Plans in the works for new natural gas transmission pipeline that could pass through Michigan

7/7/2014

DETROIT — Plans are in the works for a new natural gas transmission pipeline that could pass through Michigan on its way to Ontario, Canada, raising concerns among some residents whose properties have already been dug up for an ongoing oil pipeline project.

Company spokeswoman Vicki Granado said the natural gas project by ET Rover Pipeline, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, is in a pre-filing process. Another application is due to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January.

“As currently contemplated, the project will be a 42-inch pipeline with a design capacity up to 3.25 billion cubic feet per day,” Granado said.

ET Rover Pipeline projects that the project will create more than 5,000 temporary construction jobs and 30 to 40 additional permanent jobs. About 150 miles of the pipeline would be in Michigan, passing through Washtenaw, Livingston, Oakland, Macomb and St. Clair counties.

The proposed gas pipeline would partially track the route of the major oil pipeline that’s being replaced by Canadian company Enbridge across Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Jeffrey Insko, an Oakland County resident, has an online blog for property owners to share experiences and information about the Enbridge project. If the gas project is approved, backhoes, bulldozers and work crews could return to some of the same areas along the oil pipeline’s route to Sarnia, Ontario.

“To think of having their lives disrupted and their property torn up again when it hasn’t even been fully restored is a demoralizing prospect,” Insko said.

Granado said “many factors are carefully analyzed when designing a pipeline route, including environmental issues and community impact.

“The company works very hard to be a good neighbor/partner in the communities in which it does business, and our work in Michigan will be no different,” she said.