South Point – South Point residents will see a petroleum products pipeline soon in their village.

Saturday, January 08, 2000

South Point – South Point residents will see a petroleum products pipeline soon in their village. South Point Village Council members allowed Mayor Bill Gaskin to sign an agreement with Marathon Ashland Petroleum that gives the company a green light in placing a portion of the 120-mile pipeline inside village limits.

The deal includes agreement to South Point officials’ chosen route, a new, large well, about $35,000 in matching funds for a grant for repairs and renovations to Village Park, as well as annexation requests for the remaining 400-acres of South Point Ethanol property.

"(MAP representatives) are going to stick to the original agreement, which does include a large well that will give us more water than we actually have now; a grant for the work in the park; and they said they’d like to annex the rest of the ethanol plant property into the village," Gaskin said. "They are going to stick to the route we agreed upon, and we decided to sign the agreement that allows them to go ahead with the project."

The formal agreement comes after months of negotiations and plan-changing on both sides of the table.

Late last year, MAP began stacking miles of pipeline on the former South Point Ethanol Plant property in what village officials then called a premature preparation for beginning the project. At that time, village officials had heard nothing concrete about the annexation, the grant’s matching funds or the wells.

In addition, the pipeline’s initial surveyors had deviated about 40 yards from where village officials had verbally agreed to allow the pipeline to run.

Despite South Point’s protests, MAP representatives continued with their plans, citing eminent domain as a possible means to run the pipeline beneath the village without consent – and without providing any of the previously promised incentives on paper.

The threat of eminent domain changed Friday when a Fairfield County judge ruled the company had no claims to eminent domain, which allows private property to be taken for public use, according to The Associated Press story. Fairfield County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph Clark issued the ruling Friday in a case involving Ohio River Pipe Line Co., a subsidiary of MAP.

"I am very pleased at the decision in Fairfield County because I find it unconscionable that a private entity, whose sole goal is profit, could lay claim to take another’s private property," village councilman David Classing said. "This is a just decision for all residents of southern Ohio and residents of Lawrence County who have experienced Marathon-Ashland’s arm-twisting and threats of eminent domain."

It would have taken more than threats, however, for South Point to buckle without just cause, Gaskin said.

"I knew all along that (MAP) could not use the eminent domain argument because they are not a public utility," Gaskin said. "We would not have signed any agreement if they had not agreed to put the pipeline where we wanted it."

Although MAP spokesman Chuck Rice, who visited South Point several times during the negotiations phase of the deal, has said the company will possibly appeal the Fairfield County court’s decision, construction will move forward in South Point now that a contract has been signed.

The new deal, which mirrors the original, proposed deal, between MAP and the Village of South Point, could encounter problems when the annexation requests are heard by Lawrence County commissioners.

Although currently vacated, the property lies within Perry Township limits. As part of the federally funded Empowerment Zone grant, the property is looked upon as the future home of an industrial park – a future potential tax base that Perry Township trustees do not intend to let go of without a fight.

"Right now it’s not a devastating blow because everything is shut down. It’s the future tax base that we cannot afford to lose," said Doug Malone, trustees’ president. "When the ethanol plant shut down, we lost between $20,000 and $30,000 in tax revenues, so if you take into consideration that there will be four or five businesses of that size on the property in the future, it is a tremendous loss for the township."

A loss that size is not going to happen without protest, he added.

"We’ll just have to put our case before the commissioners," Malone said. "We are still going to oppose it."

Although South Point village officials said last year they would be willing to discuss the issue with Perry Township officials once MAP representatives sent something definite on paper, the township trustees said they have not yet been contacted by the village.

"We have to stand up for the people in the township and do what is best for them, so we will offer strong opposition when the time comes," Malone said.

Upon completion, the 120-mile petroleum products pipeline and associated pump station will connect the Catlettsburg, Ky., refinery with petroleum products terminals in Columbus.

The pipeline will originate in Kenova, cross the Ohio River at a depth of 100 feet, enter Lawrence County in South Point where it will begin a slow ascent beneath the ground of Spence Street before traveling under the railroad tracks and County Road 1.

When it reaches the former ethanol plant property, it will then travel to Columbus through Gallia, Jackson, Vinton, Hocking, Fairfield, Pickaway and Franklin counties.

The 14-inch pipeline is designed to transport about 80,000 barrels of gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene per day.