Jun 28, 2019 3 min read

Most of the 16.7-mile project that a pipeline company is seeking to build – using eminent domain if necessary – would stretch through Washington County.

Equitrans LP filed an “application for certificate of public convenience and necessity” with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its proposed Tri-State Corridor project on May 31. If built, the pipeline would start near natural gas processing facilities near Bulger in Smith Township and snake south and west through Jefferson Township.

The 16-inch, $96.2 million pipeline would have the capacity to transmit up to 140 million cubic feet of shale gas a day to the power plant that Virginia-based Energy Solutions Consortium plans to build in Brooke County, W.Va. Only the last quarter-mile of the pipeline would fall outside Washington County.

To get this far, the would-be operator of the plant had to contend with coal interests opposed to the plans.

Last year, the energy consortium’s subsidiary Brooke County Power fended off a challenge to its plans for the plant by a group called the Ohio Valley Jobs Alliance – funded in part by coal-mining company Murray Energy – which appealed the West Virginia Public Service Commission’s approval of the plans, but the state Supreme Court affirmed the commission’s decision in a November ruling.

In its application documents, Equitrans – owned by subsidiaries of Pittsburgh-based EQM Midstream Partners – cited language that the West Virginia Public Service Commission used when it granted a permit for the plant, saying it would offset the closures of seven coal-fired plants in the region since 2012 and power 655,000 homes a year.

The pipeline company is arguing that these predictions satisfy the requirements for FERC certification.

“Without the (pipeline), the Power Plant would not be built and none of those public benefits would be realized,” according to the company’s documents.

If granted, the certificate would allow EQM to invoke eminent domain if it can’t arrive at needed right-of-way agreements with landowners through negotiation.

The plant site will be on about 20 acres leased from the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources in the Cross Creek Wildlife Management Area. The facility is expected to cost $884 million to build.

Construction of the pipeline would start in June 2020. It’s expected to be in service by August of 2021. Equitrans said in a letter to landowners that its application and environmental reviews will probably last between 9 and 12 months.

Information about the plans and how to submit public comment on them are available at ferc.gov by searching for docket number CP19-473. Copies of the application and related materials are on file at the Burgettstown, Brooke County and Follansbee (W.Va.) Branch public libraries.