Map courtesy Pacific Connector A red line shows the proposed Pacific Connector gas pipeline route between Coos Bay and Malin.

June 15, 2006 by STEVE KADEL H&N

The Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline project's application was filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in April. If approved, construction would begin in summer 2009, with operation starting in fall 2010.

FERC will hold public meetings to take citizen opinion about the project during the summer. A 30-day period to take written testimony will be announced soon.

“We need to address each comment,” said Shannon Dunn, FERC assistant program manager.

The pipeline is needed because supplies from Canadian gas fields are declining, according to Pacific Connector project manager Steve Potts.

The other supply of gas to Southern Oregon, which comes from the U.S. Rockies, will be sent to states on the East Coast under pending projects.

The pipeline would provide more than 1,000 jobs during peak construction, Pacific Connector officials say. The project also would pay about $2 million in taxes each year to Klamath County.

Besides bolstering Klamath Falls supplies, gas from the new pipeline could be sent north along the Willamette Valley through the existing pipeline from Canada. It also could go north through Klamath, Deschutes, Jefferson, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam, Morrow and Umatilla counties via the line that now brings gas from the Rockies. It would provide gas for northwest Nevada, Northern California and other West Coast sites distributed through utility companies.

Pacific Connector officials held an informational meeting Wednesday at the Running Y Resort. The company must negotiate 75-foot-wide easements with 450 landowners along the route, said Lori Komatar, manager of Pacific Connector's land group.

Many are farmers who will lose one growing season during construction, she said.

“They'll be paid for the crop that is lost,” Komatar said. “We'll segregate the topsoil and put it back on top when we're through.”

The amount landowners are paid depends on the land's use, the amount of land affected, its market value, and how many trees and crops are impacted.

Chuck Hoy is among the farmers who would be affected. He grows hay and alfalfa near Keno. Hoy and his wife attended Wednesday's meeting and expressed support for the pipeline.

“We need any natural resources we can get,” he said. They're going to tear up my land, but they'll put it back together.”

Gas in liquid form would arrive at the Coos Bay terminal. It would be converted back to vapor at the Jordan Cove Energy Project in Coos Bay. Pacific Connector officials haven't decided where they would purchase the natural gas. Algeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Qatar and Trinidad are the leading exporters of liquefied natural gas.