Rural Georgians Battle Gas Pipeline Plan

Alvin and Maree Patrick were overjoyed when they first heard about plans to pave the dirt road that runs beside their 22 rural acres--finally they could plan to build homes for their children and grandchildren.

But a large Alabama gas company has other plans for the Patricks’ land. It wants to build a 160-mile pipeline that would cut a 50-foot-wide swath through their hay field and pecan trees, right along the road where the couple would someday like to see new driveways and mailboxes.

The Patricks and their neighbors also have other concerns--last year, a pipeline owned by the same company exploded in New Mexico, killing 12 people.

“It’s really awful,” said Maree Patrick, 69. “You work all your life for something and somebody just comes in and takes what you’ve got.”

While most of the $240 million pipeline would be buried along established utility corridors, Cypress Natural Gas Co. has met stiff opposition to get 14 miles through Bloomingdale, a small city of 2,500 15 miles west of Savannah.

Residents worry that a pipeline would diminish their property values and stymie growth headed their way from Savannah. And then there’s safety.

“Who wants to lay down next to a gas line that may blow up any minute?” said Maree Patrick. She says the pipe would run 300 feet from the couple’s house.

Her 71-year-old husband nods in agreement. “That natural gas’ll get you, I don’t care what they say.”

Cypress officials have met with Bloomingdale residents to ease their fears. They promise a high-density pipe, coated with chemicals to prevent corrosion, buried at least 3 feet. They promise to pay landowners handsomely for use of their property.

But locals can’t get past the August explosion near Carlsbad, N.M., a blast that left a crater 86 feet long and 20 feet deep. That pipeline, built in the 1950s, is owned by Cypress parent company El Paso Energy.

“What happened in Carlsbad was a terrible tragedy,” said David Weaver, El Paso’s southern regional director. “We try not to mislead people by giving false promises or guarantees. We do tell them, here are all the features we’re designing into our pipeline that will make it safe.”

But the residents aren’t budging. Elected officials in Bloomingdale, nearby Pooler and Chatham County have publicly opposed the gas line. Hundreds of residents have signed a petition that calls for the line to be rerouted. Rep. Jack Kingston, who represents the area in Congress, delivered the petition to federal regulators.

The pipeline is part of a plan to reopen the Cypress gas terminal on Elba Island, off Savannah. The $150-million plant was shut down in 1983 after operating for only five years.

The company sees an opportunity to capitalize on expanding needs for energy in the South, particularly in Florida, where more than 1 million new residential customers are expected by 2009.

Natural gas would be shipped from Trinidad to Elba Island, and then pumped to existing gas lines near Jacksonville, Fla. The pipeline could transport 310 million cubic feet of gas per day--equal to 40% of the daily gas consumption for all of Georgia.

Cypress must get a route for the Georgia-Florida line approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Cypress plans to file an application later this month and hopes to begin construction next summer.

Weaver says the 27 Bloomingdale property owners would be paid at fair-market value for allowing the gas line to cross their land. But residents see no other benefits.

“We’re not getting anything out of it other than upsetting people like the Patricks,” said Bloomingdale Mayor Billy Strozier. “I don’t know of any good it would do us. And it might do us some harm.”

Henry Morgan, a Savannah attorney whose family owns 100 acres for harvesting pine trees along the proposed route, is more blunt: “Why . . . do I have to save Florida?”

Morgan has suggested the company use a more circuitous route that would bypass Bloomingdale following existing utility rights-of-way.

That would add 10 miles to the pipeline, at more than $1 million per mile. Weaver said it would also impact more landowners, about 85, who would have to give up another 50-foot strip of property.

“We meet landowners all the time who tell us enough is enough” when there’s already a utility line on their property, Weaver said.

If regulators approve the pipeline, attorney Morgan said he may take the gas company to court. The Patricks say they’ve been told the best they could hope for is to hire a good lawyer who can get them more money.

“I don’t want no fair-market value,” Maree Patrick said. “I want them to get out of here and leave me alone.”