The Northampton Area School District administration and school board is in an information-gathering phase concerning the proposed natural gas pipeline that is expected to be less than one-half mile from Moore Elementary School.

"Right now, we're gathering information," NASD Superintendent Joseph Kovalchik told a reporter for Northampton Press following the Feb. 11 board of education meeting.

PennEast Pipeline LLC, a consortium that includes UGI Energy Services, wants to build a $1-billion, 114-mile, 36-inch natural gas underground pipeline from Dallas, Luzerne County, to Pennington, Mercer County, N.J., traversing Carbon, Northampton and Bucks counties.

Construction of the pipeline, pending approval by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), is scheduled to begin in 2017.

"We [NASD] nor the residents have the final say," Attorney C. Steven Miller, NASD solicitor, told The Press. "But it's in their best interest to have the people behind it."

The PennEast Pipeline will "bisect Moore Township," claimed Robert Mentzell, retired Northampton Area High School social studies teacher, at the Feb. 11 meeting.

The proposed route is subject to change before PennEast files a formal application with FERC, expected this summer. A preliminary application was filed with FERC in October 2014.

If built in its proposed location, the pipeline will be four-10ths of one mile from Moore Elementary School.

Mentzell, who spoke at the podium during the public comment portion of the Feb. 11 school board meeting (postponed from Feb. 9 because of inclement weather), said the pipeline "impact zone" is 956 feet.

"That puts Moore Elementary School a distance away, but it's still a concern," said Mentzell, who retired at the end of the 2012-13 school year.

"The pipeline route can be altered," Mentzell said, noting that the route has already been changed in the vicinity of the St. Luke's University Hospital-Anderson Campus, Bethlehem Township near I-78 and the Lehigh River.

"If a pipeline is eligible to move away from a medical facility, it is certainly eligible to be moved from this school [Moore Elementary]," said Mentzell.

Mentzell urged NASD school directors and the administration to request a rerouting of the pipeline further away from Moore.

"Certainly, if St. Luke's can get a rerouting, so can the school district," Mentzell reasoned.

Responded Kovalchik, "The district has always put safety first for students and staff. We have [emergency] plans for each of our schools."

Referring to school board President David Gogel and board member Chuck Longacre, Kovalchik said, "They've been doing their homework [about the pipeline]."

Gogel attended pipeline information meetings Nov. 19, 2014, at the Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company, and Feb. 5 at Covenant United Methodist Church, Bath.

State elected officials at the Covenant meeting included state Rep. Julie Harhart (R-183rd), state Rep. Marcia Hahn (R-138th) and state Senator Mario Scavello (R-40th).

An estimated 300 attended the Feb. 10 FERC hearing, the only one held in the Lehigh Valley, at the Northampton Community College main Green Pond Road campus.

"It is being looked at," said Longacre. "We went to the meeting at Covenant.

"We are trying to formulate as to how we are going to take a stand on this," Longacre said.

"We've been following this process pretty closely," said Gogel, noting the pipeline is also in proximity to Nazareth Area School District's Lower Nazareth Elementary School in Lower Nazareth Township.

At the FERC hearing at NCC, the Nazareth Area School District solicitor expressed concerns about the proximity of the pipeline to the school.

Lower Saucon and Moore township officials passed resolutions opposing the pipeline.

"This [the pipeline proposal] is uncharted territory for everyone at this table," Kovalchik said, referring to the school board meeting table in the administration building conference room.

Gogel said there will be one pumping station and it will be in Carbon County. "There will be none from there to Trenton," Gogel said.

School board members and administrators previously discussed the pipeline at the Nov. 24, 2014, board meeting when Gogel reported on the Nov. 19, 2014, pipeline meeting he attended at the Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company.

The underground pipeline is to transport 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale region to provide energy for an estimated 4.7 million homes.

The pipeline is to be built through the townships of Bethlehem, Lower Nazareth, Lower Saucon, Upper Nazareth and Williams in Northampton County.

According to a study commissioned by PennEast, the pipeline construction would create more than 12,000 jobs and provide a one-time impact of $1.6 billion in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,

After construction, 98 jobs would be required between the two states to work on the pipeline, creating $8.3 million annually in wages and $23 million in economic impact, according to the study.

A Facebook page, Stop the PennEast Pipeline, set up by Concerned Citizens Against the Pipeline, had 2,144 "likes" as of Feb. 16.

FERC's public comment period on the PennEast Pipeline project continues through Feb. 27.

Comments can be submitted at: ferc.gov.