Enbridge, Inc., a Wisconsin-based company, intends to build a 600-mile 30-inch pipeline to carry crude oil from Flanagan, Ill., to Cushing, Okla., Allen County commissioners were told Tuesday.
The Flanagan South project, to parallel an existing line, will pass diagonally through Allen County east of Humboldt and into Neosho County south of Petrolia.
Commissioners were told the pipeline “will provide additional capacity needed to bring increased North American crude oil production to refinery hubs in the Gulf Coast region.”
Construction of the underground pipeline is expected to start in mid-2013 and take a year to complete. Enbridge representatives will contact landowners soon about environmental and civil surveys.
Lorraine Little, public relations specialist with Enbridge, said the new pipeline generally would follow the route of Enbridge’s Spearhead System, which has been in place for years, with possible deviations to avoid congested areas or avoid structures.
LINDA GUENTHER, a resident of Carlyle the last six years, told commissioners heavy trucks, including highway transports, were destroying the hard-surfaced county road that runs from U.S. 169 through Carlyle and to the old highway (1400 Street).
“They speed like crazy through Carlyle — including a county truck the other day — and are a danger to dogs and kids,” Guenther said. “More and more people are using the (Prairie Spirit) trail and you never know when a little kid might ride a tricycle onto the road.”
She urged commissioners to make the road a no-truck route and post speed signs, telling Sheriff Tom Williams, who listened to her presentation, that officers could write a fistful of tickets.
“We’ll step up our patrol,” Williams assured.
COMMISSIONERS put off vacating half a mile of 4800 Street, north of Wisconsin Road and running to the Allen-Anderson counties line, until adjoining landowners settle on construction of a fence.
Loren Lance said he and father-in-law Melvin Rife had cattle on one side of the road, overgrown and not in use for years, while the other side was cropland, owned by a South Carolina man who purchased it as a hunting retreat.
Commissioners said they would not oppose vacating the road, but thought it better to wait until owners agreed on fence construction.
