Waterville Passes Amendment to Block Nexus Pipeline
From The Blade:
A proposed gas pipeline will not move forward in Waterville after voters approved a new community bill of rights that bans gas infrastructure within city limits.
Citizen group Protecting Air for Waterville collected more than 400 signatures to place the issue on the ballot after a proposed NEXUS pipeline was to cross the Maumee River in Waterville, with a compressor station built in Waterville Township.
Citizens have voiced concern over emissions, especially close to schools.
NEXUS intended to build the project in collaboration with Texas Eastern Transmission, which operates major pipeline in several states. They wanted to pump natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus shale regions in eastern Ohio and West Virginia to markets in Ohio, Michigan, and Canada. Both companies are subsidiaries of Houston-based Spectra Energy Corp.Read the article here.
This ban, like others that have been passed in Ohio, will likely face a legal challenge. So far all indications are that such bans will fail in that setting because they violate the state constitution. If that is the case, last night's vote could end up costing Waterville taxpayers a chunk of change in legal fees and still living with a pipeline and compressor station they didn't want.
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) is an organization that actively stirs local organizations up by promoting these community bill of rights charters, and assists in preparing them. But by the time any of these measures get approved by voters and a court case ensues, the CELDF has moved on, leaving the towns to pay for the expenses on their own.
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