Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline will soon begin
clearing land near the junction of Day and Lambert roads for a new
natural gas compressor station, a company spokeswoman confirmed.
The station is one
of five being built as part of Maritimes & Northeast’s new 146-mile
pipeline, located for the most part next to a line that runs from
Baileyville to Eliot.
Maritimes &
Northeast is owned by U.S.-based companies Duke Energy Corp. and
Exxon Mobil Corp., and Canadian-based energy company Emera Inc.
Maritimes &
Northeast is hoping to triple the capacity of the company’s 850-mile
pipeline system, built in the late 1990s.
Brewer city
officials were pleased with the project because it will spur
additional property tax revenue. The city estimates the project will
cost $30 million to $40 million, Finance Director Karen Fussell
said.
Property taxes are
estimated to kick in at the same time payments on the bonds for the
city’s new public safety building come due, which means residents
should see a minimal change to the tax rate, Fussell said.
In Canada, the new
pipeline will extend to Sable Island, Nova Scotia. It will reach to
the south into New Hampshire and a network of natural gas lines in
Massachusetts.
"We do anticipate
beginning construction in mid-July" in Brewer, said Marylee Hanley,
spokeswoman for Duke Energy.
The company already
has compressor stations in Baileyville in Washington County and in
Richmond in Sagadahoc County. Those stations were built in 1999.
The Brewer
compressor station "will be very similar to the one in Baileyville,"
Hanley said.
A cost estimate for
the Brewer facility was not available because the company is still
negotiating contracts, but Maritimes & Northeast has "certainly
ordered some of the parts" she said.
The expected
in-service date for the new pipeline is Nov. 1, 2008
