Officials of a Houston-based company that is planning to construct a 680-mile natural gas pipeline say they want to run the line through northern Utah despite local opposition to the project.

El Paso Corp. said the Ruby Pipeline would begin in Opal, Wyo., and travel through Utah's Rich, Cache and Box Elder counties and across Nevada before ending in Malin, Ore., near California's northern border.

The chosen route bypasses an alternative route that went through Idaho, said Richard Wheatley, El Paso media relations manager. He said that after careful review, the company determined the project would work best if it took a path that went through northern Utah near Brigham City.

That plan drew criticism at an open house meeting last month in Logan, as some local ranchers worried the pipeline would harm their land. They also expressed concerns that they would not be fairly compensated.

At a meeting Thursday with the Deseret News editorial board, Dan Gredvig, El Paso Corp. land and right-of-way supervisor, said the company understood those concerns and would work diligently to address them in a manner that would benefit the approximately 200 landowners who'd be involved.

Cache County executive Lynn Lemon is asking federal regulators for more time to comment on the project. El Paso has no objection to that, according to Wheatley.

In early April, the Cache County Council voted unanimously to oppose the project. Wheatley said El Paso has no intention of "pushing anything down anyone's throat" and would try to mitigate any concerns that landowners and stakeowners may have.

The proposed $2 billion pipeline would transport 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas per day and could be expanded to 2 billion cubic feet, Wheatley said.

Gredvig said that if the line is approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, construction would begin in the first quarter of 2010 and would be scheduled for completion a year later. The pipeline would transport natural gas to local utilities that provide service to individual homes, small and large businesses and electric generating plants in California, Nevada and Oregon, he said.

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E-mail: jlee@desnews.com