Natural Gas Pipeline Company to Hold Information Open House

Chapman Township Event May 22

by Barbara Mastriania

NORTH BEND – Williams Transco will hold a public information open house meeting at the Chapman Township Fire Department Thursday, May 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Williams owns and operates a natural gas transmission pipeline known as Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC (Transco). The pipeline transports natural gas from natural gas production areas to customers such as utility companies and power plants throughout the northeastern and southeastern United States.

Williams is in the preliminary stages of developing the Atlantic Sunrise Project, a pipeline proposal designed to transport an additional 1,700,000 dekatherms of natural gas per day. According to the company website it would be enough natural gas to meet the daily needs of more than 7-million American homes, connecting producing regions in northeastern Pennsylvania to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, as far south as Georgia and Alabama.

Construction is to start in the summer of 2016, according to the company’s web site. The target is for the pipeline to be in service is the latter half of 2017.

The company has been contacting some landowners in recent months for permission to survey their properties. The project includes installing new and replacing some pipelines in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.

In Clinton and Lycoming counties it consists of installing two pipeline loops (pipeline laid parallel to existing facilities) totaling about 15 miles in areas referred to as the Grugan Loop and the Unity Loop. The proposal plans are not yet finalized.

Before the company can expand or modify existing facilities it must apply for and obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Williams has not yet filed a formal application with the FERC. The company has initiated one of the first steps, filing an environmental pre-filing review of the project with the commission.

The May 22 meeting is to provide information regarding its planned surveys of properties in Clinton County.

The company is holding a similar meeting in Lycoming County May 21.