Prep for trans continental pipeline continues in East Texas

By Donna McCollum - bio | email

NACOGDOCHES, TX (KTRE) - It will take a lot of power to pump crude oil 2,000 miles. New electric transmission facilities are needed to power up the pump stations along the route.

"It's a 36" pipeline that will eventually have a capacity to move 900,000 barrels of oil a day from the Canada oil sands to Texas," explained Neil Myers, Vice President of Keystone XL Project, in a previous interview. www.transcanada.com/keystone

Cherokee County Electric Coop is proposing to tap into existing Oncor transmission line that runs across Lake Nacogdoches.

"We have power lines that go across the county in every direction and there are quite a few power lines actually in that area around Lake Nacogdoches," said Joe English, a Nacogdoches County judge.

The proposed line will hook into the Bayou Loco Substation run by the Deep East Texas Electric Coop. From there it heads due west to a proposed pump station in Cherokee County near Wells. It will be one of six to be constructed in Texas. The electric transmission line will require single pole structures, but a new 100' right of way is needed.

"If it was a cemetery involved in that right of way that would have to be addressed," explained English. "If there is any wetlands or if it is was going across some creeks, that too is addressed."

These are all environmental and cultural issues project managers are gathering. Just one of the many steps in completing a pipeline that connects two countries.

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