A public meeting to hear about potential environmental issues that the proposed Elba III natural gas pipeline project is planned for next Thursday, April 13, and affected landowners say they're consulting with experts who have fought pipeline companies in the past.

The meeting is part of the process by which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission evaluates the request by Southern LNG, Inc. and Elba Express Company to prepare a statement on the environmental impact a pipeline might have going through the environmentally sensitive Broad River area.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. next Thursday at the WashingtonWilkes Comprehensive High School cafeteria.

Based on landowners' comments at the previous open house, Southern LNG identified this preliminary list of issues:

Conversion of the planned pipeline right-of-way from private/commercial and forested land uses to pipeline easement, and associated economic impact;

Potential impacts on watersheds and associated wetlands, tributaries and streams, and sensitive aquatic and terrestrial wildlife;

Potential impacts on federally listed threatened and endangered species;

Potential impacts on essential fish habitat;

Potential impacts on cultural resources; Risks associated with the transport and storage of LNG;

Alternative locations for the LNG terminal expansion and pipeline route alignment, respectively, and

Assessment of the cumulative effects of the projects when combined with other past, present, or reasonably foreseeable future actions in the project area.

Landowner Cindy Bounds said that she had spent the weeks since the first pipeline meeting learning how other landowners have dealt with the prospect of a pipeline carrying millions of tons of natural gas through their land. "We're working with lawyers who specialize fighting pipeline companies, and we know a lot more about what we can do now."

Landowners say they are meeting this week in preparation for next Thursday's public meeting with pipeline representatives and FERC officials.