A Pipeline Primer: Who, How, Where and What The Heck?

Kim Payn­ter / WHYY/Newsworks.org

A new gath­er­ing pipeline in Lycoming County, PA.

Pennsylvania’s nat­ural gas boom won’t be much of one unless gas com­pa­nies can get the gas to mar­ket. Nat­ural gas trav­els through under­ground pipelines that criss-cross the United States. Some are large, inter­state pipelines. Oth­ers are smaller lines that go from the well head to what’s called a “gath­er­ing line.” And then the gath­er­ing lines take the gas to trans­mis­sion lines. Com­pres­sor sta­tions are needed at points along the larger pipelines to pres­sur­ize the gas and make it move.

A new web of pipelines in Penn­syl­va­nia will have to be built to trans­port the gas. The new pipeline con­struc­tion will ben­e­fit those in need of jobs, and the com­pa­nies that do the build­ing. But some res­i­dents and local politi­cians worry about the envi­ron­men­tal impacts, and say the cur­rent reg­u­la­tory struc­ture needs updat­ing. Here’s what you need to know about pipelines in Penn­syl­va­nia, so far:

How many miles of under­ground nat­ural gas pipelines exist in Pennsylvania?

Nobody knows. That’s because Penn­syl­va­nia does not have one reg­u­la­tory author­ity that over­sees intrastate gas pipelines. In fact, out of 31 states that pro­duce nat­ural gas, Alaska is the only other state, besides Penn­syl­va­nia, that doesn’t.

Here’s what we do know about pipeline mileage. Pennsylvania’s Pub­lic Util­ity Com­mis­sion does inspect about 46,000 miles of pipelines that are cat­e­go­rized as pub­lic util­i­ties. That means those pipelines deliver gas directly to a con­sumer, heat­ing their home or allow­ing them to cook. The PUC has eight inspec­tors who enforce both state and fed­eral regulations.

The fed­eral gov­ern­ment, through the Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion, reg­u­lates the inter­state pipeline sys­tem. Those are the pipelines that travel across state bound­aries. One exam­ple would be the Transcon­ti­nen­tal, or Transco, pipeline that trav­els from south Texas to the major east coast mar­kets of New Jer­sey and New York City. More than 55,000 miles of inter­state pipelines travel through Pennsylvania.

Some coun­ties in Penn­syl­va­nia have taken it upon them­selves to fig­ure out where pipelines cross beneath their land. Brad­ford County Plan­ning Com­mis­sion esti­mates that its county has about 500 miles of nat­ural gas pipelines and has actu­ally mapped those lines.

Susan Phillips / WHYY/Newsworks.org

The inter­state Ten­nessee pipeline runs through Wayne County, Pa. with gas on its way to New Jer­sey and New York.

So who inspects all of these unknown miles of pipeline?

In some cases, nobody. Thou­sands of miles of what are called “gath­er­ing lines” do not fall under the juris­dic­tion of the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion.  And the Depart­ment of Transportation’s Pipeline and Haz­ardous Mate­ri­als Safety Admin­is­tra­tion does not have the resources to inspect them. PHMSA has asked Penn­syl­va­nia to broaden the PUC’s juris­dic­tion to include these lines. That was one of the rec­om­men­da­tions made by the Mar­cel­lus Shale Com­mis­sion. And state Rep. Matt Baker, a Brad­ford County Repub­li­can, has intro­duced leg­is­la­tion that would grant the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion juris­dic­tion over most of the pipelines, except those that are clas­si­fied as class 1 — which are those that run through rural areas. State Sen. Lisa Baker, a Luzerne County Repub­li­can has a sim­i­lar bill, but Sen­a­tor Baker’s bill includes class 1. Many miles of these new gath­er­ing lines will be in rural areas, and so, are not cur­rently inspected by either PHMSA or the PUC.

How many new miles of pipelines need to be built to trans­port the Mar­cel­lus Shale gas to mar­kets?
Nobody knows that either. And here’s the prob­lem. The state’s cur­rent net­work of pipelines is not equipped to carry the vol­ume of shale gas with the nec­es­sary pres­sure to get it to mar­ket. The new pipelines will have to be larger in diam­e­ter. That means, if they go through forested areas, a clear cut of between 70 to 130 feet wide is needed to lay the pipe and keep it avail­able for main­te­nance. The Penn­syl­va­nia Chap­ter of the Nature Con­ser­vancy esti­mates that between 10,000 to 23,000 new miles of pipeline will be needed to trans­port the Mar­cel­lus Shale gas yield.

Kim Payn­ter / WHYY/Newsworks.org

A marker indi­cates the loca­tion of where the pro­posed Marc 1 Hub pipeline will be built in Lycoming County, PA.

So, can com­pa­nies just lay pipelines wher­ever they want?

Not really. First, rights of way needed to be secured from pri­vate and pub­lic landown­ers. The com­pa­nies pay for those rights of way. Then per­mits are needed. But a con­fus­ing net­work of reg­u­la­tory bod­ies han­dles the per­mit­ting process. The Fed­eral Energy Reg­u­la­tory Com­mis­sion has to approve any inter­state pipeline. The Pub­lic Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion has to approve any that serve con­sumers directly. But few of the new gas lines con­nected to Mar­cel­lus Shale drilling fall neatly into either of those cat­e­gories. The pro­posed Marc 1 Hub pipeline that will run through Lycoming, Sul­li­van and Brad­ford coun­ties con­tin­ues up into New York. So it’s an inter­state line and falls within the juris­dic­tion of FERC.

But thou­sands of miles of gath­er­ing lines, which take the gas from the well­head to the trans­mis­sion lines, are in the gray area. They only need per­mits if they run through wet­lands or cross water­ways, and those per­mits come from yet another agency, the Penn­syl­va­nia Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion. Also, the DEP has over­sight if the pipelines cross through areas with endan­gered or rare species. Some­times county-level reg­u­la­tions come into play, but not always.

Who owns and oper­ates these pipelines?

Pri­vate com­pa­nies own and oper­ate the pipelines. Some­times a nat­ural gas com­pany has a sub­sidiary, referred to as a “mid-stream” com­pany, that builds pipelines. But some­times, the pipelines are built by com­pa­nies that don’t actu­ally do any drilling; they just own and oper­ate pipelines and lease them to gas com­pa­nies. Think of it like a toll road.

Do the com­pa­nies who own and oper­ate the pipelines pay a spe­cific tax asso­ci­ated with the rights of way and trans­porta­tion of the gas?

No.

Do any of the impact fee pro­pos­als include pipeline companies?

No.

Who likes pipelines?

Deer, elk and snow­mo­bil­ers love pipelines! Miles of clear cut paths through forests make good travel routes and sources of food for graz­ing ani­mals. But envi­ron­men­tal­ists worry that too many pipelines will cre­ate what’s called an “edge effect.” That means some species such as inte­rior for­est birds, amphib­ians, and cer­tain wild flow­ers will see their habi­tat diminished.