Thursday, April 07, 2011
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
by Elizabeth Skrapits, The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Ba
Work should begin this spring on a new natural gas pipeline system that will connect Marcellus Shale wells in the northeast with a route to major metropolitan markets.
Three Williams representatives -- Ryan Savage, general manager for Appalachian Midstream Operations; Tunkhannock-based Manager of Operations Mike Dickinson and Communications Specialist Helen Humphreys -- met with The Citizens' Voice on Wednesday to outline details of the Springville Gathering System project.
"It's clear that a lot of residents don't have a good idea about our projects, and also don't have all of the facts," Humphreys said. "We think it's important that the Springville project, which is Williams' pipeline project, be evaluated on its own merits, and that Williams be evaluated on its own merits."
Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams owns the Transco interstate pipeline that Savage said starts in south Texas and supplies 60 percent of the gas to cities like Philadelphia and New York. The Transco has been in Luzerne County since 1958, and there are currently four metering stations in the county, Savage said.
The company plans to run a new 24-inch diameter gas gathering pipeline that will run approximately 33.5 miles from the Lathrop compressor station at Springville in Susquehanna County to a new compressor station outside Tunkhannock. From there it will connect to the Transco by way of a new metering station in Dallas Township, to be located on private property about half a mile from the Dallas schools.
Williams plans to use the line for natural gas from its own wells, and has an agreement with Cabot Oil & Gas to transport gas from Susquehanna County. Williams also has been talking to other companies about using the new pipeline, Savage said.
Williams will have a hearing at 7 p.m. May 16 in Dallas Township for the proposed metering station.
For the pipeline itself, the company has already started designing the route, buying pipe and lining up contractors, Savage said.
Most requirements, including permits and an archaeological survey, have been fulfilled. After a permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection is granted, work can start in May or June and will be a three- to four-month process, he said.
"It takes a long time to get to this point, and we're in the last throes," Savage said. "Construction's really the short period. It takes a long time to get your right-of-way, and get all your permit applications in, and do all of your endangered species testing and all your other environmental protection work."
Williams' compressor station in Tunkhannock, which is under construction, will be located in a rural area away from the road, he said.
"You'd never know where it was unless somebody pointed it out to you," Savage said.
He said the same will go for the metering station. Williams will build a private, padlocked road to it from Lower Demunds Road. There will be no access from Fairground Road. Truck traffic will not come near the school during construction, Humphreys said.
The metering station will be constantly monitored at a facility in Tulsa, Dickinson said. If there is anything outside normal operating parameters, an alarm goes off and a local operator can be called or the station can be shut down remotely, he said.
Savage said a metering station is one of the most innocuous natural gas facilities, comparing it to a gas meter on a home, but larger.
"On the scale of things, these aren't dangerous facilities," he said.
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