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Sunoco pipeline project continues on Mill Creek MetroParks property
BOARDMAN
A replacement project for two pipelines that run under parts of Mill Creek MetroParks will continue as Sunoco Pipeline L.P. begins work on sections of pipe in Hitchcock Woods.
Sunoco is replacing pipeline from Mogadore, Ohio, to Vanport, Pa., as part of the Allegheny Access, a project to deliver refined products from the Midwest to eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Two pipelines run through the southern parts of the MetroParks Farm/Bikeway and Hitchcock Woods preserve.
Although Sunoco has existing easement agreements with the park system that date back to 1967, and before that an agreement with Mahoning County that dates back to 1930, the replacement project required the company to obtain two new easement agreements for a new section of easement in the Hitchcock Woods property.
The park board voted to approve those two new agreements at meetings in December and January, with the understanding that Sunoco will compensate the park system for various aspects of the project.
“The vast majority of that work is taking place within those historic easements,” said Justin Rogers, park planning manager. “The only reason [the new agreements] were requested is because they had to shift one of their connections to the lines by a couple hundred feet because of existing utilities.”
“The MetroParks has been very proactive in working with them in making sure that even though there are impacts to the environment and our facilities, we’re making sure that it will be restored in the fashion and manner that we feel is appropriate, and we are being compensated for the impacts to our facilities,” he said.
The park board approved the project, in which Sunoco is replacing a 6-inch diameter pipe with a 12-inch diameter pipe, in 2013. Work on the MetroParks Farm pipeline section began last year and is nearly complete. Work is starting at the Hitchcock Woods property, and will take place there over the next several months.
The 2013 agreement with Sunoco requires the company to compensate the park system for a number of things, such as property damage, excavation, vegetation removal, access to temporary work space, construction of temporary access route areas and the park’s authorization of the new sections of easement right-of-way.
“There are physical impacts. There are potential disruptions to the use of our facilities. So we’re able to identify what those disruptions are and request the appropriate compensation for that,” Rogers said.
So far Sunoco has paid the park about $250,000, mostly for environmental impacts of the project, he said. The loss of mature vegetation after Sunoco cleared the work areas is the biggest environmental impact and accounts for the majority of the financial compensation, Rogers said.
“Anything they remove, there is a value to that. We have costs to restore and mitigate the environmental impact from that clearing,” he said.
He said the $250,000 is most of what the park will receive from Sunoco.
Rogers said he thinks there is one potentially positive environmental effect of the project: “Sunoco is replacing their infrastructure. So they’re taking out an old pipeline, and even though they’re increasing the diameter, they’re replacing it. In that sense I think it’s a positive, that you’re removing an old, antiquated pipeline and replacing it with new.”
Although Sunoco has the right to use, access and maintain its infrastructure within the easement, park board members have consistently and adamantly denied that drilling will be allowed to happen on park property.
“The board has been pretty vocal in their opposition to drilling on park land,” said Executive Director Aaron Young. “This pipeline project does not change any of that. We have no intention of drilling on MetroParks land.”