which is managing the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project in Lancaster County.

The explosives were stolen sometime last weekend from a work site in the 1400 block of River Rock Road.

Williams’ spokesman Chris Stockton said Friday the company has “not been notified ... of any permit suspensions.”

“We continue to make steady progress on Atlantic Sunrise project construction, which to date is about 60 percent complete,” he said.

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Gregory is a sub-contractor for Welded Construction, which manages the pipeline project in Lancaster County, Stockton said.

“If there was a change to the status of Gregory’s contract with Welded Construction, we would not anticipate any impact to the construction schedule,” he said.

Shader said DEP alone made the decision to suspend Gregory’s permit.

There is currently no timeline to reinstate the permit, he added.

Shader said he cannot go into detail about Gregory’s violation because it’s an ongoing investigation, “but we can say the explosive contractor did not comply with the required Pa. DEP explosive handling, storage and use regulations.”

Federal investigation

Hennessy said the Department of Homeland Security has offered assistance, although that department currently is not involved in the investigation.

“There is no reason to believe this is related to terrorism at this point,” she said.

ATF has between 30 and 40 agents working in Lancaster County to recover the stolen explosives, Hennessy said.

“We have received numerous tips and leads and are running down every one,” she said Friday.

Hennessy, too, said she was not aware that the company’s blasting permit was suspended.

ATF continues to investigate the scene, she said, but she said agents “will be questioning the contractors and permit holders in regards to how and why the explosives were stored in the manner they were.”

The question of charging Gregory for improper storage of explosives “remains under investigation,” Hennessy said.

LNP Staff Writer Tim Stuhldreher contributed to this report.