Natural gas pipeline proposed from Eau Claire County to Tomah - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

Augusta (WQOW) - A proposed natural gas pipeline brings out dozens of people to a meeting in Eau Claire County.

We energies hosted a meeting in Augusta.  The company is currently evaluating routes that would wind from the Augusta area through the Fairchild area south to Tomah. We energies says demand for natural gas has skyrocketed in the past few years, as prices have dropped. The company says the $150 million project would make the energy source available for many other areas of western Wisconsin.

"This would allow more customers eventually to get natural gas, so what this will allow us to do is to perhaps go into other communities and be able to have them hook up if they wanted to to natural gas, so it'll allow that, but even without that, it'll also up the reliability, and also help the current customers as well," says Brian Manthey, A We Energies spokesman.

We energies says it has two proposed routes planned out.  It will file proposals with the public service commission within the next several months.  The P.S.C. will then chose one of those routes. If approved, construction could begin at the end of 2014.