MOUNT VERNON — The Knox County Board of Commissioners heard from Allen Fore, director of community relations for Kinder Morgan Cochin regarding the progress of the Marcellus Lateral Pipeline which will go through Knox County.
The pipeline will carry liquid natural gas that can be processed into products such as propane and butane as well as plastic products, Fore said.
“We held an open house last October and had over 250 landowners and other people in attendance,” Fore said. “It raised a lot of questions and issues that we took under advisement that we are putting into our overall evaluation.
“Where we are right now is that we have filed our application with the Ohio Power Siting Board. We did that late November. That begins a very lengthy review process by the Ohio Power Siting Board which is the lead state regulatory agency for pipelines of this kind.”
Fore also noted that county maps showing the proposed route of the pipeline had an approximately half-mile corridor so the company would have ample room to make corrections in the final route without going beyond the area surveyed for environmental, cultural or topographical issues.
He reminded the audience that the pipeline would be about 16 to 20 inches in diameter, depending on who would be the material supplier to the pipeline, and what would be sent through the pipe. Kinder Morgan in not in the petroleum or gas industry and only builds and/or operates the pipelines. Fore said the supplier had not been determined at this time.
A meeting with Fredericktown officials was briefly touched on by Fore. There was concern that the route of the pipeline would impact future plans to expand Fredericktown’s industrial park. Fore assured Fredericktown officials that Kinder Morgan wants to work closely with them and would do additional environmental surveys if the pipeline needed to be moved outside the initial corridor envisioned.
