By David Hedges, Publisher
Times Record/Roane County Reporter
A large high-pressure pipeline to transport natural gas may be coming
through Roane County.
The proposed Mountaineer Xpress would include up to 150
miles of new pipeline to transport natural gas from wells in the Marcellus and Utica shale fields in northern
West Virginia, eastern Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The project with an estimated cost of $2.6 billion is a proposal
of Columbia Pipeline partners, a newly formed public subsidiary of
Columbia Gas parent NiSource. The company hopes to have the pipeline
in service by late 2018.
A project map on a Columbia Gas Pipeline Group website shows the
pipeline going through Roane County, although the map is anything but
detailed.
Larry Tucker, who lives on W.Va. 14 in the Reedy corporate limits,
said he was approached by someone who inquired about surveying his
mother's property, next to his, for a pipeline.
Tucker said the representative would not give him much information
about the project.
"Their land man either didn't know much, or want to tell what he
did know," Tucker said.
Because of a rocky ledge in the area, Tucker said he did not think it
was a good location for a pipeline.
"The last time I talked to him, he thought they were going to move
it down the creek somewhere," according to Tucker, who said the proposed location could be somewhere between W.Va. 14 and Middlefork
Road.
Alvin Engleke, a Creston resident who is active in the oil and gas
business, said he received a request to enter property he owns on Sanoma Road in Wirt County, between W.Va. 14 and W.Va. 5.
He said the request was to do surveying for a pipeline project, but the
representative would not say where the pipeline was going.
"That's the $64,000 question," Engelke said. "They won't tell me.
They won't tell anyone."
He said the man worked for Percheron, a company that does surveying
for the oil and gas industry with an office in Bridgeport.
"They are Working for Columbia Gas Transmission, which is part of
NiSource," Engelke said.
Engelke suspects the request he received is part of the Mountaineer
Xpress proposal.
Engelke said a man working on the project has been spending a lot of
time in the record room at the Roane County Courthouse.
At least two other large pipeline projects in West Virginia are well
into the planning stages.
The Atlantic Coast pipeline, a joint proposal of Dominion, Duke
Energy and others, would be about 550 miles long. It would originate in Harrison County and run through Virginia to the southern part of
North Carolina. The cost of the project has been estimated at $5 billion.
The Mountain Valley Pipeline, a $3.5 billion proposal by EQT Corp
and others, would be 330 miles long, starting in Wetzel County, West
Virginia and ending in Pennsylvania County, Va., with a possible extension into North Carolina. Plans call for both pipelines to be in service by 2018.
That proposal has generated some controversy and resulted in a lawsuit
filed against 103 individuals and three corporations in an attempt to
gain access to survey the property.
Both projects would involve a 42-inch high-pressure pipeline.
"I wouldn't be real thrilled about a high-pressure line coming within
a mile of my house, or anybody else's," Tucker said. "Look what
happened with the high-pressure line along I-77 at Sissonville."
In December 2012 a 20-inch high-pressure line ruptured with so
much force a 20-foot-long section was thrown more than 40 feet.
The gas released by the explosion charred 800 feet of the interstate,
destroyed three homes and melted siding on houses hundreds of feet
from the rupture site.
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded the explosion
was the result of external corrosion and a lack of recent inspections.
The agency said the corrosion could have been discovered by the pipeline operator.
Engelke said while Columbia Gas Transmission has refused to give the
size of their proposed pipeline, or a precise map of the route, it would likely tie into Columbia facilities near Catlettsburg, Ky. He said another new line could come from a station between Glenville and Sand Fork and go to Cobb Station near Clendenin.
According to the company's website, the pipeline would have
the capacity to transport 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas a day.
Engelke said he signed an agreement April 15 giving the company
30 days to provide him with the route of the pipeline and the size of
pipe to be used.
A representative called him May 15 and told him he needed to sign a
new agreement because the company could not comply with the terms
of the first one.
"They are being very coy with the information," according to Engelke,
who did not sign the second agreement.
He said the pipeline could help gas production in the area, if local
producers have access to it.
"If it provides a market for local gas, it would be a plus," Engelke
said. "If it is merely going through the area and we have no access to it for input or takeout, what good does it do, other than construction jobs?"
Jim Lydon, retired superintendent of Wirt County Schools who now
heads up a consortium of mineral rights owners in a six-county area;
said the pipeline could be a boost.
"It could provide an avenue to get gas out of this area," Lydon said.
"At the current time, we don't have a way to do that."
Lydon's group has more than 700 members with oil and gas interests
in Calhoun, Jackson, Ritchie, Roane, Wirt and Wood counties.
Lydon said pipelines currently available don't have the capability
of handling a hundred Marcellus wells he hopes will come on line
in the region in the next few years.
"We foresee that occurring," said Lydon, whose group has been trying
to market its holdings for a couple of years, without success.
"We have people interested," he said. 'As soon as the price (of natural gas) goes up, they have indicated they will be back to talk to us."
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