A Columbus-based natural-gas pipeline operator is seeking state permission to build a 22-mile pipeline from Maumee to Oregon to supply a gas-fueled electric power plant planned for the North Lallendorf Road area.

The Oregon Lateral pipeline would pass through eight communities in Wood and Lucas counties along a route that will take it under the Maumee River, east across both I-75 and I-280, and then north before reaching its connecting point in Oregon.

When finished, it will connect to the proposed $800 million Oregon Clean Energy Center plant, a 799-megawatt natural gas-fired generating facility slated for a 30-acre site at 816 N. Lallendorf Rd. in Oregon.

The privately developed power plant was approved in 2013 and is planned to be operational by May, 2017.

The pipeline is to be built and owned by North Coast Gas Transmission LLC, a subsidiary of Somerset Gas Transmission Co. LLC of Columbus. Somerset is a privately held gas transmission company that operates an intrastate pipeline system starting in western Pennsylvania and running across northern Ohio.

North Coast submitted its Oregon Lateral plan Oct. 7 to the Ohio Power Siting Board.

If it gains approval, it plans to begin constructing the 24-inch wide pipeline in March and to complete it by July, 2016. North Coast indicated that it already has begun clearing trees on some areas of the route where it has obtained easements.

North Coast is keeping the project’s cost a secret, and it sought permission from the state siting board to have any record of the cost kept private. The price tag was redacted in documents filed with the state siting board.

At its western end, the pipeline will tie into the Maumee natural gas gateway — a natural gas junction that connects pipelines from three companies: Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Co., ANR Pipeline Co., and Columbia Pipeline Group.

The gateway is a major confluence for gas arriving from other sections of the country, and Columbia Gas of Ohio has a tie-in at the gateway so it can obtain natural gas supplies from all three companies.

North Coast will contract for gas from Panhandle and ANR, the company said in its state siting board filing.

The 22-mile pipeline will pass through Maumee, Perrysburg, Perrysburg Township, Rossford, Lake Township, Walbridge, Northwood, and Oregon.

The longest section will be 6.8 miles in Perrysburg Township.

The company will need approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to drill under the Maumee River.

North Coast said it studied several routes for the pipeline, but because of population and safety concerns it had to route the pipeline across farm fields, seven wetlands, and properties owned by 47 different landowners.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.

First Published October 16, 2014, 4:00 a.m.