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Agencies Discuss Work On Proposed Gas Pipeline

KATHY WATERS/Highlands Today

Archbold Biological Station executive director Hilary Swain, right, and Chuck Schuler, National Natural Landmarks coordinator for the National Park Service, look at the planned route for the natural gas pipeline in south Lake Placid, Venus area. The pipeline will skirt the Archbold Biological Station.

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By Bill Rettew Jr. | Highlands Today

Published: June 12, 2008

Updated: 06/12/2008 06:16 pm

LAKE PLACID — Progress was achieved during what might have become a bureaucratic nightmare Thursday, when a dozen representatives from several state and federal agencies descended on Archbold Biological Station.

Florida Gas Transmission Co. employees and public officials met to discuss a proposed natural gas pipeline that might skirt a property line at the 9,000-acre biological station.
The session took place prior to a public scoping meeting designed to hear the concerns of the public, to be held later that night.

With an estimated capital cost of approximately $2 billion, the pipeline is planned to cut across the southern portion of Highlands County, and run parallel to State Road 70.

Florida Natural Gas hopes to start construction in January 2010, with a target in-service date during the spring of 2011.

Chuck Schuler, with the National Park Service and the national natural landmarks coordinator for the southeast region, was on hand to help protect Archbold, or what he said is an "ecologically significant area."

Five-hundred-and-eighty privately owned properties, including Archbold and 71 other sites in the southeast, are National Natural Landmarks. Archbold was designated by the Secretary of the Department of the Interior in 1987.

"Our goal is to assist to notify the public that this is a significant ecological site," said Schuler.
Hilary Swain, executive director at Archbold, was pleased with the designation and the assistance from state and local agencies.

"It was a real honor to know that we're of national significance," said Swain. "This is an informal way of raising the status. Everyone seems to be taking this designation seriously."

On a tour of the site, Swain pointed to contractor's stakes placed where the pipeline might weave through a "bottleneck."

Archbold is to the south, and the 3,000-acre Lake Wales Ridge Wildlife Environmental Area/ Lake Placid Scrub is to the north. Both are split by State Road 70.

"It's a major challenge," said Swain. "These are two very important federally recognized conservation areas."

Joe W. Kolb, environmental project manager with Florida Gas, talked about the rigorous, complicated and costly permitting that his co-worker, and engineer, David Parham, said was just "part of the process."

"It's changed over the years, the way we construct the technology that allow us to minimize impact," said Kolb.

Planning for the pipeline is still only preliminary, with refinements and changes occurring as company workers better understand the issues, said Parham.

Danny Laffoon, environmental biologist with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said public input would help everyone involved "understand the concerns."

"The process generally does work," said Laffoon. "We don't always agree with the company, other agencies, or the public. A lot of times, the public and the pipeline company are at odds. We try to regulate."

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