The Trail along the C & O Canal connects Washington DC to Pittsburgh, PA
From an Article by Mike Lewis, Hagerstown Herald-Mail, September 26, 2019
HANCOCK — The National Park Service has signed off on a study that says extending a natural gas pipeline under the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park “will have no significant effects on the environment.”
But the project is still on hold after a federal court in August upheld a denial of a right of way permit under the Western Maryland Rail Trail by the Maryland Board of Public Works.
A pipeline opponent said Thursday that foes are disappointed with the National Park Service action. But he said the focus of their effort has been at the state level recently.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Columbia Gas Transmission LLC said the company is looking to move forward and had filed a notice of appeal in the Western Maryland Rail Trail case.
The park service announced Thursday that the agency’s acting National Capital Area director had signed a Finding of No Significant Impact for the right of way permit request from Columbia Gas Transmission LLC on Sept. 23, according to a park service news release.
The document describes why the proposed pipeline path “will have no significant effects on the environment, provides the rationale for the decision and outlines conservation measures that the NPS will take to avoid, minimize and mitigate impacts,” according to the release, noting the FONSI is on the park service’s website.
Columbia Gas Transmission still needs a right of way permit from the park service to construct the pipeline under NPS land. The park service said it will issue that permit once the gas company completes an appraisal of the property that is approved by the Department of the Interior’s Appraisal and Valuation Services Office, according to the release.
The right of way permit would allow the gas company to put 553 feet of 8-inch-diameter natural gas transmission pipe under the canal towpath. The pipeline would be between 116 and 148 feet below the surface and be drilled horizontally near Hancock.
The decision to OK the permit came after an environmental assessment by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, according to the release. The study was required after the gas company applied for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, and for authorization under a section of the Natural Gas Act.
The ruling only impacts park service land. “No other aspects of the overall proposal, except the portion of the pipe crossing under Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park, are under NPS jurisdiction,” the release states.
Columbia Gas Transmission, a subsidiary of TC Energy, has proposed running the pipeline approximately 3.37 miles from existing facilities in Pennsylvania to a new Mountaineer Gas Co. pipeline in West Virginia. The pipeline would run through Fulton County, Pa., Washington County, and Morgan County, W.Va.
Proponents have said the new pipeline is critical to economic development in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.
Opponents have said the pipeline, which would also burrow under the Potomac River, would threaten the environment and drinking water while bringing little benefit to the state.
The pipeline has been the subject of public meetings and debates for more than three years. The project received permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. But protests against it continued in the Tri-State region and elsewhere in Maryland.
In court documents, Columbia Gas Transmission stated it has negotiated “the voluntary acquisition of easements” for 18 of the 22 tracts in the pipeline’s path. But it still needs easements to go under the Western Maryland Rail Trail and three parcels owned by the National Park Service. Those parcels are part of the C&O Canal park.
According to the paperwork, Columbia Gas offered the Maryland Department of Natural Resources $5,000 for the easement, which is more than the amount due as determined by an appraisal.
But in January, the state Board of Public Works denied Columbia’s easement application. Gov. Larry Hogan, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp voted unanimously.
At the time, Franchot cited “the compelling testimony of people who came down and said that they don’t think this is the right thing for the state of Maryland to do — that we weren’t gonna subject our state to all the environmental problems of this pipeline and get none of the economic benefits.”
In May, Columbia Gas Transmission sued. It asked the U.S. District Court in Baltimore to condemn about 0.12 acres for a 50-foot-wide and 102-foot-long easement, so the company can tunnel the 8-inch pipeline under the rail trail. Using a directional drilling method, the company would burrow the pipeline about 175 feet under the trail and about 114 feet under the river.
Columbia Gas argued that “time is of the essence” to meet the FERC deadline of July 19, 2020, and its “contractually committed in-service date” of Nov. 1, 2020.
But the state argued that the 11th amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents a federal court from ordering the state to grant the easement.
Columbia Gas Transmission on Sept. 20 filed a notice of appeal of the U.S. District Court decision with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., TC Energy spokesman Tim Wright said in an email Thursday afternoon. “This project is important to help ensure that everyone in the region has access to a reliable and affordable source of energy,” Wright wrote. “For that reason, we continue to look to move it forward.”
Upper Potomac Riverkeeper Brent Walls, one of the pipeline opponents, said the park service decision is of secondary importance “since we have an active legal case.”
“We would have like to have seen” the park service follow the state’s action, he said.
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