Taking a pass on the PIPELINE

Farmers, vintners, timber owners are upset about a pair of 100-mile-long gas pipelines proposed for Washington County

By Christian Gaston

The Forest Grove News-Times, Nov 14, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

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“People shouldn’t have to beg to get information on these kinds of very significant projects,” Johnson said.

But as a state legislator, Johnson’s hands are tied.

In 2005, the federal government removed state agencies from the pipeline process, except in the areas of air quality, water quality and coastal zone management, the last of which is the domain of the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners.

“I have virtually no role here, other than to try to be a pathway for information for people,” Johnson said.

Opposition group

Bell’s not alone. Wick says that the projects’ amorphous nature is leaving landowners a bit dizzy.

“The pipelines are moving all around so we really don’t know who’s going to be affected and who’s not going to be affected,” Wick said.

The Columbia River Keepers held a meeting two weeks ago in Forest Grove to round up property owners opposed to the two pipeline projects.

Brent Foster, the group’s executive director, told residents they would never defeat the project fighting property by property. They needed to organize.

And, he warned them, it’s going to be expensive.

The 100 or so people in the room decided to form the Washington County chapter of Oregon Citizens Against the Pipeline. They’re joined by a Yamhill County chapter and a Clackamas County chapter.

The idea is to create a working group of citizens that can share information about a project that could mean a loss of productive timber land, grapes or, in the case of Anne Berblinger, the upending of her organic farm.

Berblinger told the News-Times that she’s not sure where the pipeline will go or how it will ultimately affect her operation.

“These developers are not providing clear reliable information about the exact route of the pipelines,” Berblinger said.

Wick hopes that by getting together in person (a meeting in Yamhill County is in the works) and on the web (http://oregonfirst.net/nolng/blogspot/), affected property owners will be able to trade notes.

Tomorrow night offers yet another chance for property owners to sort out what’s going on in their backyards. FERC will hold what’s called a “scoping meeting” for the Palomar pipeline project at Pacific University in Forest Grove.

These meetings are a formal process, run by the federal agency and meant to gather citizen input about potential environmental impacts from the project. A similar meeting for the Oregon LNG pipeline was held in September.

The process is still far from completion. Palomar representatives have said they’d like to start pumping gas by 2011. Oregon LNG recently announced they likely wouldn’t start until 2014.

Dan Serres, who’s been following the pipeline projects for the Columbia River Keepers, says the meetings are a great opportunity for property owners to outline potential problems, but only if they first could get information about how the pipelines might affect them.

“My concern with the Palomar meeting is similar to my concern with the Oregon LNG meeting,” Serres said. “People are being asked to comment about a project that they don’t know much about.”

Serres says that the normal confusion property owners would feel about the federal regulatory process is doubled because of the two pipeline projects.

“It’s our position that these two pipelines asking for permission at once amounts to a fiasco,” Serres said.

Serres is frustrated that FERC is letting two pipeline developers go through the process of obtaining easements and contacting property owners without a formal need assessment. And he’s puzzled by the rush to build, given reports that most of the gas going through Oregon will end up in California.

Yamhill County Commissioners echoed his concerns in a letter filed with FERC on Sept. 24.

“If these allegations are true, we do not believe the terminal and pipeline should be in Oregon,” the commissioners wrote.

Officials for both pipeline projects have denied that their end goal is to pump the gas south, and say that bringing gas in from off-shore is necessary to make up for the anticipated fall-off in Canadian production.

If that need exists, Sen. Johnson wants a national conversation to sort out the best location for LNG terminals. Letting the market sort it out, as FERC has described its role, doesn’t work for her.

“I think people understand that when government exercises the power to take your land that there’s some high public good, and I think people have been shocked to realize that the beneficiary in this case can be a privately held, for-profit company,” Johnson said.

Serres isn’t convinced there’s a need. But even if all of the natural gas running through the pipes stays in Oregon, it won’t be going to homes in Gales Creek, Timber or Gaston.

NW Natural Gas Co. doesn’t serve any of those areas.

“I wouldn’t complain as much if the gas was going to be used in Oregon,” Wick said, “but it’s going to run through my property and I’m not going to get any.”

MEETING THURSDAY, Nov. 15

What: Officials from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hear concerns from citizens about a proposed pipeline project that will carry natural gas from terminals in Astoria to Molalla

When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15

Where: Washburn Hall, Pacific University, 2043 College Way, Forest Grove

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