Hadley says no to gas line (From the 9-14 County Press)

[William Gavette]

                     Officials from ET Rover to host open house Wednesday

BY PHIL FOLEY

810-452-2616 •

[e-mail]

HADLEY TWP. — As township meetings go, Hadley draws a pretty good crowd. Township supervisor Ernest Monroe said a typical night draws 30 residents, but Tuesday’s meeting with ET Rover Pipeline Company’s proposed 42-inch natural gas pipeline on the agenda drew 159 residents, a county commissioner and the township supervisor from neighboring Lapeer Township.

“We set up every chair and it was still standing room,” Monroe said.

Where's the story? 22 Points Mentioned

ET Rover LLC, a division of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, L.P., wants to build a 810-mile long pipeline from gas processing plants in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio northwest to a hub in Defiance, Ohio, before turning northeast to a second hub near Sarnia, Ontario. ET Rover’s parent company currently owns and operates approximately 35,000 miles of natural gas and natural gas liquids pipelines.

Representatives of ET Rover met with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) staff in May to begin the process of getting approval for the $4.3-billion project.

The company’s plans haven been met with suspicion and hostility across Michigan. Last month township boards in Brandon, Groveland and Rose townships passed resolutions objecting to the company’s plans to run the natural gas line through northern Oakland County.

ET Rover’s original plans had the pipeline running north through Lenawee, Washtenaw and Livingston counties, then east through Oakland, Macomb and St. Clair counties. However, following heavy objection in Oakland County the line’s planned route was shifted north, entering Lapeer County in Hadley Township and then running east through Lapeer, Attica, Imlay and Almont townships before entering St. Clair County on its way to Sarnia.

Maintaining the proposed pipeline will provide

“no benefit to the residents” of his township, Monroe said. “I don’t see it. It’s not necessary.”

ET Rover officials counter the pipeline will supply natural gas to manufacturing businesses located throughout the United States, utilities that will use it to generate electricity, and to distributors who sell it to heat homes and businesses throughout the Midwest, Gulf Coast and Great Lakes region. Company officials added the Canadian distribution hub will supply natural gas back to the United States for consumption in the northeastern United States, Great Lakes regions in addition to providing natural gas to Canadian providences.

Hadley Township Fire Chief Kurt Nast noted that fire chiefs in Groveland, Brandon and Addison townships, as well as the village of Oxford, were all opposed to the pipeline for safety reasons. Nast said he doesn’t want to see the pipeline in his township for the same reasons. “Generally they are pretty safe,” he said, “but when things go wrong they go horribly wrong.”

Monroe said about 20 of the 159 residents who came to Tuesday’s township board meeting spoke against the pipeline. “Everyone was pretty much of the same mind,” he said.

Hadley Township trustees approved a modified version of a resolution passed by Brandon Township trustees last month. In Hadley Township, trustees maintained there is no need for the pipeline in Michigan, since the company sold its north/south transmission line to Enbridge Energy so that it could be used to transport petroleum, telling regulators at the time that the pipeline was unneeded.

Trustees point to the Metamora/Hadley State Park, Ortonville State Park and Sutherland Nature Center and the wetlands that drain into the Flint River and Clinton River watersheds as examples of the township’s environmental sensitivity.

Monroe said the township has sent a copy of its resolution to FERC and its urging its residents to send their own comments to the agency. He added Hadley Township is sending copies of its resolution to Lapeer, Attica and Imlay townships in hopes they will approve similar measures.

“We need to build a groundswell of grass roots support to oppose this,” Monroe said.

The Lapeer Township board is set to meet at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14. Attica Township’s next board meeting is set for 7 p.m. Oct. 9 and the Imlay Township Board is set to meet at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Hadley Township Treasurer Chris Tippen said he was unhappy that while county commissioner

Dave Eady was at Tuesday’s township board meeting, the county commission took no position on the pipeline at its meeting Thursday.

Comments for docket number PF14-14-000, as the project is known at FERC, can be mailed to Secretary FERC 888 1st St. N.W., Washington DC 20426 or filed electronically at www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/ecomment. asp..

ET Rover officials will be on hand Wednesday from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the Metamora Lions Club on North Oak Street during an open house at which time company representatives will be available to speak with area residents about their concerns or to gather more information.