Pipeline through SC threatens private property, rivers and swamps, state told
Two power companies seeking to build a large natural gas plant in South Carolina are being accused of supporting a pipeline that will needlessly affect the environment and private property as the pipe brings gas to the facility in Colleton County.
Those accusations, laid out in newspaper advertisements this past weekend, are coming from Carolina Gas Transmission, a company whose proposal to deliver natural gas was rejected by Dominion Energy and state-owned Santee Cooper earlier this year.
Dominion and Santee Cooper have invited a Texas headquartered company to deliver natural gas to the Colleton County plant at Canadys, Carolina Gas says. The Texas company’, identified as Kinder Morgan, would run a new pipeline into South Carolina, instead of using existing pipeline corridors, as proposed by Carolina Gas Transmission, the S.C. company says.
As a result, the Kinder Morgan plan “is nearly certain” to affect two rivers – the Savannah and the Coosawhatchie, the newspaper advertisement said. It would impact 50 percent more waterways and 67 percent more wetland acres, as well as cross 50 percent more roads, the Carolina Gas Transmission advertisement said. An additional 100 landowners in the path of the pipeline would be affected, the company estimates.
In contrast to the Kinder Morgan plan, the Carolina Gas proposal “is tailored to serve the Canadys plant, while preserving environmental features,’’ the ad said. “With existing Carolina Gas assets, we avoid crossing the Savannah and Coosawhatchie Rivers.’’
Carolina Gas Transmission told The State newspaper the comparison between its plan and the Kinder Morgan plan is an estimate based on what the company knows.
Carolina Gas, which wants the power companies to reconsider their choice of the Texas pipeline plan, called for the release of details of the Kinder Morgan proposal. Environmentalists said both companies should release their plans in an effort to be transparent with the public.
The Carolina Gas advertisement provides a glimpse of how important providing natural gas to the proposed Canadys plant could be to pipeline companies as the demand for energy grows. The plant is expected to easily cost more than $1 billion, but it needs expanded pipeline capacity — and that has attracted companies interested in the potentially lucrative venture.
In response to questions from The State, Carolina Gas Transmission said late Wednesday that the process by Dominion and Santee Cooper of choosing a pipeline company has “has not been transparent.’’ Carolina Gas Transmission said project evaluation criteria were not clear and the scope of the project continued to change. The company indicated that landowner and environmental issues were not given enough weight by the power companies in making a decision.
“In our view, the parameters were revised until the landowner and environmental benefits of building on existing infrastructure were disadvantaged,’’ according to the Wednesday night statement from Carolina Gas Transmission.
The company said, however, that landowners and the environment should have gotten more attention.
“CGT believes that extra consideration should be given to its proposed project for the value of having less impact on the environment and landowners, and for the benefits of being developed by a South Carolina company with a longstanding record of safety, operational excellence and environmental stewardship,’’ the company said in response to questions from The State.
Carolina Gas Transmission learned in February that its proposal had not been accepted, the statement said.
Carolina Gas Transmission, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, provides natural gas transportation services to South Carolina and southeast Georgia. With offices in Columbia, it owns and operates nearly 1,500 miles of transmission pipeline. Carolina Gas was formerly operated by SCE&G of Columbia, a company that was bought out by Dominion after a nuclear project fiasco some eight years ago.
Kinder Morgan, headquartered in Houston, is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in the nation. It has an interest in 79,000 miles of pipelines and 139 terminals, the company reports. Those pipelines carry crude oil, natural gas and gasoline, among other products.
Santee Cooper, Dominion and Kinder Morgan did not directly address questions from The State seeking details about the matter but said they had been upfront and had customers in mind.
Dominion said it conducted “a thorough, transparent and fair process’’ to determine the best supplier of natural gas for the proposed Colleton County power plant.
“With a focus on factors such as cost and reliability, our decision was guided by what is in the best interest of our customers and South Carolina’s energy future,’’ Dominion spokeswoman Rhonda O’Banion said in an email.
Santee Cooper said in an email that it was “moving forward with the best choice to build a new pipeline in terms of benefits to the customers, the community and meeting future energy needs of South Carolina.’’
The company’s email went on to say that it is beginning “next steps’’ for the project, to be jointly built with Dominion. “We will ensure the process meets all regulatory requirements and includes appropriately timed opportunities for public education and input,’’ according to the email from Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore.
In a statement Wednesday, Kinder Morgan said it is now in the process of applying to the federal Energy Regulatory Commission for approval of the 71-mile extension of the company’s Elba Express pipeline system into South Carolina. The company said it expects the FERC to require an environmental impact statement or review for the pipeline to assess its effect on the environment.
Elba Express has executed an agreement to launch the extension of its pipeline system into South Carolina, Kinder Morgan reported in April. The project is expected to cost $435 million and would be ready to go in 2030, the company reports. The natural gas plant it would serve is years away from construction, pending government approvals.
“Kinder Morgan will comply with all federal, state and local governmental regulations to construct, install and operate this project,’’ according to an email from the company’s Carolina Olivares.
Still, questions remain.
The Carolina Gas Transmission advertisement, written as an open letter to “fellow South Carolinians,’’ raised concerns about whether the power companies’ decision in favor of Kinder Morgan was complying with a state law passed this past spring by the Legislature.
Carolina Gas said that law, a sweeping energy bill designed to make utility projects easier to develop, urged Dominion and Santee Cooper to use existing rights of way “to the greatest extent practicable,’’ rather than new pathways for a gas pipe, to help avoid the impacts of a new pipeline.
Carolina Gas quoted unnamed Dominion and Santee Cooper officials as telling legislators in 2023 and 2024 they intended to do that.
Many issues must be resolved to bring natural gas to the proposed Canadys plant, with two of the biggest flash points being the environmental and property rights’ impacts of lines in South Carolina.
Any new pipelines could spark a mass of opposition from environmentalists who have opposed multiple pipeline projects across the country, in some cases successfully. Environmental groups have in recent years slowed one natural gas pipeline in eastern South Carolina because of their concerns about the impacts on the landscape.
Running a pipeline to Colleton County could provide even more intense opposition. Canadys is in the area of the ACE Basin preserve in South Carolina, an acclaimed natural area of deep forests, wetlands and abundant wildlife. Much of the ACE is between Canadys and the Savannah River.
The preserve has been carefully put together through a combination of land protection easements with private property owners and government acquisitions of land for preservation, and it is a source of pride among many state leaders.
Two months ago, the Coastal Conservation League of Charleston held a public forum to explain the potential impacts of a new pipeline in the Lowcountry and the ACE Basin.
Meanwhile, any pipeline plan that will condemn land is sure to spark protests from property owners and legislators who have championed private property rights through the years.
State Rep. Bill Hixon, an Aiken County Republican who chairs the House agriculture and environment committee, said he’d like to know more about the allegations. But he said he’s concerned anytime pipeline companies plan to condemn people’s land through the eminent domain process.
In 2016, he led efforts to help property owners whose land faced possible condemnation from a proposed Kinder Morgan petroleum pipe.
“Hell yeah I’ve got concerns,’’ Hixon said. “I don’t like taking people’s property away. If there can be a better way of doing it, I’m all in favor of looking at the better way.’’
The Legislature’s recent energy bill stripped out provisions to better notify property owners if pipelines were proposed for their land.
Eddy Moore, who is tracking the issue for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said a new pipeline is generally disruptive to communities and the environment. More specifically it can damage sensitive wetlands and rivers like those that define the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
And pipelines, which operate under high pressure, can explode, imperiling people who live or work nearby, he said.
A recent alliance report laid out some of those problems. Citing a website that analyzes oil and gas pipeline problems, the alliance said fires erupted every 4.2 days and explosions every 12.2 days from oil and gas pipeline incidents during a 13-year period beginning in 2010.
“The environmental questions are obvious questions,’’ Moore said.
This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Pipeline through SC threatens private property, rivers and swamps, state told."
