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Monday, December 15, 2008

Ind. Courts - Yet more on Rockies Express Pipeline suing Indiana counties

Updating this ILB entry from Friday, Pam Tharp of the Richmond Palladium-Item reports today:

BROOKVILLE, Ind. -- Franklin County's fight to protect the drinking water supply of 40,000 southern Indiana residents has moved to federal court.

Attorneys for Rockies Express Pipeline LLC filed a lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court against the Indiana Natural Resources Commission, asking for a temporary restraining order and injunctions to stop a review of its pipeline project in Franklin County by the commission. A hearing date has not been set.

The company, known as "REX," is building a 638-mile pipeline from Missouri to Ohio through nine Indiana counties. This final leg of the line completes a 1,600-mile pipeline that begins in Colorado.

Line construction is under way in Franklin County, with plans to install the line 40 feet below the Whitewater River about two miles south of Brookville.

REX received approval in January from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to place the gas line in a Franklin County floodway. The Franklin County Drainage Board, Hoosier Hills Water District, Franklin County Water Association and Tri-Township Water District petitioned the Natural Resources Commission for an administrative review of DNR's decision, asking that it be reversed.

Franklin County Surveyor Joe Gillespie said the pipeline would cross the river within the water companies' wellhead protection area. Wellhead protection is overseen by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and required by the Safe Drinking Water Act and a state rule.

Water companies are supposed to protect wellheads from contamination within a two-mile radius of their wells, Gillespie said.

"I think (REX) has crossed a lot of rivers like this one, but not in a wellhead protection area," Gillespie said. "It seemed odd the water companies are required to protect that area, yet a gas pipeline can go right through it. If the water supply is contaminated, what would we do?"

Here is a long list of earlier ILB entries on the REX pipeline project and the lawsuits as it has moved across the state. As noted in this Sept. 14th entry:
Today the Dayton Daily News has a number of stories, reported by Tom Beyerlein, about the coming pipeline (probably more than have appeared in total in Indiana papers).

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 15, 2008 08:00 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts