ET Rover pipeline route change

A new 590 mile pipeline to ferry natural gas from shale-rich areas of eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia is altering its route and could change again before submitting its final plans to a federal agency.

The ET Rover Pipeline, which will connect to other gas pipelines in southeastern Ohio, swings up and across the Buckeye state through northwest Ohio and pushes through nine Michigan counties before connecting to a pipeline that connects to Canada. It will cost US$ 4.3 billion, and will be completed in mid 2017 if all goes correctly.

But since the 42 in. pipeline project was announced in July, the builder, ET Rover Pipeline LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, has had to shift its path after its environmental survey found problems along the previously planned route.

“Sometimes in our survey we will find an endangered species or a cemetery and then we have to change the route,” company spokesman Vicki Granado said.

Ms. Granado didn’t specify what the survey revealed, but said the pipeline will now go higher up in Michigan, and further south in Ohio. As a result, the company will hold two open meetings in Michigan on 16 and 17 September, and a meeting in St. Clairsville in Belmont County in southeastern Ohio on 18 September.

In northwest Ohio, the pipeline — which can carry up to 3.25 billion ft³/d of natural gas— will pass through Seneca, Hancock, Wood, Henry, Defiance, and Fulton counties. It will extend to Lenawee County and continue north through three other Michigan counties before turning east and passing through five more counties.

The pipeline’s owners say the project will create 10, 000 temporary construction jobs and 30 to 40 additional permanent jobs.

About 383 miles of the pipeline would be in Ohio and 207 miles would be in Michigan.

Energy Transfer has proposed the pipeline to attempt to take advantage of the Marcellus and Utica shale deposits in eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, which are rich in natural gas.

The route changes

Based on maps posted last week on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) website, there's a new proposed route for the interstate ET Rover natural gas pipeline and it no longer includes Oxford, Addison and Brandon townships.

Instead, the new route goes north through Lapeer County.

"Oakland County has been bypassed from the route, except for two or three parcels in Groveland Township," said Jeff Axt, president of Protecting Our Land and Rights (POLAR), a local property rights group that's been fighting to push the pipeline out of the county.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: The Blade, Clarkston News

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/08092014/et-rover-pipeline-route-change/