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$75M gas pipeline project under way

It’s a construction job that’s long and narrow — very narrow — and mostly unseen. And it’s nothing like the Duke Energy transmission line that consumed the public last summer.

 

 

A contractor has set up two big staging areas — one in Hendersonville and one in Fletcher — and is deploying front-end loaders, backhoes, dump trucks and crews to run an upgraded 20-inch natural gas line from Mill Spring to the Duke Energy plant on Lake Julian. Without the line, there would be no conversion of the Duke plant from coal to gas, although the natural gas company committed to the line replacement long before Duke decided to convert the power plant.
“I have not heard a word about it until now,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said when a reporter called about the project this week.
Just as it lacked zoning power to stop the proposed Duke Energy transmission line, Henderson County also lacks the jurisdiction to say yes or no to the pipeline or dictate where it goes. Not that anyone is asking the county to intervene. Hundreds of homeowners, farmers, real estate agents and business owners called the county courthouse about the Duke Energy transmission line. As for the gas line … crickets.



‘Not anything like transmission line’


“It’s not anything like the transmission line,” state Rep. Chuck McGrady said. “There’s been a broad discussion about the need for more natural gas in Western North Carolina. There just hasn’t been the availability. The availability began to change because you’ve got the natural gas coming down from the north in Eastern North Carolina and at the same time you’ve got just a lot more natural gas on the market. In the recent past one of the inhibiting factors for manufacturing plants in Western North Carolina was the lack of capacity on the natural gas side.”
Andrew Tate, the president of the Partnership for Economic Development, said as far as he knows the county has not lost a prospect because of the lack of capacity. But he said his team of industrial recruiters welcome the bigger line nevertheless.
“We never approached a point where we had a limit in capacity that would take us out of competition for a project,” he said. “Our understanding is this is really a forward-looking investment for PSNC. They’re concerned about capacity going forward. The pipeline is really about bringing more volume into the area. We have not encountered a situation where PSNC could not serve a plant. … I don’t think they’re directly motivated by the new pipeline that’s going to be coming into the area, although many if not all of them are going to be PSNC customers.”


Runs 12 miles through county


Latex Construction Company, an Atlanta firm hired by PSNC Energy, has set up a temporary office and material storage lot for the project on the old Cason property Spartanburg Highway.
The 12-mile segment of the pipeline in Henderson County will begin in the Big Hungry area, run through Dana, pass North Henderson High School and generally follow the Howard Gap Road corridor. Besides the Spartanburg Highway yard, Latex also put up a staging area at Cane Creek Industrial Park near the old Steelcase plant.
If it gets the public’s attention at all, people may notice some road delays and blasting.
“If blasting will occur around a residence, Latex will notify the homeowner in person. Permits to do so will come from the county fire marshal,” said Persida Montanez, a PSNC spokeswoman.
The new gas pipeline for most of its route will be buried 28 inches deep within existing PSNC right-of-way. The contractor also will need to acquire temporary construction easements. One of construction easements created a problem for a developer selling homes in a new Clear Creek subdivision, McGrady said.
“He’s not against the gas,” he said of the developer. “He’s got contracts on a bunch of relatively low cost housing and timing is the key here. They’ve done a lot of sales.”
McGrady said he thought the developer was working out the situation with the contractor.


No new right of way


The pipeline project will include a combination of open cuts and boring under roads. “Probably 15 to 20 state roads will be cut in Henderson County,” said Carl Owenby, an engineering technician with NCDOT. “The largest cut will be U.S. 64 next to North Henderson High School.”
When it applied for the permit through the Utilities Commission, PSNC did not seek wider right of way than the existing path, said Jeff Davis, director of the natural gas division for the public staff of the Utilities Commission.
“The company doesn’t need any new right of way,” he said. “As far as I know unless it’s a very small thing right near the plant. They will maintain that right of way. They keep it in good order. They don’t want anybody putting a permanent structure on it. They don’t want anybody ditching over it or putting a road over it. A lot of times it looks like a greenway.”
The natural gas line serves Canton, where the Evergreen Packaging has embarked on a $50 million conversion from coal to natural gas. The paper mill needed to convert to natural gas to meet EPA emissions requirements. Legislators thought the conversion was important enough — given the plant’s 1,000 employees and $500 million Haywood County impact — that they pitched in $12 million in state money. From Canton, the gas line extends west all the way to Bryson City.
PSNC had plans to replace the 8-inch line long before the Duke Energy conversion came about.
“That line was put in like ‘50s vintage,” Davis said. “They want to make sure that it’s safe. Part of what they were doing with or without Duke was the pipeline integrity.”