Option of 3rd pipeline may return

Last year, the Colonial Pipeline Co. tried to get an OK from Georgia’s Legislature to fast-track construction of a new $2 billion, 460-mile fuel line from Louisiana to Cobb County.

Colonial officials said fuel traversing the two existing lines that stretch from Houston to New York often gets bottle-necked before arriving in Atlanta. But state House members killed the bill that would have eased the permitting process. Those who opposed the bill said it would erode property rights and evade environmental scrutiny.

While that third pipeline would not have prevented the gasoline shortages that have plagued Atlanta drivers for weeks now, it could help us in the future, company officials said.

The lines now in place are overburdened in summer when gasoline usage spikes, Colonial officials said, and in winter when heating-oil demands rise in the Northeast.

“We’re pumping everything we can get,” said Sam Whitehead, a spokesman for Colonial, which is headquartered in Alpharetta. “This is a refining problem, not a pipeline-capacity problem. On the gasoline line, we’re at pre-hurricane rates.”

Colonial’s two existing 36-inch lines can deliver 100 million gallons a day to the Eastern Seaboard. They are now operating at less than 85 percent capacity, Whitehead said, adding that there is plenty of capacity to handle the gasoline arriving as refineries ramp up production to replenish empty Atlanta gas stations.

One pipeline is dedicated to gasoline, while the other transports diesel and aviation fuels, heating oil and other products. The new line would increase Colonial’s capacity to 134 million gallons a day, allowing future growth in consumption, company officials said.

Whitehead said Colonial can carry as many as 100 different products and has dozens of fuels running at any given time, as one product pushes the next one through the line. The bottleneck is caused by the concentration of fuels in the first segments of the pipeline before it gets to Atlanta. (Whitehead had to end the interview because he was waiting at a gas station to fuel his vehicle and his turn came up.)

The proposed line would be constructed though 46 miles of Georgia —- through Carroll, Haralson and Paulding counties, ending in Austell in Cobb County. The plan is currently moving through the state’s permit process. The state Department of Transportation last year gave approval, saying a new line is needed. Colonial is now trying to obtain a permit from the state Environmental Protection Division. A decision is expected by March.

Last year’s legislation would have removed state transportation and environmental officials from the permitting process and eased limits on eminent domain. In the 1990s, the state mandated those two agencies oversee pipeline additions after a series of spills and amid concerns about the company’s vast powers to take property through eminent domain.

Colonial officials argue they need approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for new construction, so state oversight is duplication.

Attorney Ed Hallman, who was hired by property owners last year to monitor the failed legislation, said Colonial’s request to build a new line seems “premature, because we’re trying to reduce energy consumption.”

State Rep. Rich Golick (R-Smyrna) voted against the bill, concerned that Colonial was trying to make an end-run of the process. However, he believes the additional capacity is needed and applauds the company for now going through the state regulatory process.

The pipeline, if approved by state and federal regulators and the company’s board, could be operating by 2012.