Zach Maxwell
Staff Reporter
The Rotary Club of Durant welcomed guest speaker Danny Nixon, regional manager of governmental affairs for Oneok, at its Tuesday meeting.
Most know Oneok as the natural gas provider for most Durant area residents. But the company is also in the planning stages of building a pipeline through western Bryan County.
Nixon spoke to Rotarians Tuesday to ensure that the 570-mile pipeline being built by Oneok from northern Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast is not confused with a separate line being built in the area by Keystone.
“A lot of people think we are the same, and we are not,” he said. “It’s two separate lines. We are out talking to landowners now.”
The Oneok line, called “Sterling III,” will haul natural gas liquids to Mont Belvieu, Texas, for refinement into plastic products. The 16-inch line will be buried at an average depth of four feet, and will run roughly parallel to two other Oneok lines installed in 1981 and 1992, respectively.
A tentative route has the pipeline entering northwest Bryan County in the vicinity of Brown, in an area shown on some maps as “Twelvemile Prairie.” It will run roughly on a north-south line, basically along the border between the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations.
This will take the pipeline through Silo, crossing US 70 east of Mead, and US 69/75 between Calera and Colbert. It will cross into Texas just west of the Carpenters Bluff bridge near Hendrix, for a total of 24 pipeline miles in Bryan County.
The construction is expected to create 1,500 jobs in Oklahoma and Texas, and generate $270,000 in property tax revenue in 2012 just in Bryan County. Construction is set to begin in 2013.
Rotarians were led by their incoming 2012-13 president, Ron Erickson. Award winners Grady Hartman (Rotarian of the Year) and Pamela Robinson (Service Above Self Award) were present as well. Rotary meets at noon each Tuesday at KC Roadhouse in downtown Durant.
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