Natural Gas Company Seeks to Run 1st Pipeline Under Chesapeake Bay

A Delaware natural gas company has proposed building the first pipeline under the Chesapeake Bay, to pump gas from Cove Point in Southern Maryland to Delaware starting in winter 2009, according to a federal official.

Eastern Shore Natural Gas's $93 million project is in the early stages of the state and federal approval process, but some environmental groups and a state legislator are raising questions about its environmental effects.

Calvert County "has pretty much maxed out our utility commitment for the rest of the nation," said Del. Sue Kullen (D-Calvert). "We need to kind of protect our back yard."

The gas company is soliciting input before it seeks formal approval, said Mary O'Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which must approve the pipeline. The project was reported first in the Baltimore Sun yesterday. This pre-filing stage can take up to six months, and it is followed by a four- to 10-month approval process, she said.

The company also must seek state and local permits -- a process that would run concurrently and take up to two years, said Gary T. Setzer, program administrator for wetlands and waterways in the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The pipeline, ranging in diameter from 10 to 24 inches, would start in Cove Point, cross the bay into Dorchester and Caroline counties, and connect with the gas company's system in Sussex County, Del. The nearly 75-mile line would expand the company's 50-year-old pipeline by 33 percent and would add another source of gas to the existing pipeline, which provides gas from the Gulf of Mexico, said Elaine Bittner, vice president of Eastern Shore Natural Gas.

But the route is of great concern to Robert J. Etgen, executive director of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. Etgen, whose group owns 40,000 acres in the Eastern Shore region, said he is worried that the natural gas company might pollute and damage the bay.

"It's going to have obvious ecological impacts during construction and after, and they're going to need to address that," he said "This is another major capital project with obvious ramifications for the bay."

Kim Coble, Maryland executive director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said that members of her group are worried about the project being the first pipeline in the bay but that they need more details before taking an official position.

"It's the first pipeline. I don't know of any other that goes under the bay," Coble said. "That's why we feel it's very important to take a very thorough look at it."

Bittner said that although some land might be disturbed, 80 percent of the pipeline's path would be on existing rights of way. A seven-mile stretch would run through the bay, and the route was designed to cross the bay's narrowest section, she said.

Rick Abbruzzese, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O'Malley (D), said the governor has not taken a position on the proposal and is waiting for input from state agencies.

Dominion Resources Services, which runs the gas-processing plant where the pipe would originate, has not taken a position on the proposal. A Dominion spokesman said the company has many questions about the Eastern Shore proposal, including where on its property the pipe would connect.