UGI planning another compressor station and natural gas pipeline

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.comStaff Writer

WEST WYOMING – UGI Energy Services wants to construct a compressor station and lay 2.4 miles of natural gas pipeline in the borough near the Township border, not far from Frances Slocum State Park.

Borough Council President Eileen Cipriani received a letter outlining the project from UGI’s consultant, CH2M Hill, on Thursday, and the borough has 30 days to submit a response to the state .

Cipriani said she forwarded the letter to the borough solicitor so council members can determine a response and so the borough attorney can assist in requesting more information on the project.

Cipriani said UGI provided a topographical map of the general project area, but she wants to know exactly what parcels of land would be involved. She said it appears the project site would be near the border with Kingston Township somewhere off Carverton Road, about 1 mile east of the park.

The work in West Wyoming is part of a larger extension of UGI’s existing natural gas pipeline in Susquehanna and Wyoming counties, called the Auburn Line, by about 27 miles, with a new pipeline through portions of Luzerne and Wyoming counties. The project also includes the construction of two compressor stations, according to the letter.

The project would help develop the infrastructure currently providing natural gas to local Pennsylvania markets by providing a pipeline that would “link natural gas production, existing interstate pipelines and local utility distribution systems,” the letter states.

Upon completion, the project would increase natural gas delivery capacity to local Pennsylvania markets and other northeastern U.S. markets.

It would also assist with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s goal of increasing natural gas transportation capacity by creating new points of delivery for intrastate and interstate pipelines, improving market access for natural gas supplies in the Marcellus Shale area, the letter states.

The letter instructs the borough to focus on the project’s relationship to borough zoning ordinances when responding to DEP.

UGI was required by state law to inform the borough that it is applying for the following permits from DEP for the project:

• A joint permit for Water Obstruction and Encroachment Permit and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Section 404 Permit PAG-10 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System;

• A Submerged Lands License Agreement;

• Act 220 Water Withdrawal Registration; and

• Operating and Construction Permits from DEP’s Bureau of Air Quality.

DEP spokesman Dan Spadoni said his regional office has not received any application for a compressor station project in West Wyoming, and a representative from the Harrisburg office did not return a call regarding permits for the pipeline.

The Army Corps of Engineers did not have specifics on the project immediately available on Friday.

Representatives of UGI Energy Services and the consultant did not return messages seeking additional information and comment.

Another proposed compressor station project has not received a warm welcome in a nearby community. Chief Oil & Gas Chief in January submitted plans for a natural gas compressor station, two metering facilities, a communications tower and several storage tanks to be built on a 5-acre property off Hildebrandt Road, Dallas Township, 1,150-feet from the border of the Dallas School District campus.

Those plans drew intense criticism from the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition and an offshoot group of parents of Dallas School District students that galvanized around the issue.

Chief in late February decided to relocate its compressor station and submitted revised plans for a metering station. Chief also removed a 100-foot communications tower, a flare device and a chemical tank from the metering station permit request.

Williams Field Services LLC is building a pipeline in Wyoming County that will link two larger pipelines that supply the East Coast with natural gas and also wants to run pipeline through Dallas Township and build a metering station there.

Dallas Township is where the gathering lines for both companies would join the main Transco interstate pipeline and is a vital link in the chain for both companies.