Thanks to an innovative effort by Chester County, information now flows as readily as the oil and gas within increasingly commonplace pipelines that criss-cross the region.

The go-to resource for everyone from concerned residents to pipeline operators, municipalities and developers, the Pipeline Information Center brings together otherwise fragmented resources like pipeline maps, plans, permits, contact information and links to regulatory agencies.

“We’re not advocating for or against any pipeline projects; we’re just making sure the information is out there,” Chester County Director of Infrastructure and Plan Review Carol Stauffer said in a National Assoc. of Counties report. “We try to increase communication among parties.”

And the pioneering initiative is being heralded as a model for not just neighboring counties but the entire country.

“What we created here is the boilerplate; it should be adaptable by any county,” Pipeline Safety Coalition President Lynda Farrell said in the article. “The grunt work is done. A lot of the basic development work, the framework, is already complete, so it’s just a matter of filling in information about a county’s individual pipeline map. It would be easiest for adjacent counties to do it, because it’s a smooth transition from the (shared) border with the county that already has its map complete. It would be like falling dominoes.”

Read more about the county’s pipeline resource at Philly.com.