Gene Autry Patterson learned this week that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline could be 300 feet behind his property in Sims. Patterson said he got no notification that it was coming. Photo taken Thursday, April 6, 2017 Drew C. Wilson | Times
SIMS — Gene Autry Patterson usually reads the papers and watches the news, but he had no idea the proposed path of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was just over a football field from his back door.
The 81-year-old lives at the end of Helmlock Court on the outskirts of Sims in rural Wilson County.
“What pipeline?” Patterson asked Thursday. “What kind is it?”
Thursday was the last day for members of the public to comment on the draft environmental impact statement that has been filed to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by builders of the 600-mile-long, high-pressure natural gas transmission line that will be buried in the ground just into the woods behind Patterson’s house.
“Where is it going to?” Patterson asked. “How deep are they going to put that thing? They’ve got to make sure that stuff is not dangerous.”
Patterson said he has never received any information in the mail or any visits by anyone affiliated with Dominion, the ACP’s primary backer.
“I don’t get no letters,” Patterson said. “I don’t know nothing about gas. I look at the news a lot, but I didn’t see nothing. I didn’t hear nothing. Nothing like that about a gas line, so I don’t know.”
The first time Patterson heard about a gas line coming through was when The Wilson Times called him at his house asking for a comment.
About 12 miles of the pipeline are planned to skirt across Wilson County’s western communities from Sims to beyond Buckhorn Crossroads.
Property owners whose land is within the path of the actual route have received letters, phone calls and visits from pipeline developers intent on using their property to bury the 36-inch diameter pipe.
But what about the people who live nearby the pipeline’s proposed route?
“We actually have sent notifications to all landowners within a 300-foot-wide study corridor — whether their property is directly impacted by the pipeline or not — to inform them about the project and that we may need to survey their property as we further develop the route,” said Aaron Ruby, a spokesman for Dominion. “If a landowner’s property line was within the 300-foot study corridor, they should have received the notification, regardless of whether their home was actually within the 300 feet.”
“In 2015 we actually sent a mailing to all residents living within a half-mile of the pipeline route in North Carolina. We provided informational materials about the project, contact information for our project team and information about the community open houses and other public meetings that would be held in the area,” Ruby said. “I think it’s clear we’ve made a very concerted effort to keep the community informed about the project and provide numerous avenues for residents to engage with us and provide their input.”
Despite the claim of mailings and public hearings, many people along the pipeline route still do not know of the project.
“The gas company, North Carolina, the county, they don’t let us know a thing down here unless they are getting ready to charge tax,” Patterson said. “If they get ready to charge some tax, then they will do that, but they don’t let us know nothing.”
Juan Borja, who lives with his wife and two children at 6956 Sims School Road, about 1,000 feet from the pipeline’s path, say they have received nothing from the gas company.
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