by Kate Shunney
Federal energy officials have approved a June 4 request from Columbia Gas Transmission LLC to put their new gas pipeline from Fulton County, Pa. to Berkeley Springs, W.Va. into service.
According to a letter filed on June 20 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Columbia Gas is authorized to put the 3.4-mile pipeline into service.
The letter, signed by Shannon Jones of the Division of Gas-Environment and Engineering, writing for Gertrude Fernandez Johnson, Director of that division, says that “Columbia states that mechanical completion of the Project was achieved.”
The request to go in service was granted on an environmental condition.
According to the letter, “This authorization is granted based on the content of your request, Columbia’s June 4, 2025 Bi-Weekly Construction Status Report, and photographic documentation provided. We find that Columbia has adequately stabilized the construction workspaces and restoration is proceeding satisfactorily.”
“Columbia has committed to resolve the groundwater spring that emerged beneath Berm Road in Washington County, Maryland, during the horizontal drilling process. As part of its commitment, Columbia has developed long-term mitigation measures to provide stabilization of the road and affected area of the surfaced underground spring, and continues consultation with multiple permitting agencies involved, including Maryland Department of the Environment, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Park Service, Washington County Department of Highways, and Washington County Department of Planning and Zoning. Columbia commits to provide updates to the Commission staff in its biweekly status reports until this mitigation work is complete,” wrote the FERC official.
During construction of the pipeline, horizontal drilling was used in numerous locations to put the eight-inch gas line under I-68, several local roads and the Potomac River.
The project was originally described as a way to supplement the natural gas needs of the growing Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia by feeding an existing Mountaineer Gas line in Morgan County from a Columbia Gas line in southern Pennsylvania.
