Public events announced on proposed gas pipeline

A new series of public meetings have been announced to discuss the proposed NEXUS natural gas pipeline that would stretch across much of Ohio, including Erie and Sandusky counties.It's the second round of open houses that will allow residents to look at maps of tentative proposed routes and pose questions to employees of NEXUS Gas Transmission LLC.The proposed pipeline could be as wide as 42 inches and would be 250 miles long, connecting Kensington, Ohio, to Willow Run, Mich. Jim Kantzes, a Florence Township resident unhappy about the fact that the pipeline's tentative route passes near his house, has joined other anti-pipeline activists in Medina, Fulton and Summit counties to form CORD, the "Coalition to Reroute Nexus," which seeks to move the pipeline away from residential areas.Kantzes said he recently learned the pipeline plans call for four compressor stations along the route to pump the gas, including one in Erie County, although the proposed location isn't known yet."We're going to try to get that out of them at the open house," he said.Pipeline routes must be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The official NEXUS website, nexusgastransmission.com, says that NEXUS Gas Transmission has turned in a pre-filing to the agency. An application would be filed by the last quarter of this year, with approval by FERC seen as taking place in the fourth quarter of 2016 and construction beginning in early 2017.People living along proposed pipeline routes may have more tools than they realize to force a new route or to seek better compensation, the leader of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a nonprofit libertarian law center in Columbus.While pipeline companies can use eminent domain, they can't immediately seize Ohioans' private property, even if FERC has approved a pipeline route, said Maurice A. Thompson, executive director of the 1851 Center. Government agencies also must provide homeowners with notice of hearings, he said. "Simply asserting the proper defenses can force pipeline companies to choose a pipeline route that goes around objecting landowners properties, or for enterprising Ohioans, raise offers for their land by hundreds of thousands of dollars," Thompson said.Thompson said his center intervened in another pipeline case, which pitted Texas Eastern Transmission against homeowners in Belmont County.He said his center may intervene in the NEXUS case, but would not do so until a proposed route is filed. Want to Go?WHAT: Open houses on proposed NEXUS gas transmission line.WHERE and WHEN: ERIE COUNTY: 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4, Margaretta Elementary School cafeteria, 5906 Bogart Road West, Castalia.SANDUSKY COUNTY: 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5, Terra State Community College Neely Conference & Hospitality Center, 2830 Napoleon Road, Fremont.