The cargo
originates where three states meet, across the river from Ohio's
southernmost point, and will flow in West Virginia and Kentucky
before 1,200 pounds of pressure blast it across the Buckeye State.
Its destination:
Columbus.
The vehicle is an
underground, 14-inch diameter steel artery. When completed, the
Marathon Ashland Petroleum pipeline pass through eight counties,
encountering 175 public roadways, 363 streams and rivers, 53
wetlands and five state forests, parks and preserves.
Spanning 149
miles -- through isolated cornfields and into urban Franklin
County -- the project has little across-the-board opposition. But
where its 75-foot right-of-way cuts through Hocking County, the
pipeline has attracted protests and litigation.
On Tuesday,
opponents sued the federal and state governments to block the
project, claiming that public officials have ignored threats to
the environment.
The oil company
said the good outweighs the disruption: The estimated 3.3 million
gallons of fuel that can be pumped daily through the line is
needed to meet growing demand in central Ohio.
This month, after
a four-year legal battle, Marathon Ashland obtained construction
permits from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. Absent more delays, the pipeline should
be finished by spring and operating by summer.
In the beginning
Until Aug. 19,
the route was just lines on a map. Now, surveyor's yellow-painted
circles and arrows have emerged along roads from South Point to
Columbus.
Then construction
crews began clearing the wooded areas along the southern border of
Lawrence County.
Fifty miles of
pipe is stacked in a vacant ethanol plant where construction has
begun in South Point. There, the first section of newly laid pipe
is buried 8 1/2 feet deep, awaiting connection to the line that
will tunnel beneath the Ohio River bed.
Donald Malarky
watched as 10 men lowered a 60-foot length into augured trench. As
project manager, Malarky will watch the entire process unfold. His
workers labor 10 hours a day, six days a week.
"Constructing
a pipeline is like an assembly line,'' Malarky shouted over the
rumble of the tractors behind him.
To control
erosion and plant loss, he said, the crews are told a long list of
precautions before they ease the pipeline beneath rivers, streams
and wetlands.
Negotiations with
the 500 landowners along the way for easements has proved the
greatest challenge, said Malarky, who has overseen the project
since 1998.
"To build a
pipeline you need some room,'' he said.
The job of
purchasing the easements is finished, he said, although some
opponents contend that a few Hocking County property owners are
holding out.
Still, Malarky is
proud: The pipeline is the nation's newest and therefore its best,
he said.
"There's no
reason why people should be concerned about the safety.''
Swamps and state
forests
Farther north in
Lawrence County, the pipeline will pass through the Wayne National
Forest and cross the western corner of Gallia County, where
surveyors are marking its path.
At Cackley Swamp,
workers will get a break near Oak Hill in southern Jackson County.
There, a 50-foot-wide stretch of largely dry land owned by a local
coal company will lend itself to the job of navigating the muck.
"It's a
pretty large swamp so it's pretty amazing we found that narrow
path,'' Malarky said.
Here, trenchers
will operate from timber mats for stability. A mile from any
houses or farms, the project has attracted little attention --
none negative.
"I don't
mind it going through,'' says Keith Hall, a retired construction
worker who has laid pipeline himself. "Everybody uses it.''
Even in Wellston, Jackson County, folks are undisturbed. There,
the Marathon Ashland trench cuts near the aquifer from which the
town draws its water.
"From the
info we've received, we don't have any major concerns,'' Mayor
John Stabler said. "We understand they're going to be
requiring a very tight level of safety on the pipeline.''
Slicing the
eastern edge of Richland Furnace State Forest, the line will enter
Vinton County. From there, it will run into Hocking County, the
center of its opposition.
From Airplane
Rock nearly 200 feet above the floor of Hocking State Forest, the
oak and hickory-topped ridges and hemlock and beech-bedecked
ravines appear to form an unbroken wall of deep green.
Upon closer
examination, an unnatural break in the vista's foliage -- a
25-foot easement carrying a buried Columbia Gas line -- emerges.
The Marathon Ashland line will parallel that, adding another clear
cut of 75 feet: an unforested scar in the eyes of Paul Knoop and
Jane Ann Ellis.
They see the
stretch as a portal for unwanted flora and fauna in an area that
should be guarded and revered for its natural beauty.
Knoop is
president of Stop The Ohio Pipeline, the group that joined Ellis
in filing the lawsuit Tuesday to bar the route from the scenic and
rugged Hocking Hills. Ellis is the owner of the 1,100-acre,
state-dedicated Crane Hollow Nature Preserve.
About a third of
the 35-mile stretch through Hocking County will be carved through
public lands dotted with wetlands, Knoop said. "These areas
belong to the people of Ohio -- not the oil company.''
He and Ellis
predict environmental catastrophe should a rupture there leave
gasoline to leach through the region's porous Black Hand sandstone
into its ravines.
In some places,
the line will claim giant, 170-year-old trees; in others, it will
scale cliffs and descend into ravines, from which bedrock will
have to be bored or blasted.
"This will
be a disaster waiting to happen,'' Ellis said.
Closer to home
In northern
Hocking County, the line cuts through Clear Creek Metro Park and
makes its first major turn, northwest through Fairfield and
Pickaway counties.
Near the
Franklin-Pickaway county line, the pipe will be routed through the
Mackey Ford Wildlife Area and then beneath the Scioto River before
it will begin a northward run into Franklin County.
Pleasant Corners
is little more than a wide spot where London-Groveport Road and
Harrisburg Pike intersect west of Grove City. There, the
demolition of an old house foreshadows the trench to come.
At the southwest
corner of the intersection, 77-year-old Wayne Speakman played a
game of rummy outside a convenience store.
"At my age,
I don't give (the pipeline) too much thought. Most people don't
even know what's going through there, although they noticed the
house going down,'' he said.
Next in line,
Pleasant and Prarie townships, where the trench will run west of
Holt Road and then will jog east along Georgesville Road to I-270.
From there, it will run north along the west side of the Outerbelt
to Broad Street. There, it will cross I-270, then will continue
follow the freeway on its way east.
Near Fisher Road,
the home stretch will extend east into Marathon Ashland
Petroleum's complex of storage tanks, ending in a gritty,
industrialized neighborhood much like where it began.
Few live nearby.
No one to cheer, complain or even shrug a shoulder.
But the conflict
that echoes from the south follows the pipeline into Franklin
County.
The more than $50
million project will ensure, proponents say, cheaper prices at the
gas pump and readier access to fuel in a region exploding with
demand. Opponents say the ultimate price could be one of tainted
beauty and contamination.