The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline

Background

Courtesy: Williams

The red lines show the proposed Atlantic Sunrise expansion. The light blue lines are the existing Transco system.

The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline is a project of Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Williams Partners. It’s one of many large-scale pipeline projects in the works in Pennsylvania.

Williams currently operates the Transco system which has over 10,000 miles of pipeline moving gas to other businesses, like utility companies and power plants.

The Atlantic Sunrise is a $3 billion expansion of the Transco system. It’s designed to move Marcellus Shale gas from Susquehanna County in northeastern Pennsylvania as far south as Alabama. If approved by federal regulators, it would cut through portions of 10 central Pennsylvania counties (Columbia, Lancaster, Lebanon, Luzerne, Northumberland, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Clinton and Lycoming). The pipeline would carry the gas to markets along the eastern seaboard, including the Cove Point liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Chesapeake Bay.

The project has been met with considerable public push-back, especially in Lancaster County.

In 2014, Williams began the pre-filing phase of the project with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)– the agency charged with siting and regulating interstate pipelines. Williams has already agreed to re-route about a quarter of the line in Pennsylvania based on public feedback. The commission is expected to make a final decision about the project in late 2016 or early 2017.

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July 7, 2016

EPA raises concerns about Atlantic Sunrise pipeline

The Environmental Protection Agency is raising concerns about the potential impacts of the proposed Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline. In a letter sent last week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) the EPA criticizes FERC’s draft environmental impact statement, which found the pipeline would not create significant adverse impacts. Although FERC is charged with [...]

June 13, 2016

Federal regulators get earful from pipeline opponents

Federal regulators got an earful at an angry public meeting about a proposed natural gas pipeline in Lancaster County, which ended with the police showing up as protesters disrupted the proceeding. About 350 people attended the meeting Monday night to give comments on the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). [...]

May 5, 2016

Atlantic Sunrise pipeline gets a green light from FERC and a lawsuit from enviros

The Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project won preliminary approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday, paving the way for the $3 billion expansion of the Transco system to move forward as environmentalists simultaneously filed a federal lawsuit objecting to the pipeline. FERC released its draft environmental impact statement in conjunction with the U.S. Army [...]

March 31, 2016

GOP congressional candidates criticize pipeline

The Republican candidates vying for the seat held by the retiring congressman Joe Pitts (R- 16th) are both criticizing a proposed interstate natural gas pipeline. If the Atlantic Sunrise line is approved by federal regulators it would run through 10 Pennsylvania counties, including parts of the 16th congressional district in western Lancaster County, where opposition [...]

March 28, 2016

Groups stitch together massive anti-pipeline quilt

Lancaster County is well known for its hand made quilts. It’s also becoming known as one of the most vocal places of opposition for the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline project. Activists held a rally Monday to show off their latest act of protest– a 50-foot-long quilt, which represents the width of the permanent right-of-way [...]

November 18, 2015

Pipeline opponent cleared of wrongdoing after speaking out at public meeting

A Lancaster County schoolteacher and opponent of the proposed Atlantic Sunrise pipeline had a disorderly conduct conviction against her thrown out by a county judge Tuesday. In April, 54-year-old Kimberly Kann was arrested for failing to follow special meeting rules in Conestoga Township, which permitted people to ask questions but barred them from making statements. During the meeting Kann stood [...]

July 31, 2015

Pipelines’ paths remain a risky mystery beneath our feet

This story began with a simple task: Let’s make a pipeline map! Everyone wants to know where all the new Marcellus Shale gas pipelines are or will be. The new proposals have been piling up. Many have poetic names like Atlantic Sunrise, Mariner East, and Bluestone. There got to to be so many they started [...]

July 27, 2015

Protest Planned at Pipeline Talk

Public meetings over the proposed Atlantic Sunrise pipeline have drawn the ire of opponents in Lancaster County. This time, an activist group is planning to protest a meeting between the pipeline company and the local chamber of commerce. The group, Lancaster Against Pipelines, says it’s organizing the protest to call attention to the environmental and [...]

July 22, 2015

Pipeline opponent guilty of disorderly conduct for speech at public meeting

A Lancaster County woman has been found guilty of disorderly conduct for speaking out of turn at a public meeting. She was arrested in April for failing to follow special meeting rules, which permitted people to ask questions but barred them from making statements. 54-year-old Kim Kann is a Conestoga Township resident who has been a [...]

April 29, 2015

Pipeline opponent arrested at public meeting in Lancaster County

An opponent of a controversial natural gas pipeline project was arrested Tuesday night and charged with disorderly conduct for speaking out at a public meeting in Lancaster County. Conestoga Township supervisor Craig Eshleman says resident Kim Kann was removed by police because she violated the rules of the meeting. He says the gathering was not an [...]