Residents near the towns of Calhan and Ramah will soon see construction on a natural gas liquids pipeline. Rick Rainey with Enterprise Products Operating LLC said the pipeline originates in Weld County, just east of Greeley, Colo., and cuts through El Paso County about 5 miles east of Calhan and 5 miles west of Ramah. It will continue in a southeasterly direction until it reaches the Texas Express Pipeline in Skellytown, Texas.Rainey said the Front Range Pipeline is a joint venture between Enterprise Products and DCP Midstream LLC. The pipeline will be 435 miles long and 16 inches in diameter, he said. It can carry an average of 150,000 barrels of liquid per day but can be expanded to accommodate up to 200,000 barrels daily.ìWhen natural gas is produced, there are liquids that come out with it other than water,î Rainey said. ìThose products need a way to get to a place to be able to be separated out. This pipeline is designed to carry natural gas liquids, basically butane, propane and ethane that have uses of their own.îAfter the liquids have reached the Texas Express Pipeline, they will then travel to Mont Belvieu, Texas. ìThere are a number of fractionators that separate out the propane from the butane from the ethane,î he said. ìTheyíll either go into storage or to a petrochemical plant; or, in the case of propane or butane, be exported overseas.îThe planning process for the pipeline required that private property owners negotiate a right-of-way agreement for construction on their properties. ìThat agreement is between us and the landowner for an easement access to their properties,î he said. ìAfter construction, the surface is returned as close as possible to its original conditions. These easements give us access to that portion of their land for maintenance of the pipeline.îRainey said there will be an ongoing public awareness program to provide information about the pipeline, as well as how to handle an issue and whom to contact in that event. ìThere is also financial compensation associated with the agreements for those landowners,î he said.The towns or municipalities along the pipeline route will not be able to tap into the pipeline to use the resources because those liquids still need to be refined and arenít usable until they have been, Rainey said.ìThis project is expected to create as many as 2,000 full-time and part-time jobs as well as ongoing tax revenue for the counties it runs through,î Rainey said. ìWhen you build a pipeline, thereís usually a need for services that support that work like fuel, rock, heavy equipment; anything you would need to support a crew out in the field, and that will come from local sources.îRainey said construction of the pipeline should already be under way and areas along the route will be worked on simultaneously. The expected ìin serviceî date for the pipeline is sometime within the fourth quarter of this year, he said.
