Installation of pipeline that will enable the University of Maryland Eastern Shore campus to switch to natural gas as its primary source of energy is heading into the homestretch.
Since late summer, contractors have meticulously fused together dozens of 40-foot long sections of 6-inch yellow-striped black pipe, which has snaked its way along the western and southern perimeters of campus.
Chesapeake Utilities laid the groundwork – literally – to serve the UMES campus by extending an 11-mile natural gas pipeline along U.S. Route 13 from Eden to near Westover, where a medium-security state prison will also benefit from the conversion.
In December 2020, the three-member state Board of Public Works voted unanimously to approval a wetlands license clearing the way for the pipeline to be extended south from Salisbury, crossing three tidal tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay. Environmental groups opposed the permit, predicting the $11 million project could someday lead to ecological disasters, but Lt. Gov. Boyd K. Rutherford defended the decision.
Pipeline opponents, he said, were attempting to block economically disadvantaged Somerset County from being served by a needed energy resource much of the rest of the state already enjoys.
“Many of the people … most concerned about it do not live on the Lower Shore,” Rutherford said. “Many … already have access to natural gas at home … and they’re not subjected” to greenhouse gas emissions from the university, which for years has relied on diesel fuel or petroleum, and the nearby prison, which employs wood-fueled boilers for energy.
UMES President Heidi Anderson said affording the university the opportunity to convert to natural gas will allow UMES to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 38% and ECI to reduce its emissions by 65%.
“This natural gas project will allow UMES and … residents of Somerset County to get rid of the dirtiest oil fuels that we are now using as energy here on the Eastern Shore,” Anderson told the Board of Public Works.
Using special trenching equipment, installers have been discretely burrowing the serpentine pipeline along UMES Boulevard, College Backbone Road and University Boulevard behind Hazel Hall, connecting the university’s steam plant adjacent to Carver Hall to the main source of natural gas at Route 13.
