Morgan County Commissioner Bob Ford says that there will be a public outcry over the proposed gas pipeline coming under the C&O Canal west of Hancock, Maryland.
Ford said that “it took an act of Congress to build the C&O Canal.”
“That’s a national historic park,” Ford said. “It’s not just a national park. It’s a national historic park.”
As for the prospects of the proposed gas pipeline, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” Ford said.
Columbia Gas is proposing a pipeline that will come under the C&O Canal and the Potomac River and deliver fracked gas from Pennsylvania to a West Virginia pipeline proposed by Mountaineer Gas that will cut through Berkeley Springs and head east to customers in Martinsburg.
“I know U.S. Silica tried feverishly a couple of times to get a pipeline,” Ford told This Week in Morgan County with Russell Mokhiber. “Had they had the ability to get that pipeline, we could have had Corning Glass here, we could have had other companies here. What they wanted to make — the cookware and pottery — required a lot of sand, but also a lot of gas. U.S. Silica was never successful in getting that.”
What stopped them from getting it?
“The hurdles that they had to cross are horrendous,” Ford said. “They have to get under the historic park. Don’t take that park land lightly. It’s almost like sacred ground. There will be public outcry. It will be unbelieveable.”
“I’ll sit back and see what happens. Getting under the river is not a big deal. Do they have the ability to drill under the river and the canal to make this happen? Certainly we have the ability. The technology is there. It’s just the will to go through a national historic park.”
Ford said that he is concerned that when the new Sheetz goes in at the corner of Rt. 13 and US 522, that the old Sheetz at the corner of Rt. 9 and US 522 will be boarded up. Ford said that he has been in contact with the real estate agent for Sheetz and is discussing possible alternatives for that site.
Ford is one of the few Republican office holders in the eastern panhandle who is actively campaigning for Donald Trump for President.
Ford said that the polling showing Trump losing ground is wrong and predicted that Trump will win the election “in a landslide.”