(This story was updated April 12 at 7:30 p.m.)
[V]ermont Gas Systems says its 41-mile natural gas pipeline to Addison County went into operation Wednesday, although opponents continue to fight it and a federal safety-related investigation is underway.
The pipeline is now serving customers in Middlebury, the company said, with distribution lines to New Haven and Vergennes expected soon.
The pipeline’s completion marks the end of a three-year process that company staff and leaders are glad to have reached, said Vermont Gas CEO Don Rendall.
“It’s been a big challenge, and we’ve worked really hard to meet that challenge in a responsible manner every single day,” he said.
A “couple hundred” Addison County residents have already signed up to receive natural gas from the pipeline, Rendall said, “and we’re looking forward to signing up many more.”
“We’ve got a lot of families and businesses in Middlebury that have been waiting patiently for a long time,” Rendall said.
The pipeline cost about $165 million, Rendall said. Vermont Gas customers will pay about $135 million of that over time through their rates.
The project languished for weeks with only 2,000 feet uncompleted while opponents sued over permission the Public Service Board gave the company to seize an easement across a public park in Hinesburg. That easement is illegal under state law, says Bristol-based attorney James Dumont, who represents a number of pipeline opponents.
The question of the easement remains before the Vermont Supreme Court, but that court allowed Vermont Gas to complete work in the meantime.
This week officials at the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said they’re investigating “concerns regarding the safety and integrity of the Vermont Gas System Addison Natural Gas Project.” The administration’s “welding and corrosion experts are reviewing construction records and construction practices,” according to a PHMSA representative.
PHMSA officials did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on the nature of the investigation.
Deputy Public Service Commissioner Riley Allen said PHMSA appears to be pursuing two lines of investigation: one into the pipeline itself, and another into the Department of Public Service oversight of its construction.
The federal agency has sent representatives from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee to look at work done on the pipeline itself, Allen said.
PHMSA has not given any indication how long the investigation will take, Allen said.
Rendall said Vermont Gas used nationally renowned contractors and Vermont Gas personnel who conducted their work according to all applicable safety standards. The company welcomes whatever appropriate review federal, local or state authorities deem necessary, he said.
Opponents of the pipeline had asked PHMSA to investigate the way the Department of Public Service responded to confirmed and alleged violations by the company during the pipeline’s construction.
That investigation was specifically into DPS’ practices in connection with the pipeline, representatives of the federal agency said in January.
The allegations that led to PHMSA’s investigation, Rendall said, “are baseless.”
The pipeline extends from Colchester to Middlebury, where natural gas is injected into the company’s smaller, low-pressure distribution lines and carried to customers, Rendall said. As distribution lines from the pipeline are built throughout the year, Vermont Gas will begin serving other Addison County towns, he said.
Vermont Gas already provides natural gas to around 50,000 people in Franklin and Chittenden counties.
