By John McCallum
Spokane Favs
Feb 11, 2013
Capacity expansion of a natural gas pipeline running under southeast Spokane Valley and western and northwest Liberty Lake will be the subject of a “People’s Hearing” on Monday evening, Feb. 13.
Sponsored by Earth Ministry, a non-denominational, faith-based environmental education and advocacy nonprofit, the “People’s Hearing to Stop GTN Xpress Pipeline Expansion” takes place via Zoom from 5 – 7 p.m. The hearing is designed to not only inform the general public about the proposed expansion — which will allow GTN the ability to pump an additional 150 million cubic feet of fracked methane gas per day through a 62-year-old pipeline — but also take public testimony about the expansion.
Registration for the hearing can be done online. Comments from the hearing will be submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed project in June 2022.
According to the EIS, FERC issued a “Notice of Availability” of the draft to federal, state and local government agencies along with elected officials, environmental and public interest groups, tribes and others potentially affected by the expansion along the pipeline route, along with newspapers and libraries. The commission will not be holding any public meetings and will make a decision on the proposal Feb. 16.
“A lot of people might not know this pipeline exists, let alone expanding it to pump more gas through it,” Earth Ministry operations manager Maddie Smith said. “Our perspective is this is harming our neighbors and this goes against our faith-based interpretations.”
The pipeline — which is owned by GTN’s parent company, TC Energy, who also owns the Keystone Pipeline — delivers fracked methane gas from Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) fields in British Columbia to customers in Washington, Oregon and California. The company announced its plans for a $335 million expansion of the pipeline system in November 2019, and the “incremental capacity is expected to generate approximately $25 million in revenue annually when fully in service.”
Three-quarters of the project cost involves increasing pumping capacity of existing gas-fired turbine compressors via software upgrades at three compressor stations: Athol, Idaho; Starbuck, Walla Wall County, Washington and Kent in Sherman County, Oregon. Each of the 14,300 horsepower compressors will be upgraded to 23,470 hp, with a new 23,470 hp compressor installed at the Starbuck station.
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