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Hernando Today

Gas Company Plans New Line Through Hernando

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: June 17, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Florida Gas Transmission Company wants to run about 10 miles of new natural gas pipeline through Hernando County as part of a massive expansion project to meet burgeoning demand for the resource throughout the state.
The company expects to install most of the underground pipe parallel to where it already has a line, said company spokesman John Barnett.
"Our goal is to stay on the existing right of way to minimize any landowner or environmental impact," Barnett said.
The company seeks to run about 570 miles of new line from Texas into Florida, Alabama and Mississippi to provide an additional 1 billion cubic feet of gas as early as 2011.
About 430 miles of those lines will be built parallel to existing lines. Barnett said the company is in the process of contacting landowners in the other 140 miles to negotiate an easement along their property.
Barnett could not confirm whether that will be necessary in Hernando County. He said the need to take property through eminent domain is rare.
The company's map indicates where its existing 36-inch pipeline runs through west central Hernando County roughly in the area of the Suncoast Parkway.
Barnett, citing security concerns, declined to release a street-level map to show a more specific location of the existing pipeline. Efforts to secure more specifics on the existing pipeline through the county or the state's Public Service Commission were unsuccessful Tuesday.
Barnett did say the existing line runs along about 50 feet of right of way about a mile west of the Suncoast Parkway.
That's roughly in the area of an existing power line corridor. A Progress Energy spokeswoman was unable to confirm whether the Florida Gas Transmission shares the corridor because the company must negotiate directly with landowners.
The vow to stick to existing corridors whenever possible is familiar to residents here. Progress Energy seeks to run more transmission lines through Hernando County and has made the same promise.
The company is expected to soon file a report with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to identify the environmental impacts of the project, said Mary O'Driscoll, a spokeswoman for the commission.
The commission is currently seeking public comment on the project. FERC held four public meetings throughout the state last month, but none were scheduled in Hernando County.
The current public comment is one of several opportunities for the public to weigh in, O'Driscoll said.
"We're very early in the filing process," O'Driscoll said. "There's ample time for people to be able to comment and review what (Florida Gas Transmission) is filing."

On the Web

To find out more about Florida Gas Transmission Company's plans for a new natural gas pipeline, visit www.panhandleenergy.com/phaseviii.asp or www.ferc.gov. Florida Gas can also be reached at 1-877-663-9161.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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