Tom Casey continuously fields calls and e-mails from
anxious people asking about pipeline projects and safety, and the meaning of a
right of way.
So Casey, of West Goshen, who helped start the Chester
County Community Coalition to spread information about pipelines, turns to the
county's online Pipeline Information Center.
Fortunately for Casey and others interested, Chester
County officials recently got a $50,000 federal grant to add information to the
website and to name a point of contact to increase information-sharing among
residents, municipalities, and pipeline companies.
The website - www.landscapes2.org/pipeline/pipelinemain.cfm
- features pipeline safety information, operators' phone numbers, and
interactive maps that show pipelines in Chester County, which has the
third-highest percentage of pipelines in Pennsylvania.
"It's very helpful. We use it constantly,"
Casey said. "I would love to see other counties do this."
That is the plan.
Chester County's website is the beginning of a strategy
to get every county in Pennsylvania to adopt protocols for improving
communication about pipelines. Officials in a handful of counties across the
state have already said they were interested.
Since Chester County's website launched in March, Lynda
Farrell, president of the nonprofit Pipeline Safety Coalition, has been using
it as a model to encourage Pennsylvania's 66 other counties.
"Counties across the state should be able to tweak
the protocol to what fits their geography and their locale best," said
Farrell, who secured a previous grant that helped start Chester County's
Pipeline Information Center.
Chester County residents, environmental groups, and real
estate agents are among those who use the county site.
In the next month or so, Farrell's group plans to help
counties apply for grants from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials
Safety Administration.
County officials heard about Chester County's approach at
an August gathering of the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
"The counties who attended that session were
extremely encouraged by what Chester County had done and the framework they
were able to share," said Lisa Schaefer, the association's director of
government relations.
Raymond Stolinas, planning director for Bradford County,
said his office had been closely watching Chester County's website.
"We're very impressed with that," he said,
"and we'd like to replicate some of that if we could."
But his office is small. It would need someone to
maintain the pipeline information system.
Since 2008, Bradford County has been compiling and
mapping information about natural gas facilities. Stolinas said the next step
would be to make the information more up to date and interactive, like in
Chester County.
Officials in Chester County hope to finish most of their
site's upgrades by early 2015. They are adding information on current pipeline
projects in the county and details to the maps, a popular feature among
residents.
The county also plans to add pipeline safety and
landowners' guide Web pages and a public comment section.
"Although it's not perfect yet, it's better than
pretty much anything anyone else has," said Carol Stauffer, of the
Planning Commission.
Chester County appointed Stauffer in September to be the
point of contact to share information with municipalities, landowners, pipeline
operators, and county, state, and federal agencies.
Lebanon County officials recognize they will receive more
proposals from pipeline companies in coming years.
That is why Jo Ellen Litz, a Lebanon County commissioner,
is asking the planning commission to look into developing its own protocol for
gathering and disseminating pipeline information.
"I think that anytime we're transparent and we're
working together," she said, "it's a good thing, not just for Lebanon
County, but for the state as a whole."
Source: Philly.com
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