The "For The Good Of Mankind?" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Taking my wife to a medical appointment in the nearby town of Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania.  Trip takes about 20 minutes from our home in Lancaster and as we approached the office we passed over the construction site of the Atlantic Sunrise gas pipeline that is going through Lancaster County, with or without the blessing of those of us who live in the county.  

Williams Partners timeline for the new natural gas pipeline.
Click on image to enlarge.

I know that there are times that we all must bite the bullet for the betterment of others, but this has to be the umpteenth time that we have been asked to endure running a pipeline under our county.  I can still remember a dozen or so years ago when a petroleum pipeline substation, if that's what you call them, burst into flames.  Wasn't more than a half-mile from my home.  

The petroleum pipeline "substation" near my home.
This area caught fire a few years ago.

Started during the day and lit up the nighttime skyline before finally being exting- uished.  So, in the beginning of 2014, when we heard about the pipeline coming through Lancaster County, many were...well, pissed off!  Quite a few protested the pipeline for years, but to no avail.  Hey, it's for the betterment of our nation we were told.  We were told that the pipeline project will increase economic activity by $1.6 billion in the project regions.  

Nun Adorers of the Blood of Christ's outdoor chapel.

Many people went to great lengths to to try and stop the project.  A group of nuns from the Adorers of the Blood of Christ religious order, which has been in Lancaster County since the 1920s, bought some ground that was to have the pipeline go through it and built a chapel on the land hoping to stop the construction.  The nuns have refused to sell an easement for the pipeline to the builder Williams Partners.  Over 300 people arrived for their first service at the outdoor chapel. Didn't matter.  The Partners won since it is for the betterment of our nation.  The 197-mile, $3 billion project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory commission and nothing will stop it.  Not even an old Native American cemetery which was in the way.  Now, I must admit that it was a fake cemetery with a half-dozen old tombstones planted in the ground adjacent to the pipeline right of way that evidently didn't look real.  

This orange pipe tells of the gas pipeline near my home.

The cemetery had tombstones, some leaning at different angles to look authentic, but the lack of moss and dirt led the hired archaeological group to find it was a fake.  Well, after Carol's appointment today, we returned the same route and I pulled to the side of the road and told her I'll be right back.  She knew I was going to take some photos of the pipeline site.  She said, "You know they're going to yell at you."  I responded, "They're not going to hurt an old man who limps."  And, I was right!  I walked to the north side of the two-lane highway to photograph the section that was almost complete, showing no visible sign of the pipe that had been planted in the mile or two I could see.  

The pipeline on this side of the highway is nearly complete.

I walked back across the highway, which they had tunneled under, and took a few photos of the equipment and piles of pipe that were being used on the south side of the road.  I saw a group of workmen and held my iPhone up to take a photo.  Waved to them and they waved back as I took a few photos.  I'm sure I'm not the first person to stop and take photos.  I must admit I was impressed with the construction site and the manner in which they dig the trench for the pipe, join the pipes together, seal the joint in a concrete unit and fill the trench with dirt.  I did have trouble estimating how deep they were burying the pipe.  This pipeline will carry natural gas from the Marcellus Shale gas sites in the north to points in the south.  

The natural gas pipeline can be seen in this photo.

The natural gas pipeline near my home allows nothing to be built on top of it.  A year or so ago I wrote of a few neighbors who had planted trees and shrubs over it and were required to remove them.  One guy had paved a spot and had his travel trailer parked on the paved spot.  He had to remove the paving.  Now, that should have been stopped before the guy paved the area.  Another year or two from now all the fuss will have subsided and life will go on.  The owners of Williams Partners will be more wealthy than they were a few years ago.  And, petroleum and natural gas will continue to flow underground a few blocks from my home.  Wonder how much it will affect the resale value of my home when I decide to downsize in the near future?  One thing for sure...Williams Partners won't care one bit.  Hey...it's all for the good of mankind, right?  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.