I thought I'd go ahead and start a thread on this one.  There have been a few new articles lately, which I will post later.  I wish I had gotten to this sooner--they had public meetings that concluded on the 29th.

 

Here's some stuff from the website, there's much more there than what I'm posting.  There are maps, FAQs, etc.  They also have better maps than I can provide, including county-level maps:

http://www.rexpipeline.com/

 

 

Rockies Express Pipeline is a proposed 1,663-mile natural gas pipeline system from Rio Blanco County, Colorado, to Monroe County, Ohio.

 

The Rockies Express Pipeline System is a significant investment in the U.S. energy infrastructure and will help meet the nation's need for energy. There is growing demand for safe, clean-burning natural gas in the United States. Additional pipeline capacity will be needed to deliver natural gas to end users.

 

Rockies Express is being developed by Rockies Express Pipeline LLC, which is a joint development of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. and Sempra Pipelines & Storage, a unit of Sempra Energy.

 

Rockies Express has three components: Rockies Express — Entrega, Rockies Express — West, and Rockies Express — East.

 

 

Rockies Express Pipeline — East

 

Rockies Express — East (REX — East) is a proposed 622-mile pipeline from Audrain County, Missouri, to Monroe County, Ohio. Construction of REX — East is scheduled to begin in early Spring of 2008. The targeted in-service date for the pipeline, meter stations, and most compressor stations is December 2008. The targeted in-service date for all of REX — East is June 2009.

 

REX — East consists of the following facilities:

 

* Approximately 622 miles of 42-inch diameter pipe from Audrain County, Missouri, to Monroe County, Ohio.

* Proposed compressor facilities along the REX - East pipeline route at the following locations:

    - Audrain County, Missouri (near Mexico)

    - Christian County, Illinois (near Blue Mound)

    - Putnam County, Indiana (near Bainbridge)

    - Warren County, Ohio (near Lebanon)

    - Muskingum County, Ohio (near Chandlersville)

 

From the 6/23/06 Dispatch:

 

Pipeline debate begins tonight

Open house in Lancaster will discuss natural-gas line that would span Ohio

Friday, June 23, 2006

Mary Beth Lane

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

A 1,663-mile natural-gas pipeline is poised to push its way from Colorado and across 14 Ohio counties, stirring controversy over property rights and its environmental impact.  Rockies Express Pipeline LLC, the energy partnership building the pipeline, has scheduled an open house from 6 to 8 tonight at the Educational Service Center at 111 S. Broad Street in downtown Lancaster to answer questions about the project.

 

Fairfield, Pickaway and Perry are among the central Ohio counties the pipeline will cross on its way to a gas-transmission hub in Monroe County in eastern Ohio.  There is growing demand for clean-burning natural gas and additional pipeline capacity is needed, said a Rockies Express spokesman.  Construction is scheduled to begin this summer at the Colorado end, and the pipeline would be completed in June 2009 if the project proceeds as planned.

 

Full story at http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060628/NEWS01/606280379/1056

 

From the 6/29/06 Hamilton Journal News:

 

Pipeline forum attracts crowd

By Ken-Yon Hardy, Staff Writer

 

HAMILTON — Information was presented, questions were answered and all that is now left to OK the largest new natural gas pipeline built in the nation in 20 years is the go-ahead from property owners.  Close to 300 people showed up for an open house at the Hamiltonian Hotel Wednesday night to collect more information about the proposed 1,663-mile Rockies Express Pipeline, which would go through parts of Butler and Warren counties.

 

“I think Butler County is important to the pipeline,” said Jim Thompson of Rockies Express. “This is a very ambitious project that will involve a lot of people working on it. (The workers) will need places to eat. They will need places to shop. There’s going to be a significant opportunity for Butler County as far as a positive influence on the local economy.”

 

Full story at http://www.western-star.com/news/content/news/stories/2006/06/28/ws0629pipeline.html

 

“I think Butler County is important to the pipeline,” said Jim Thompson of Rockies Express. “This is a very ambitious project that will involve a lot of people working on it. (The workers) will need places to eat. They will need places to shop. There’s going to be a significant opportunity for Butler County as far as a positive influence on the local economy.”

 

Something just seems a little shady about this thing.....I doubt their promises to locals about the positive economic influence that the project will have.  I would envision this natural gas pipeline as being a negative in terms of property values.  I'm no chemical engineer or real estate prospector, but would having an explosive pipeline nearby hurt your property value.....or would it rather be an economic driver for a community  :|

From the 7/19/06 DDN:

 

New gas pipeline would cross 14 Ohio counties

The $4B project would cross the country and would be the largest line in 25 years.

By Staff and Wire Reports

 

COLUMBUS — A proposed route would take the nation's largest natural gas pipeline in about 25 years through parts of Greene, Warren and Clinton counties as it snakes from the West.  Two energy companies have begun a federal approval process for the $4 billion, 1,663-mile pipeline that would cross eight states and bring natural gas from the Rocky Mountains to the Midwest and East by 2009.  The pipeline is part of an energy boom in the Rockies spurred by growth in population and the natural gas industry.

 

Private property owners in the path of the Rockies Express Pipeline will be paid a one-time fee for use of their land.  Homes or other structures cannot be within 25 feet of the underground pipeline.  While construction would take place on some private property, "we don't foresee taking a pipeline and putting it through somebody's house," said Rick Rainey, project spokesman.

 

It would enter Ohio north of Cincinnati, continuing east across the state through Butler, Warren, Greene, Clinton and Fayette counties, among others, while staying south of Columbus.  It would cross 14 Ohio counties, passing through suburban areas, farmland and Appalachian foothills. 

 

Full story at http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/localnews/daily/071906pipeline.html

 

 

I have just mapped this line out through Muskingum County. I work for the county GIS office. For the most part, it follows existing easements.

From the 8/10/06 DDN:

 

Clearcreek family hopes pipeline won't compromise farm

By Lawrence Budd, Staff Writer

 

CLEARCREEK TWP., Warren County | Marilyn Slorp is hoping the company planning to run an underground natural gas pipeline through her family farm will be more considerate than those who split their woods constructing the Texas Eastern Pipeline 46 years ago.  Slorp and her husband, Donald, are among a dozen Warren County landowners who expect their land to be taken for development of the 1,663-mile Rockies Express Pipeline, a 42-inch, high-pressure line. 

 

"Hopefully they will be reasonable people," said Slorp, raised on the land she and her husband purchased from her parents, Bruce and Estella Young.  The Slorps and Youngs both live on land the Youngs purchased 70 years ago.

 

Rockies Express, a Houston-based limited liability partnership, plans to link this and two other pipelines to transport natural gas from the Rocky Mountains in northern Colorado to Ohio's eastern edge.  This month, company surveyors are expected to pass through the area, as the company reaches a final decision on the route it will propose to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

 

Full story at http://www.daytondailynews.com/community/content/localnews/neighbors/warren/081006pipeline.html

 

Officials weigh pipeline plans

Commissioners updated on construction possibilities

From: http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060818/NEWS01/608180406/1056

 

A proposed cross-country natural-gas pipeline - which would run through Butler and Warren counties - brings both benefits and concerns, Warren County commissioners say.  Representatives of the Rockies Express Pipeline - a planned 1,663-mile, multibillion dollar pipeline from Colorado to Ohio - provided more information about their project to commissioners at a meeting Thursday.

 

Commissioners Dave Young and Pat South applauded the project for helping decrease dependence on foreign fuel sources. However, Young and South said they hope that the pipeline can be built so that it disturbs as few properties as possible.  South remembered that in the late 1950s or early 1960s, a Texas Eastern pipeline came through Clearcreek Township. 

 

"Trees and land were damaged as the first pipeline went by," she said.  South said she hopes the Rockies Express pipeline minimizes those effects.  Jim Thompson, environmental manager for the project, said 67 percent of the proposed route follows existing easements already granted for other utilities.

 

 

From the 9/2/06 DDN:

 

Clearcreek trustees voice fears about pipeline

Officials want natural gas conduit to follow an existing easement.

By Lawrence Budd

Staff Writer

Saturday, September 02, 2006

 

CLEARCREEK TWP., Warren County — Recalling an accident that prompted evacuations in 2003, Clearcreek Twp. trustees are urging federal officials to seek some requirements of those involved in planning a $4 billion, 1,663-mile, 42-inch natural gas pipeline from northern Colorado to Ohio's eastern edge.  The three-member township board voted unanimously Thursday to urge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require companies planning the proposed Rockies Express Pipeline to follow easements for pipelines serving the Texas Eastern Pipeline Co.

 

In May 2003, that line ruptured at the terminal in Clearcreek Twp., triggering temporary evacuation of neighboring residents and students. The trustees also want the highest-grade pipe possible used by the company on sections in the township in northern Warren County.  The trustees also asked the federal agency reviewing the pipeline proposal to require Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and Sempra Pipelines and Storage, the companies designing and constructing the line, to pick a path minimizing hardship on property owners and development in the fast-growing area, just south of the Warren-Montgomery county line.

 

Full story at http://www.daytondailynews.com/localnews/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/09/01/ddn090206pipeline.html

 

From the 9/11/06 DDN:

 

Pipeline hearing set for Wednesday

By Lawrence Budd, Staff Writer

Monday, September 11, 2006

 

TRENTON — Southern Ohioans who want to comment on or learn more about a Texas-based company's plans to build a high-pressure underground natural gas pipeline from Colorado to eastern Ohio can attend a meeting Wednesday night in Butler County.  The hearing, from 7 to 10 p.m. at Edgewood High School auditorium in Trenton, is one of three set up in Ohio by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on the $4 billion, 1,663-mile, 42-inch Rockies Express Pipeline project.

 

Clearcreek Twp. Administrator Dennis Pickett plans to testify at the hearing about concerns about the company's plans to vary from established easements used by existing pipelines, including those serving the Texas Eastern Pipeline Products terminal, south of Springboro off Ohio 122 in Clearcreek Twp.  In the township much of the pipeline would veer away from the existing easement.  Trustees unanimously approved a resolution urging federal regulators to take steps to ensure the safety of residents living along the proposed route, protect property values and accommodate plans for roads and other utilities in this fast-growing area.

 

Full story at http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/09/10/ddn091106pipelines.html

 

(I'm actually a part of that development)

 

But you didn't hear that from me!

Butler, Warren debate pipeline

 

There were more questions and concerns than answers Wednesday night when about 100 landowners and others discussed plans for the largest natural gas pipeline built in the nation in 20 years.  Part of that pipeline will snake through Butler and Warren counties. 

 

The 42-inch wide Rockies Express Pipeline would extend 1,663 miles from Colorado to eastern Ohio, including through mostly rural areas of northern Butler and Warren counties.  It will take natural gas from the Rocky Mountain region to the upper Midwest and eastern United States.

 

Full story at http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060914/NEWS01/309140011

 

St. Clair residents hear pipeline plans

 

Representatives of a company planning to build a $4 billion natural gas pipeline through Butler County entertained questions from concerned residents at a St. Clair Twp. trustees meeting Tuesday night.  About 25 residents were on hand for the public meeting held at the township community center in Overpeck to hear specific details about the route and impact of the pipeline, a 1,663-mile high pressured natural gas line that will stretch from Colorado to eastern Ohio.

 

The residents were specifically concerned about the stretch of pipeline that will affect their properties.  According to preliminary plans, the pipeline would enter Butler County in Morgan Twp., then travel north and east across Reily and Hanover townships, pass near Seven Mile, then go south of Trenton and leave the county somewhere near the Middletown-Monroe border, officials said.

 

The company hopes to begin construction here in 2008 with the Ohio portion of the pipeline completed in 2009.

 

Full story at http://www.journal-news.com/hp/content/oh/story/news/local/2006/11/14/hjn111506pipeline.html

 

 

(I'm actually a part of that development)

 

But you didn't hear that from me!

 

well good thing you've posted it on the internet. since the internet is so good at keeping secrets.

A tad late, are we?

(insert mom joke here)

(insert b!tchslap here)

(insert comment about newark-lite)

(insert comment about chernobyl-heavy)

(insert change of subject back to mom joke)

(insert *bah* here)

From the 12/8/06 Cambridge Daily Jeffersonian:

 

Pipeline coming through

December 8, 2006

John Lowe

The Daily Jeffersonian

 

A project to pipe natural gas from Colorado to eastern Ohio will entail the pipeline running through southern Guernsey County, county trustees learned Thursday.  Rockies Express Pipeline is a proposed 1,663-mile natural gas pipeline system from Rio Blanco County, Colorado, to Monroe County, Ohio.  Trustees here learned that the pipeline is expected to extend through portions of Jackson, Millwood, Richland, Spencer, Valley and Westland Townships. 

 

The construction here likely will entail the temporary closing of portions of the roads listed above.  However, construction of the line here is not expected to take place until the spring of 2008.  As the date for construction approaches, a series of public hearings will take place in which landowners and others can ask questions and voice concerns.

 

Full story at http://www.daily-jeff.com/news/article/1154651

 

From the 12/15/06 Lancaster Eagle-Gazette:

 

Planned pipeline still on schedule

By CARL BURNETT JR.

The Eagle-Gazette Staff

 

LANCASTER -Crews continue surveying property for the proposed 622-mile pipeline that will bring natural gas from the Rocky Mountains to eastern Ohio.  The Rockies Express company plans to continue working on route selection and permit preparation between now and April 2007.  Rockies Express hopes to begin building the pipeline in early spring 2008, with completion planned for June 2009, if all the permits are approved.

 

The pipeline would be the largest in Fairfield County.  "We are in a pre-filing phase of the process, and we are seeking permission from property owners for land access to survey property," said Allan Fore, spokesman for Rockies Express Pipeline LLC.  Fore said the company is trying to find the best possible route for the proposed $4 billion pipeline planned to be built during the next three years.  The pipeline will extend through four states and across central Fairfield County.  If completed, it will be an additional source of natural gas for the Midwest and east coast.

 

Full story at http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061215/NEWS01/612150317/1002/rss01

 

From the 1/2/07 Newark Advocate:

 

Pipeline will impact Somerset farm, others across southeast Ohio

By LEEANN MOORE

For The Advocate

 

SOMERSET -- David Noll said the crop production over the pipeline that was installed on his family farm in the 1940s and again in 1989 is terrible.  Now, Noll is preparing for an even larger pipeline to be installed through the center of his 260-acre farm in Somerset.  The Rockies Express Pipeline-East is the easternmost extension of the pipeline system that, when finished, will stretch 622 miles with a route through multiple Ohio counties.

 

The underground steel pipeline will be 42 inches in diameter and will carry between up to two billion cubic feet of gas per day from Colorado and Wyoming to natural gas markets in the Midwest and Eastern United States.  Noll said the size of a 42-inch pipeline will have a detrimental effect on not only his farm, but the environment as well.  Destroyed drainage systems, lower crop yields and soil compaction on the third-generation family farm are only a few of Noll's concerns.

 

Full story at http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070102/NEWS01/701020305/1002/rss01

 

From the 7/10/07 Martins Ferry Times Leader:

 

Local pipeline ‘detour’ mapped

By BETTY J. P0KAS, Times Leader Area Editor

 

The Rockies Express Pipeline project, which originates in the Rocky Mountains, apparently will involve a “detour” in Belmont County when it reaches the Slope Creek Reservoir between Barnesville and Somerton.  Pipeline officials proposed a new route, slightly south of the reservoir, Monday night during the Barnesville Village Council session.

 

“I think everything worked out real well,” said Barnesville Village Administrator Roger Deal, this morning. “We asked the Rockies folks (for a change so the pipeline wouldn’t go through the reservoir). They did what they said they would do. They worked with us to resolve this issue.”

 

Village council appeared pleased, but did not vote at Monday’s meeting concerning the new route for the natural gas pipeline.  “I assured the Rockies folks that the vote would be coming at the next council meeting,” said Deal. “I think the result will be positive.”

 

Full story at http://timesleaderonline.com/news/articles.asp?articleID=8335

 

Yes, I'm familiar with this new pipeline... it is going adjacent to my property line.

 

I've attended all the local public meetings on this, talked to the guy mapping the route through SW OHio, called him on his cell phone at home, and suggested alternative routes.  The alternative route in my neighborhood was adopted. 

 

There was a 2nd new pipeline in the early planing stages that would essentially follow the existing Texas Eastern pipeline through SW Ohio and beyond.  Duke Energy was the lead on this additional natural gas pipeline.  That project was cancelled, though.

Last chance: Comment on pipeline

 

Butler and Warren county residents will have their last opportunity Wednesday night to publicly state their concerns about the 1,679-mile Rockies Express natural gas pipeline slated to pass just south of here.  A public-comment session will be from 6-10 p.m. at Edgewood High School, 5005 Oxford State Road, Trenton, on a draft environmental impact statement issued by the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in November.

 

The five-member commission is expected to make a final decision on the $4.5 billion project this spring after the final environmental-impact statement is completed.  The draft report concludes the 42-inch diameter pipeline, the eastern leg of which would run 639 miles from Missouri to Monroe County, Ohio, “would have mostly limited adverse environmental impact and would be an environmentally acceptable action.”

 

The commission will accept written comments received by Jan. 14.

 

Full story at http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080108/NEWS01/301080075

 

Report: Gas pipeline may mean lower costs

 

A glut of natural gas will hit the Dayton area next year and local ratepayers will be the beneficiaries, according to a new report by an energy-market analyst.  The reason: An immense quantity of natural gas is about to be pumped into the region from the Rocky Mountain states, but the pipelines haven't yet been built to pump it out to Northeast markets, said E. Russell "Rusty" Braziel of Bentek Energy LLC in Evergreen, Colorado.  Even if such pipelines did exist, there isn't yet enough demand on the eastern seaboard for all the new gas, he said.

 

The completion of the $6 billion Rockies Express Pipeline to the Lebanon Hub, scheduled for June 2009, will bring 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day into the hub.  That will result in "a traffic jam of huge proportions," sparking a price war between producers, Braziel predicted in a report issued this week.

 

Full story at http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/11/15/ddn111508pipeline.html

 

The completion of the $6 billion Rockies Express Pipeline to the Lebanon Hub, scheduled for June 2009,

 

That timeline sounds optomistic to me.

 

The pipeline is going adjacent to my property.  The stakes are now in the crop fields around me, but no digging has started.  The pumping station is currently under construction along I-75, just outside Monroe. 

 

I'd be very surprised if they could get the pipe laid and tested by the June, 2009 date.

What Ohio needs is coming via pipeline

Construction jobs, spending headed east across state

Wednesday,  April 29, 2009

By Mary Beth Lane

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

Ohio stands to benefit from some pipeline stimulus, as construction workers lay the final leg of the Rockies Express Pipeline.  Scheduled to be operating in the fall, the final segment will complete a 1,679-mile pipeline carrying natural gas from Colorado to Ohio, ending at Monroe County in the southeastern corner. 

 

MAP OF PIPELINE PROJECT

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2009/04/29/rockiespipe.ART_ART_04-29-09_A8_A4DMO3M.html

How many of those jobs are filled by Ohio workers?

 

This pipeline is running adjacent to my property.  They have been working on it for months, getting ready to bore under my road any day now. 

 

Most workers are from out-of-state.  I see countless pickup trucks parked at the site, and most are from LA, TX, ARK, etc. 

 

But some workers are from Ohio.  My BIL works for a concreate company, but lately has been working on the pipeline.  He said most workers are teams that travel out-of-state to work on this and other pipelines. He's considering joining one where he would travel to West Virginia (I think) to work on pipelines in that area.

 

Interesting stuff, how these projects are staffed.

 

Regardless of who fills the jobs, the workers are staying at local hotels, eating in local restaurants, and filling their trucks at local gas stations. 

 

Note - the pipeline was scheduled for completion in June.  But it's running way behind.  However, I suspect most work will be done by fall and the jobs will no longer be in Ohio. They told the local farmer that they'd be gone by April when he was ready to start preparing the fields for planting.  No the farmer can't plant a significant amount of his seed.