The oil and gas boom has also cause a boom in pipeline construction, as sources and markets shift and sometimes trade places. Many Kentucky residents are refusing big money to lease right-of-way to the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline, which would repurpose a gas line from Louisiana and extend it with legs to Pennsylvania and West Virginia to carry up to 16.8 million gallons of natural-gas liquids per day to
Louisiana refineries. They are also fighting tooth and nail to keep the developers from invoking eminent domain to use their land, Natasha Khan reports for Public Source, a nonprofit, investigative news service based in Pennsylvania. (Williams Companies map: Proposed Bluegrass Pipeline)
"Pipeline officials assure Kentuckians the Bluegrass Pipeline will be
constructed and maintained safely. It will bring jobs to the region, add
millions in local tax revenues and contribute to America’s energy
independence, they said," Khan writes. Chuck Taylor, a hydrogeologist with the Kentucky Geological Survey, echoed those words, saying "if the developers design the proper safeguards, the pipeline can be
built and maintained safely."
The story did not explore how much that would cost and what the companies’ plans are in that regard, but said "A pipeline of this size is complicated, said Richard Kuprewicz, president of Accufacts, a pipeline consulting firm." Plus, the route runs through karst topography, which is prone to formation of caves, sinkholes and underground channels. Ralph Ewers, a Kentucky hydrogeologist who specializes in karst issues, said "Because the rock is porous, karst can affect the stability of the pipeline. If a leak occurs in the porous rock, there’s the possibility of groundwater contamination because of the vast underground streams in Kentucky karst." Kuprewicz told Khan, “You’ve got to be nuts to put a large diameter HVL in a karst terrain. You can have the best, strongest pipe in the world, but you put it in a bad route, it could snap the pipeline.”
Despite the opposition, pipeline developers have "signed more than 50 percent of the easements needed in Kentucky as of early December and are more than 40 percent complete along the entire route," according to Scott Carney, a spokesman for the Bluegrass Pipeline. (Read more) The company claims it can condemn land to gain access to the route it wants, but many Kentucky officials disagree; for a story on that, from Marcus Green of WDRB-TV in Louisville, click here.
The story did not explore how much that would cost and what the companies’ plans are in that regard, but said "A pipeline of this size is complicated, said Richard Kuprewicz, president of Accufacts, a pipeline consulting firm." Plus, the route runs through karst topography, which is prone to formation of caves, sinkholes and underground channels. Ralph Ewers, a Kentucky hydrogeologist who specializes in karst issues, said "Because the rock is porous, karst can affect the stability of the pipeline. If a leak occurs in the porous rock, there’s the possibility of groundwater contamination because of the vast underground streams in Kentucky karst." Kuprewicz told Khan, “You’ve got to be nuts to put a large diameter HVL in a karst terrain. You can have the best, strongest pipe in the world, but you put it in a bad route, it could snap the pipeline.”
Despite the opposition, pipeline developers have "signed more than 50 percent of the easements needed in Kentucky as of early December and are more than 40 percent complete along the entire route," according to Scott Carney, a spokesman for the Bluegrass Pipeline. (Read more) The company claims it can condemn land to gain access to the route it wants, but many Kentucky officials disagree; for a story on that, from Marcus Green of WDRB-TV in Louisville, click here.
more and more production out of shake is inevitable. anyone with a curcory understanding of the history of energy development in the usa and worlsd wide has to agree to this. but people with the mentality of BP execs retain the power to make decisions that affect the rest of us. and as their revenues multiply, their power through the republican party increases. so true safety is set aside.
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