Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000176-e6f7-dce8-adff-f6f770410000PublicSource is an independent, nonprofit news group that focuses on original investigative reporting about critical issues facing Pittsburgh and the Western Pennsylvania region. It was launched to undertake in-depth reporting in the public interest.PublicSource is a content partner of 90.5 WESA.More about PublicSource here.

A New Pipeline From PA Fracking Fields Is Stirring Controversy in the Bluegrass State

Natasha Khan
/
PublicSource

The land agent first came knocking on Vivian and Dean House’s door in July. They sat on the patio of the retired couple’s 85-acre farm in this Central Kentucky town and chatted.

The guy was friendly, the kind of guy Dean could talk to about fishing.

He put the couple at ease and told them his company was interested in running a pipeline through their land. They were later offered more than $165,000 to sign easements.

“My husband, Dean, he told them that he didn't want ‘em messing up his alfalfa field...and didn't want big machinery coming in and messing up the farm,” Vivian said about their land, where they raise cattle and grow alfalfa.  

They were assured that wouldn’t happen.

They let the company survey for a section of the proposed 1,100-mile Bluegrass Pipeline. It would transport natural gas liquids from fracking in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to petrochemical markets in Louisiana.

Read more of this report at the website of our partner PublicSource.