Feds Approve Environmental Impact of Nexus Pipeline

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday issued a final environmental analysis that likely clears the way for construction of a 256-mile pipeline that will stretch from Columbiana County to Michigan and connect with an existing pipeline into Canada.

The Nexus pipeline project, a partnership between Spectra Energy Partners, Texas Eastern Transmission, DTE Gas Co., and Vector Pipeline, will run from Utica East Ohio’s Kensington cryogenic plant in southern Columbiana County near Hanoverton and angle northwest through 11 counties before turning north into Michigan.

FERC, in a 541-page environmental impact statement, determined that construction of the pipeline would result in “some adverse environmental impacts, but impacts would be reduced to less-than-significant levels” once Nexus implements specific mitigation measures outlined in its plan.

According to the project’s pre-filing with FERC in December of 2015, the pipeline stands to affect 3,479 properties, and some landowners have petitioned to re-route the project away from more populated areas.

Construction is expected to begin in the first or second quarter of 2017. The pipeline consists of 255.7 miles of 36-inch diameter greenfield natural gas pipeline, 1.2 miles of 30-inch and 36-inch pipeline, and 4.4 miles of new 36-inch pipeline looping in Ohio.

The project will also consist of four new compressor stations, six new metering and regulation stations, and 17 new mainline valves in Ohio and Michigan.

The Nexus pipeline will have the capacity to transport 1.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day out of Ohio’s Utica shale region.

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