Downingtown schools reach agreement over pipeline path

The Downingtown Area School District has come to an agreement with Columbia Gas Transmission over a proposed pipeline that will run through three Downingtown-area school properties.

The school district will receive $512,115 from Columbia Gas Transmission in exchange for easements under the deal, approved at a school board meeting Wednesday. The gas company must also restore school land affected by construction - including two athletic fields - and pay the district's legal fees related to the project.

"No land owner likes the idea of having a pipeline through their property," said school board member Carl Croft.

The district will work with the company to ensure student safety during the project, said district director of facilities James Lill, who with Croft negotiated the deal.

The parties had been trying to reach an agreement for more than a year, said Columbia spokesman Scott Castleman.

The planned 9.5-mile pipeline will run through Chester County, cutting across Downingtown Middle School in Caln Township and Shamona Creek Elementary School and Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center in Uwchlan Township.

It is part of Columbia's East Side Expansion Project, which includes another pipeline in New Jersey and changes to facilities in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York.

The construction will take about 12 weeks and start this spring, the district said.

"The outcome was the best that it could be, I believe, for the school district," said board member Colleen Cranney.