Federal regulators have given final approval to a 31-mile pipeline abandonment and replacement project by Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline which is set to begin early in 2020. The $145 million job involves the abandonment of 2 gas lines running between Welda and Ottawa and replacing them with a single larger line. A separate project will then remove the two abandoned lines. The overall project is expected to take about 2 years. Word of the project resulted in a flurry of development in recent months, as local landowners and entrepreneurs in the county constructed a number of parking areas for recreational vehicles, which are often hauled by contract workers into work areas for housing. The company estimates more than $4 million in initial economic impact in Anderson County during the project period, and some $45 million in Kansas as a whole.
