Landowners briefed on pipeline's progress
The proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada down through the middle of the U.S. has been a political football for years. But while the nation's attention has been focused on that project, another planned pipeline, for natural gas, would be more than twice as large.
And that pipeline, the Energy Transfer Rover line, is projected to transit Richland and Crawford counties from one end of the region to the other.
The Keystone pipeline would be 36 inches across. The Rover line would be 42 inches in diameter, and there would be two of them, side by side.
"This is the biggest pipeline project in Ohio that I'm aware of, and one of the largest in the country," Columbus attorney Michael Braunstein said Wednesday evening. "These twin, 42-inch lines will set a record in Ohio for compensation. I don't think there's any question but that they're going forward."
Braunstein and his colleague, Bill Goldman, are eminent-domain attorneys who have fashioned a career representing landowners in pipeline easement contracts. With the Marcellus and Utica shale plays presently yielding more natural gas than there are pipelines to transport it, they're fairly busy these days.
On Wednesday they met with more than 50 area landowners at the Kehoe Center in Shelby, their third such meeting in the region since last August.
Energy Transfer pre-filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last June for permission to pursue the Rover project across Ohio, with a full filing expected by Jan. 15. That hasn't happened, as pipeline officials are hurrying to make adjustments to the route in eastern Ohio. Construction would then begin in 2016, first one pipeline, then the other.
"It is a major experience, it will be a major disruption," Goldman told landowners Wednesday, many of them farmers from the northern reaches of Richland and Crawford counties.
The latest map detailing the pipeline's proposed route has it traversing Richland County in a nearly straight line from east to west, from near the crossroads of Pavonia in eastern Richland County to below Shelby, then northwest into Crawford County, where it would pass very close to the village of Tiro, south of New Washington, just north of Chatfield, and then up into Seneca County above Lykens.
The attorneys believe fighting the pipeline is a lost cause, but they cautioned landowners that they will need legal representation, whether it's with Goldman & Braunstein or someone else, should land agents contracted by Energy Transfer come knocking on their door.
"You're entitled to just compensation not just for your land taken, but the land not taken but damaged. It's not rocket science that this is not going to be an asset to your land. You're probably going to be insulted by their offer, but you might as well listen to it," Braunstein said.
Goldman cautioned that that's all they should do.
"The worst place to sign an easement contract is on the hood of your truck with a land agent looking over your shoulder. If you're offered $40,000 to $50,000 that may sound like a lot, but you're leaving money on the table," Goldman said.
"This is not a leasing deal, you have one opportunity only. You don't want an heir of yours to say, 'Grandpa was stupid.'"
The Rover pipeline, which energy analysts believe is just the first to be proposed for north central Ohio, would transport natural gas across our region at a pressure of 144 pounds. By contrast, gas enters your home at a pressure of two pounds.
In addition, the company plans to construct a 40-acre compressor station on the line just south of the Crawford/Seneca county line, along Albaugh Road north of the village of Lykens, which would feature an engine running at 42,000 horsepower.
"Any attorney who says they're going to fight this line, they're drinking their own bathwater," Goldman said. But his colleague encouraged landowners to get what they can from the pipeline company.
"They appear to have everything on their side, and they have an enormous amount of money," Braunstein said. "But we have a route that they need."
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