The Kinder Morgan Utopia Pipeline will begin construction through Ashland in the first quarter of 2017. According to the Utopia Pipeline Project website, however, legal matters may be slowing the construction down. 

Kinder Morgan, an energy company, has reported that the pipeline will cost $500 million to construct and span 215 miles across 14 Ohio counties. The pipeline will have the ability to carry between 50,000 to 75,000 barrels of ethane and ethane-propane mixtures per day, and will be expected to bring around 900 temporary construction jobs to the state. It is expected to be running in early 2018.

The Utopia Pipeline has begun to face delays in construction due to legal constraints in Wood County based on eminent domain. 

Eminent domain is a law that gives the government the right to take away private property for public. The landowner is compensated in return for their land.

Judge Robert Pollex ruled against the eminent domain claim by Kinder Morgan because the land will not be for public use. 

Ashland University student Danielle Bruno’s household is going through the process of negotiating their land for compensation from the Nexus Pipeline that is also being built in Ohio.

She described negotiators being sent out to screen her home and offering the lowest possible offer for their land. With strong negotiations, they were able to get more money for their land. 

“They try to present this as a benefit to the landowners saying things like it is low risk and safe, it will improve the land, or that it will make you rich,” Bruno said. “They present you with a very low offer and try to make it seem like it’s the best they can do.”

Bruno’s family has found the process of the pipeline very inconvenient. From negotiations and legal matters to concerns about the future and potentially dangerous construction happening on the land that is being purchased, a lot goes into the preparation for the pipeline.

Dr. Jeffrey Russell of Ashland University’s economics department, went into detail about how these pipelines might affect the Ohio economy and its citizens. 

He explained that the pipeline will benifit the economy because it will result in new jobs for skilled union employees that the project will take on.

“It’s taxes, it’s hiring people, it’s indirect hiring people,” Russell said as he listed the ways that the pipeline might be able to reach its estimated $237.3 million in beneficial economic impacts.

However the economic boost can only be expected to continue to long as the construction continues.

“But then after it’s built, it’s down to five people throughout the whole state of Ohio,” Russell said. “So it’s a short-term boost to the economy, it’s not a long-term help to the economy.”

While there will be a few long-term positions left to watch over the pipeline as construction ends, those five jobs cannot be expected to continue to benefit the state’s economy in such an extreme manner as the large crews.

Even though the Utopia Pipeline project is expected to boost the Ohio economy, risks are still at stake for the employees and the environment.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reports that Ohio is the state with the fourth highest number of incidents related to pipelines and hazardous materials. Between 2008 and 2017, 1,968 related incidents have been reported, none of which were deadly. 

The pipeline’s website details surveys and studies that have been done to ensure minimal impact upon the environment and the least amount of disruption for landowners and locals. The pipeline will be running ethane based materials, so an accident would be less damaging than a shale oil spill, but the process still requires much caution in construction.

As construction begins, Ohioans may see the construction throughout the state. Kinder Morgan expects construction in Ashland to begin in early March, but that may change along with the eminent domain suit.