Natural gas pipeline coming soon to a county near you

CHIPLEY - The Washington County Board of County Commissioners met Thursday, with one issue being a 5,000-mile pipeline system soon making its way through Washington County.

Presenting the pipeline project to the Board was Rick Greg, president of Florida Gas Transmission. Greg made a power point presentation.

One point was cleared up early in the presentation.

“Just to be clear,” said Board Chairman Joel Pate, “this project doesn’t need the approval of the county commission to continue, right?”

“That is correct,” said Greg. “It doesn’t.”

He explained that a 5,000-mile, 36-inch pipeline with 282 delivery points and over 50 interconnections “would provide up to 1,000,000 Mcf/d (mcf=1,000 cubic inches of gas and d=per day) of incremental transportation service capacity into Florida.” This project is to run from Alabama to central and south Florida.

“The demand for natural gas has rose exponentially since years before and our project is here to make sure that the supply of gas will meet the potentially large demand in the future,” said Greg.

The Florida Energy Regulatory Commissions (FERC) schedule for the pipeline is as follows: open season process complete: Jan. 14 – Feb. 15, 2008; filed FERC pre-filing request: March 6, 2008; public scoping meetings: June 3 – 12, 2008; file FERC certificate: Fall 2008; FERC approved: Fall 2009; commence construction: January 2010; target in-service date: Spring 2011.

“These pipes will be monitored on a yearly basis, even though they have an expansion date that surpasses a century, when properly maintained,” said Greg.

“What about eminent domain?” asked Commissioner Eddie Holman.

“We only use that as a last resort and we have to have authorization first,” said Greg. “First we will try to work with the landowners and give them a fair deal.”

One of those opposed to the pipeline was Nan Thompson.

“Last month I appeared before the commission requesting that we be allowed to form a gas pipeline committee to work with you,” said Thompson. “This was granted and so the committee has been formed.”

Thompson said that “the information given to us from FGT is still vague and unclear, with no definite lines of where and when the project will begin,” and most of the landowners were not notified of the pipeline.

“I personally drove the entire county this past week, talking with people from Caryville, Hinson’s Crossroads, Wausau, Vernon and Chipley to find that property owners are still unaware of what’s going on and some of these people are actually on the pipeline routs,” said Thompson.

“Washington County is the second biggest hit county that includes over 58 miles from Washington and Calhoun County. With this in mind, why do we have to beg for information?”

Also speaking against the pipeline was Vernon resident, Debra Horvath, who said she asked the FGT what was going to happen to her natural springs if they decided to put in a pipeline and she said they replied with, “we know how to handle natural springs.”

“That was a very vague answer and it worries me because I know I can’t trust these people to do what’s best for us,” Horvath said. “We just want you to ask them the important question: ‘Is this going to be what’s best for the county’s residents?’ ”

Thompson told the commissioners that if they were to ask the FGT for a public meeting, FGT would have to comply. The Board agreed to send a request to the FGT for a public meeting and the date of that meeting will be released when set.

More coverage of the Board meeting in Saturday's WCN.