To the Editor:
Responding to your editorial, “Pipeline plans need to be public,” we also agree with the public’s need to
know. On December 15th Swan Creek Township listened to 8 Nexus/Spectra representatives address the
residents. It became apparent early on nothing new would be shared. On December 17th at the New Franklin
Summit County meeting, Pat Becker (manager of the central region of the US for Spectra Energy)  gave a
surprising frank presentation of facts. Here are some highlights:
The process of laying out the current route was done on a desktop computer at Spectra Energy corporate
offices in Houston, TX. It was chosen because it is the shortest distance between the starting point and
Canada.
There are no alternate routes being considered, only “tweaks” of the current route.
The vast majority of the gas in the pipeline is going to Canada via Union Gas, a Spectra Energy
subsidiary in Canada, and Enbridge Energy a Canadian company. A lesser amount is going to Michigan to
cover needs of DTE’s coal to gas conversion of power plants. This process is being forced to occur by
the EPA’s regulations on power plant emissions.
Nexus has no contracts in Ohio.
Spectra Energy/Nexus will not respect property owner, township, city or county rights or requests to
re-route around their areas.
Spectra Energy/Nexus will rely on government standards for setbacks, safety and environmental impacts.

They admit there are no governmental standards for setbacks, safety zones, or environmental impacts and
pipeline can be built within a few feet of any structure, home, well or septic and no guarantee that any
damage will be repaired to owner satisfaction.
After construction Spectra Energy/Nexus will electronically monitor the entire route of the pipeline from
a “control center” in Houston. Their primary means of monitoring, however, is relying on property owners
to report incidents and issues.
They have never heard of Xylene Power, its principles, their recommendations on safety setbacks and
routinely hire their own experts to refute the position of other interested parties.
The open houses, public meetings, FERC scoping hearings, FERC comment period, environmental studies,
economic impact studies, etc. are all contrived to make it appear that a well-designed, fundamentally
sound, all-compassing process is strictly adhered to when designing and routing the pipeline.
After hearing from Nexus representatives and the public, New Franklin voted and passed a resolution
against the Nexus Pipeline.
Paul Wohlfarth
Ottawa Lake, Mich.