Opponents of a planned natural gas pipeline through northwest Ohio are getting their legal ducks in a row and picking up support among neighbors and local public officials.
They’re accusing planners of the NEXUS high-pressure gas pipeline of using high-pressure tactics to get property rights from landowners along the route, which crosses northern Ohio toward a planned linkup with a pipeline network in Michigan and Canada.
Meanwhile, the group formed to oppose the pipeline’s passage through Eastern Fulton county is working with other opponents along the route and getting the attention of state lawmakers and other officials.
Terry Lodge, a Toledo lawyer representing five advocacy groups — two of them formed to oppose the pipeline route — said in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that FERC is, by the wording of its public notification to landowners allowing pipeline companies to start negotiating with landowners, including the threat of eminent domain, before the the companies are properly authorized to begin work.
“Pipeline companies are threatening property owners in their study corridors (strips of land identified as possible pipeline routes) that FERC will be vesting them with eminent domain powers, and waring that FERC’s licensing decision is a given. They are trying to bully owners into conceding easements,” Lodge wrote.
Spectra Energy, the principal company behind the NEXUS project, “pre-filed” this month with FERC, starting a year-long process in which affected parties can have public input into the project. Spectra, which is working with the DTE public utility in Michigan on the NEXUS pipeline, hopes to have the 42-inch pipeline in place by late 2017 and carrying 2 billion cubic feet of gas a day from the Marcellus and Utica shale fields.
It’s not the only pipeline planned; the Rover pipeline, also linking the shale fields with the Michigan pipeline grid, is planned for a route heading west to Defiance before swinging north into Michigan.
Opponents say the pipeline will offer no benefit to the property owners whose land it goes through, as it carries natural gas to a pipeline network in Canada for export overseas.
NEXUS spokesman Arthur Diestel has said in public meetings and in e-mailed answers to reporters’ questions that Spectra and NEXUS want to hear public input and are willing to work with landowners to lessen the impact the pipeline has on their homes and farms.
Meanwhile, a local group against the pipeline route continues to pick up support.
About 150 people crowded into the sales room Wednesday night at Johnston’s Fruit Farm near Swanton to hear what Neighbors against NEXUS had to say.
NAN, formed late last year to fight the pipeline’s planned route through eastern Fulton County, is not against the idea of a pipeline but wants the route shifted to the south and west, away from farms, concentrations of people, and public forest land including Oak Openings Preserve.
“And if a farmer doesn’t want the pipeline on his land, we should respect that,” said Liz Athaide-Victor, a Swancreek Township resident who is spearheading NAN.
“We’re not against pipelines. We just want it done safely,” said Fernando Mora, owner of Johnston’s. Mora, disputing pipeline companies’ claims that farming could resume almost immediately on land in which a pipeline was buried, said it would take several years to re-establish fruit trees — and land-use agreements would prohibit trees being planted over a pipeline anyway.
Athaide-Victor told people at Wednesday night’s gathering it’s necessary to “stay on your elected officials” and insist all dealings with the pipeline company be public. She said pipeline officials meeting last week with commissioners of Fulton, Lucas and Wood counties were reluctant to recognize lawyer Lodge when he wanted to ask a question, but she did notice pipeline officials were looking at alternate routes proposed by NAN and other groups.
NAN and pipeline opponents in eastern Ohio have been successful in getting the attention of state officials.
Athaide-Victor said Gov. John Kasich’s energy policy people “are talking back and forth with us” after a meeting in Columbus earlier this month organized largely by pipeline opponents in Medina County.
There’s also a meeting scheduled with representatives of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, 1:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at Swanton Public Library, Athaide-Victor said.
Locally, three townships have come out in opposition to the pipeline: Swancreek, in the southeast corner of Fulton County; Providence, in the southwest corner of Lucas County, and Waterville Township in Lucas County.
Trustees in Amboy Township, in the northeast corner of Fulton County, considered a resolution Jan. 19 but have not yet decided.
Several townships south of Cleveland, along with commissioners in Summit County, have also approved resolutions against the pipeline through their territories.
The resolutions might have little legal weight, because the ultimate authority is federal, but Athaide-Victor and Swancreek Township trustee Rick Kazmierczak said the resolutions’ influence will add up.
“They (FERC) have to respond to everything that’s sent to them,” Athaide-Victor said.
According to the FERC web site, NEXUS has scheduled several mandatory public open houses at various locations. Locally, they are:
* 5-7:30 p.m. Feb. 5 at Terra State Community College, Fremont;
* 5-7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 at Swanton High School, 601 N. Main St., Swanton;
* 5-7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at Central Park West, 3141 Central Park W. Drive, Toledo;
* 5-7:30 p.m. Feb. 17 at Adrian Tobias Center, Adrian College, Adrian, Mich.; and
* 5-7:30 p.m. Feb. 18 at Lincoln High School, 7426 Willis Road, Ypsilanti, Mich.
