Ellen Gerhart, a private property owner on the Mariner East pipeline route and retired special education schoolteacher, has challenged Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) use of her family’s property, including filing a federal lawsuit in 2017 against Sunoco and others over violating her constitutional rights. Gerhart was arrested, jailed, tried, and sentenced after facing a number of civil and criminal allegations by the company. Gerhart was released from prison in September 2018 after serving two months. She has since continued to advocate for environmental protection and protest how Energy Transfer Partners has treated her and other people along its pipeline project routes across the country.