Effingham houses safe from pipeline project

A spokesman for Kinder Morgan told about 100 people at a public hearing in Effingham County that no houses will be taken to make way for the Palmetto Pipeline.“Houses are not part of the equation,” said Allen Fore. “No houses will be taken as part of this project.After the meeting Fore said the goal is to find the path with the least obstacles. He said he doesn’t think the state would allow a company to take a house so it could build a pipeline.Fore said someone asked him whether a barn could be taken. He said it’s unlikely, but if a barn enough to replace it. The same is true with fences, he said.Some people are glad to see the pipeline come through because they get new fences, he said.A majority of the people attending the two-hour meeting at the New Ebenezer Conference Center on March 31 seemed to oppose the project.Some of the people who spoke were unhappy that a private company could gain condemnation power to secure permanent easement rights.“Any for-profit company should not be granted right of eminent domain to forward their progress,” said Troy Davis of Guyton, to applause.Effingham resident Alan Zipperer said, “Authorizing a for-profit company to take land by eminent domain is just plain wrong.”He said landowners get a one-time payment for a permanent easement but still have to pay ever-escalating taxes on the land.Zipperer quoted the company as saying 28 permanent, full-time jobs would be created. He asked how many trucking jobs would be lost because fuel would be sent through the pipeline instead of by truck.He said several surveyors had asked for permission to look at his land but he didn’t give it because they want “free run.”“I can’t give permission if I don’t know where they’re going,” he said.Fore said after the meeting that about 200 property owners might be affected by the 39 miles of pipeline planned in Effingham County.He said all of the property owners have been contacted by mail and about 60 percent have been contacted in person.He said during a presentation to the group that Kinder Morgan is a transportation and energy storage company. He said he could not guarantee that gas prices will fall if the pipeline is built, but he believes “it’ll have a positive impact on prices.”Some speakers questioned the need for the pipeline and how much it would benefit Georgia residents.Fore said long-term contracts from customers to buy the fuel the pipeline would bring shows the need.Davis said if there truly is a need for the pipeline, Kinder Morgan could secure the easements necessary without condemning them and could pay market prices.The pipeline would be 360 miles long and travel from Belton, S.C., to Jacksonville, Fla. It would bring gasoline, ethanol and diesel fuel from the Gulf Coast and from South Carolina to Augusta, Savannah and Jacksonville.It would be 16 inches in diameter and would be buried 4 feet underground, on a permanent easement 50 feet wide.Brian Williams, project director, told the crowd that the pipeline would be monitored all the time by employees in Alpharetta, Ga., who would watch a computer program that monitors flow rates and pressure. Anything unusual would prompt the line to be shut down remotely until it could be checked.Every five years, a set of tools would be run through the pipeline to look for problems such as corrosion or dents.And an epoxy would be used in the pipeline to prevent corrosion.At the hearing, the company had two sets of detailed aerial maps that show the proposed route of the pipeline through Effingham County.Fore said the maps are not available online, partly because the company doesn’t want the public to latch on to a route that may change later.When the county asked for copies of the maps, Fore said the company would provide them. The county had not received them as of noon Monday.The meeting in Effingham was the sixth open house Kinder Morgan has held about the project along the coast of Georgia in recent weeks. The Georgia Department of Transportation will hold one public hearing about the project on April 21 in Richmond Hill. http://www.effinghamnow.com/

How to comment:Comments will be accepted about the project until close of business on May 1. Written comments should be submitted to: Georgia Department of Transportation, 10th floor Office of Utilities, 600 West Peachtree St. NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30308.