Fullstream Goff Connector Pipeline is a Sneaking Snake on the WV Landscape

by S. Tom Bond on September 22, 2018

West Virginia pipelines are driven thru very rough terrain

The strange no-name pipeline — snaking across the local hills & valleys

>>> Community interest report by S. Tom Bond, Lewis County, WV, September 20, 2018

I have been noticing a clearing along I-79 between Lost Creek and Quiet Dell for a few weeks. It goes across the highway from hilltop to hilltop in an East-West direction. Lately it turned into a pipeline, something I am interested in, so decided to trace it across country by driving other roads.

First I found it along the old road to Clarksburg just north of Mt. Clare. I stopped to talk to the two women dressed in work clothes with the highly visible vests the gatekeepers along highways wear. When I asked the name of the pipeline one of them told me it was “Fullflow.” When I checked that on the net, there was no such entry, very strange. I judged she had been “spoofing” me.

Next time I went to Clarksburg I drove out through Quiet Dell towards Philippi. At the bottom of the hill beyond the tiny town, it showed up again. There is a supply company just beyond that sells the kind of things they might need on the pipeline and knowing these people like to use local businesses to get local support, I went in. An innocent looking young woman was at the counter. I asked if the pipeline people bought stuff there. Yes they did. “Do they pay cash?,” I enquired. “No,” was the now hesitant answer. “What company’s check is it?,” I asked. At this point the answer was evasive, noncommittal. I thanked her and left the store.

On the way back to I-79, I stopped to enquire of the two male gatekeepers at the road. One lazy guy slumped in a chair said he “forgot” the name of the pipeline. (“Forgot who pays your wage,” I thought, “liar with your pants on fire.”) The Puerto Rician, being more polite by nature, went on to give some more complicated answer, which did not contain the name of the pipeline. By this time I suspected everyone connected with it had orders to not give the name.

I stopped at the bank at Lost Creek, about two miles South of the pipeline, on the way back home. The official at the bank said he had no idea what it was called, either, averring he wasn’t interested so long as it was not on him. This I judged this to be true by his tone, but that only increased the strangeness, because he almost surely is a Chamber of Commerce type. We talked further and he suggested I go to the DEP site on the net.

That site , toward the bottom, lists the Goff Connector Pipeline with a description:

The project will disturb approximately 285.9 acres of land for the installation of 20.26 miles of 24-inch steel natural gas pipeline in Harrison County West Virginia.

Using the CLICK HERE button shows (after a long wait for the ArcGIS map to come up) the line running from a compressor station on an old strip mine in Easternmost Harrison County, near where Harrison, Barbor and Taylor Counties come together, to a point near Reynoldsville, just south of Simpson Fork. It swings south along the route to cross I-79 where I found it. There are many little yellow lines off the big yellow line, presumably spurs to be built. The map also shows several more pipelines in other colors.

The compressor station, located at the Eastern end, near Barbour and Taylor, is described in a legal ad in an obscure Clarksburg newspaper aimed at the Business community as follows:

The proposed natural gas compressor facility project is located in Harrison County, WV and will include the construction of a 13.7 acre gravel pad, vehicular access entrances, and stormwater management controls. This site is the re-development of a former coal strip mine. Goff Connector LLC’s gathering operations at this facility will include compressor skids, a control building, dehydration equipment, and various other natural gas equipment. 0.5902 acres of PEM wetlands occurring on mine spoil will be filled with on-site soils and a gravel pad cap. The fill impacts to these wetlands will be mitigated via on-site wetland creation.

The company named in the publication is out of state, of course: Goff Connector LLC, 17806 IH-10 Suite, 300 San Antonio, TX 78257. It is a typical West Virginia development, out of state company, out of state money, out of state labor, and definitely out of state benefit and profit. A few local businessmen provide services and that is it. West Virginia mineral extraction! The damage is left here in WV, of course.

Having a name to work with, I googled “Goff Connector Pipeline.” Among other things I found a North American Oil and Gas Pipelines article entitled North American Pipeline Project Roundup: June 2018 which includes this item:

C.J. Hughes Pipeline was awarded a contract by Fullstream Goff Connector LLC to install approximately 20.5 miles of 24-in. pipeline in Harrison County, West Virginia. Headquarters is Clarksburg, West Virginia. The superintendent is Jackie Berryman. Approximate start date: April 19.”

Elsewhere The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond mentions it as one of six big projects adding over 600 miles in WV.

If we assign an approximate cost of $10,000,000 a mile, based on a recent survey, the cost would be in the neighborhood of $200 million for the project.

This financial magnitude is a construction that normally would get a lot of newspaper and TV attention. It involves big money, and is carried out insight of thousands of people. Why the silence? As times pass, resistance grows. Natural gas has too many problems: damage to property and environment encourages those hurt to organize; gas looks less attractive because of sensational explosions and the publicity they get; and the ever growing certainty of global warming with more and more research and the hurricanes. Since there is a problem with the failure of fracking companies to make money, even the sources of money for fracking adventures have second thoughts.

Payment for pipelines is relatively secure, because utilities (with guaranteed profit) sign up to have them built, but the structure is rotting from the bottom, the production end.

Time has come when the resistance is having an effect and the industry would like to quietly slide into place and guarantee as much profit as possible before the now clearly visible end.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Dorothy Davis September 22, 2018 at 3:23 pm

GOFF FAMILY WELL KNOWN IN CLARKSBURG —

Major Nathan Goff Jr. was the third child of Waldo P. Goff and Harriet Louise Moore Goff, and was discharged from the United States military in September of 1864. Goff then attended law school at Cooper Institute in October of 1864, however he left in December the same year without graduating. After applying, the Circuit Court of Harrison County approved Goff’s admission, and Goff started practicing law in Harrison and the adjoining counties in March on 1865. In his first years of practice, Goff gained clients and experience thanks to his family’s popularity in the community. On November 7th, 1865, Nathan Goff Jr. married Laura E. Despard, who welcomed their first child in September of 1866.

Goff joined his father in law’s practice soon after his marriage to Laura, and attempted to gain public office in August of 1866. The Harrison County Union Republican convention chose Goff and Solomon S. Fleming as candidates for the West Virginia House of Delegates. Goff, along with the rest of the Union ticket, won on October 25, 1866, and was in Wheeling for the opening of the legislature on January 15, 1867; Goff was the youngest delegate in attendance. Goff was appointed to as the United States District Attorney for West Virginia by President Andrew Johnson in November of 1868, and was reappointed in 1872, 1876, and 1880, while still managing his private law firm and investments in Clarksburg. Goff was partly responsible for the formation of the Clarksburg Gas and Electric Company, which supplied the city with electricity for nearly 30 years.

In 1907, Goff decided to replace a modern brick office building he had erected in 1891 on the corner of West Main and Courts Streets. Inspired by South Carolina architecture, he hired architect Frank P. Milburn to design the new building in 1908. Milburn practiced architecture in Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, and was responsible for designing the first steel frame building in South Carolina. Ground was broken for the Goff Building on June 28, 1910. Milburn trusted local Clarksburg architects, Elliott and Winchell, with his plans for the new office building. Elliot and Winchell were contractors for the Harrison Count jail and sheriff’s residence, the Empire Building, two schools, and V.L. Highland’s residence in Clarksburg, as well as other structures in larger cities in West Virginia.

The Goff Building was reinforced with steel frame fireproof construction and concrete floors. The first floor was built to house a bank, while the remaining stories held 193 offices collectively. Two high-speed electric passenger elevators were installed, as well as a bronze mail chute that ran the entire height of the building. The bank was adorned in marble and bronze, as well as fireproof vaults. The building was heated with an overhead direct steam system that used natural gas for fuel. The Goff Building was handed over to the owners in January of 1911, and tenants started moving in the next month. Some of the building’s first tenants include: Farmers Bank, Williams-Coffman Hardware Co., Bane and Bond, and Hayman Greenhouse Co.

Source: Davis, Dorothy. Clarksburg: A Bicentennial Album 1785-1985. Clarksburg, WV. Clarksburg Bicentennial Committee, 1986.

SEE ALSO: Nathan Goff Jr. – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Goff_Jr.

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Tom T. Hall September 22, 2018 at 3:39 pm

Sneaky Snake understands what happens when we are least expecting ……….

The natural gas industry will eat our lunch at an opportunity.

VIDEO HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnSqOz47NbE

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