Virginian Pilot: Natural gas pipeline in Chesapeake
By Victoria Bourne
The Virginian-Pilot
Aug 3, 2017 Updated Aug 4, 2017
Stephen M. Katz | The Virginian-Pilot
An aerial look at the Georgetown section of Chesapeake, on Monday, July 31, 2017, where Virginia Natural Gas proposes to lay a pipeline.
CHESAPEAKE
A natural gas pipeline project has sparked opposition from residents, and a state senator says he’s prepared to fight it on their behalf.
“The community is against it, so I’m against it,” said Sen. Lionell Spruill Sr., who represents the 5th District. That includes his Georgetown neighborhood in Chesapeake, where a section of underground pipeline called the Southside Connector Distribution Project is to be constructed by Virginia Natural Gas along an existing Dominion Energy right of way.
People in the neighborhoods of Holly Glen, Holly Point and Georgetown said they already have drainage problems and power lines to contend with, and that adding a pipeline poses risks to their safety and property values. An Aug. 16 rally has been organized to make more neighbors aware of the project, and an online petition has nearly 300 supporters.
“I don’t know how they came up with this,” said Cheryl Berry, whose small Holly Glen backyard sits at the edge of a roughly 30-foot-wide swath of ankle-high grass and tall evergreen shrubs. It separates the neighborhood of single-family condominiums from Georgetown Colony backyards on the other side. Transmission towers dot the right-of-way, and power lines stretch high overhead.
Cheryl Berry, a homeowner in the Holly Glen neighborhood of Chesapeake, shows where Virginia Natural Gas proposes to lay a pipeline behind her home Monday, July 31, 2017.
Virginia Natural Gas wants to build a 9-mile pipeline from Norfolk to Chesapeake that company officials said will fill a gap between two main supply lines . Construction is set to start in October and be completed by fall 2018.
The project will not require City Council approval unless the pipeline crosses city property, according to Chesapeake’s website. The State Corporation Commission is the governing authority.
Norfolk, where the pipeline would utilize about 3 miles of city right-of-way, has not taken action on the project.
“Virginia Natural Gas made an arbitrary decision to choose a path through Georgetown even though permission to use Dominion Power easements had not been granted,” Chesapeake Mayor Alan Krasnoff said. “We’ve since learned (the) electric easements do not include the right-of-way to install underground gas lines.”
But a May 11 email from Virginia Natural Gas attorney Stephen Watts II to City Attorney Jan Proctor points out that the firm “will be acquiring those easement rights directly from the owners.”
According to George Faatz, the gas company’s director of government and community affairs, about 80 residential and commercial easements from Norfolk and Chesapeake will need to be acquired. Some have been signed, others are being negotiated, he said, and an encroachment agreement with Dominion is being finalized.
Faatz declined to provide an estimated cost for the project, citing soon-to-be-posted construction bids. “It’s a significant capital investment in our system,” he said. The 24-inch pipe will be installed at least 3 feet deep, officials said.
Faatz said the project will increase service reliability to the company’s 300,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers. While not the cheapest or most direct route, he said, the path is the safest and least disruptive.
“There is no perfect world for one of these projects,” he said, “but the utility corridor is the best place.”
Stephen M. Katz | The Virginian-Pilot
Taylor Schofield, a homeowner in the Georgetown Point neighborhood of Chesapeake, considers Virginia Natural Gas’s proposed pipeline – that would run behind his home – to be a danger to the community. As seen Monday, July 31, 2017.
Company officials said that makes it more accessible for maintenance and less likely someone will dig into the pipe. The firm also performs regular inspections, continuously monitors the flow of natural gas and adds mercaptan, causing a rotten-egg smell so people notice leaks.
If property owners decline to sign off on the easements, Faatz said, acquiring them through eminent domain is the last resort. “We have a very good track record of not having to go to that end,” he said.
As a fellow Georgetown resident, Spruill said, he is willing to chip in personally if homeowners need help with legal representation.
Faatz said Virginia Natural Gas’ project is “100 percent independent“ of the controversial Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which he noted has yet to secure permitting.
But “if and when the ACP is constructed, this pipeline will be able to utilize ACP gas, and it will be able to push (natural gas) throughout Chesapeake and Virginia Beach and on up into the Peninsula,” Faatz said.
Norfolk’s City Council has not taken any action regarding the pipeline, Mayor Kenny Alexander said, but the city has sought assurances that if any property is damaged or altered, the owners will get just compensation.
“The reality is, Chesapeake City Council has no legal opportunity to weigh in regarding the pipeline or its path,” Krasnoff said, “although we should because so many residents and families may be affected.”
The route for the project starts at Salter Street in Norfolk, runs down East Virginia Beach Boulevard, passing Cedar Grove Cemetery and Attucks Theatre, and hangs a right along Tidewater Boulevard toward Harbor Park and under the Elizabeth River.
The pipeline would pick up on the other side at South Main Street in the Berkley section of Norfolk and head southeast to Chesapeake, where Faatz said it hops onto the Dominion Energy right-of-way, a portion of which sits between an apartment community called Holly Point and a nearly 30-year-old neighborhood called Georgetown Point, as well as Holly Glen and Georgetown Colony on the other side of Providence Road.
“It’s an excellent project; we just don’t want it coming through our neighborhood,” said Jackie Cooper, president of the Holly Glen condominium association, with about 134 residences. At least one homeowner has received a compensation offer of $988, according to a document obtained by The Pilot, but Cooper said the association has said “no” to the project and is seeking advice from an attorney.
Stephen M. Katz | The Virginian-Pilot
Stacey Harrison, a homeowner in the Holly Glen neighborhood of Chesapeake, considers Virginia Natural Gas’s proposed pipeline – that would run behind her home – to be a danger to the community. As seen Monday, July 31, 2017.
“Why would they take it through such a heavily populated area?” said Alva Poole, who has lived in her Holly Point apartment for two years. “There’s too many people out here it’s going to affect.”
The community of one- to three-bedroom apartments is mostly made up of retirees and military members, Poole said. It’s a nice neighborhood with reasonable rents, but she wonders how many people would want to stay, let alone move there, if the pipeline comes to pass.
Company officials said they have not requested easements from homes along Rock Creek and Allison drives in Georgetown Point and Colony, but residents there said the pipeline is still too close for comfort. They worry about gas leaks and the pipe’s proximity to the power lines.
“I think we have enough danger with all these wires,” said Taylor Schofield, whose Rock Creek Drive backyard abuts the utility right-of-way.
“There’s just a lot of disgust,” said Jim Hampton, another homeowner opposing the project. “This is a community of middle- and upper-middle-class people that have invested a lot in these homes.”
Faatz said the gas company wants to address everybody’s concerns and have a “very constructive dialogue,” but the pathway chosen for the pipeline is the safest route.
”This is the route we’re moving forward with,” he said.
– Pilot writer Eric Hartley contributed to this report.
Victoria Bourne, 757-222-5563, victoria.bourne@pilotonline.com