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High emotions expected for Lancaster County pipeline meeting Tuesday night

A proposed pipeline in Lancaster County could potentially impact thousands of people. The project would connect Marcellus Shale pipelines to the Transco pipelin...

A proposed pipeline in Lancaster County could potentially impact thousands of people.

The project would connect Marcellus Shale pipelines to the Transco pipeline that runs through southern Lancaster County.

The topic stirred up discussion in Lancaster at a meeting two weeks ago, and FOX43 is told people are expecting the same kind of emotions at a meeting Tuesday.

“I want you to get your dirty pipeline, your greedy intentions out of my beautiful county,” says Sherry Wolf, who grew up in Lancaster County.

That was the kind of reaction representatives of the company Williams received at a meeting two weeks ago.

People from all over Lancaster County voiced their opinions..

“The people have a right to clean air, pure water and the preservation of natural, scenic, and historic and atheistic values of the environment,” says a retired physician who used to work at Lancaster General Hospital.

..mainly telling the proposed builders to go somewhere else.

“This could undermine the years of work and millions of dollars invested in protecting this landscape and the waters that run through it,” says Mark Platts, President of Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area

Lancaster County Commissioners are worried about the people who this will affect.

“Once this line goes through are Lancaster County residents ever able to have to economic benefit from that line, or is this just the means to move it through and send it everywhere else?” asked Scott Martin, a Lancaster County Commissioner.

Representatives of ‘Williams’, the gas pipeline operator, stood by their preliminary plan.

“Because we are federally regulated we cannot deny anyone from tapping into our line or putting gas in or taking gas out. It’s not a simple process to do that, it’s a very expensive process,” said Cindy Ivey, a spokesperson for Williams.

The proposed project would connect Marcellus Shale pipelines to the Transco pipeline that runs through southern Lancaster County.

It’s known as the Atlantic Sunrise project, and it’s expected to expand pipeline capacity.

“Because we already have three main lines going through Southern Lancaster County is the prime place for the gas to enter the Transco system for the southward flow,” says Ivey.

But County Commissioners are putting up a fight, and only want what’s best for the County and for those who call it home.

“If FERC does approve a pipeline I think everyone is in agreement that it will leave a lasting scar on Lancaster County,” says Craig Lehman, a Lancaster County Commissioner.

Tuesday’s meeting begins at 6:30, stay with FOX43 for updates.

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