Landowners Fight Eminent Domain in Pa. Gas Field
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM Associated Press
LAPORTE, Pa.
January 31, 2012 (AP)
When
federal regulators approved a 39-mile natural gas pipeline through northern Pennsylvania's pristine Endless Mountains,
they cited the operator's assurances that it would make sparing use of eminent
domain as it negotiated with more than 150 property owners along the pipeline's
route.
Yet a
few days after winning approval for its $250 million MARC 1 pipeline in the
heart of the giant Marcellus Shale gas field, the company began condemnation
proceedings against nearly half of the landowners — undercutting part of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval rationale and angering
landowners.
Some of
the landowners are now fighting the company in court, complaining that Central New York Oil and Gas
Company LLC steamrolled them by refusing to negotiate in good faith on monetary
compensation and the pipeline's location. Their attorneys say CNYOG has skirted
Pennsylvania's
eminent domain rules.
The
company, a subsidiary of Inergy LP of Kansas City, Mo.,
insists it's trying to reach a "fair settlement" with all property
owners and wants to be a good neighbor.
The
dispute could foreshadow eminent domain battles to come as more pipelines are
approved and built to carry shale gas to market in states like Pennsylvania, New York
and Ohio.
In this photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, Lisa Richlin stands
in front of her home along Route 220 near Laporte, Pa., while talking about the
number of accidents there. Richlin is in court with Central New York Oil and
Gas Company LLC on trying to get them to move a proposed entrance road for
building the MARC 1 pipeline from a couple hundred yards north of her home
along Route 220 to a site a couple hundred yards south of her home. (AP
Photo/Jimmy May) Close
The company promotes the MARC 1
pipeline as key infrastructure in developing the Marcellus Shale, a rock
formation underneath Pennsylvania
and surrounding states that experts believe holds the
nation's largest reservoir of gas. The MARC 1, a high-pressure steel pipeline
30 inches in diameter, will connect to major interstate pipelines and the
company's own natural gas storage facility in southern New York state.
CNYOG
hopes to start construction soon and finish by July, but it awaits permits from
Pennsylvania environmental regulators and the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers.
It also
needs to answer the legal challenge from residents.
Many of
the complaining landowners say they favor natural gas drilling and some have
leased land to gas drillers. What rankles them is that
FERC has invested CNYOG with the power of eminent domain, taking away their
bargaining power.
"Once
the government becomes involved, this is what happens. Because you lose that
leverage," said Amy Gardner, who, with her husband, faces condemnation of
part of their 175-acre parcel in Sullivan
County.
The Gardners
say CNYOG offered less than a third of the amount that another pipeline company
had previously paid them to install a gathering line on their land. The difference? Gathering lines — smaller pipelines that
take gas from the wellhead to a transmission line or processing facility — are
not regulated by the federal government and companies that operate them don't
have condemnation power.
Amy
Gardner said a company representative who made them the lowball offer told them
to "take it or leave it."
"There's
no negotiating with this company. They come and they tell you what they're
going to do. They're telling you what they're going to pay. And they're
counting on the government to enforce it," Gardner said in a recent
interview at the Sullivan County Courthouse, where a judge has scheduled a
mid-February hearing on the landowners' concerns.
Amounts
offered by CNYOG range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of
dollars, depending on the amount of property taken. Court papers filed by CNYOG
in late December say it valued damages at 37 condemned properties in Sullivan County at $310,900.
The pipeline
has been controversial since it was first proposed two years ago.
FERC,
which considers all applications for new interstate pipelines, received 22,000
comments on the MARC 1 project, with many expressing concern about
environmental and safety impacts. The Environmental Protection Agency also
worried about potential damage to the forest ecosystem, noting the pipeline
will cross dozens of pristine waterways in an area popular with hikers, hunters
and fishermen.
FERC
ultimately determined the pipeline would not significantly impact the
environment and allowed it to proceed.
The
commission was also supposed to consider whether there would be an
"unneeded exercise" of eminent domain — the often-contentious legal
process by which the government, or a party such as a public utility, takes
private property for public benefit.
Indeed,
the commission said last year its approval relied on the company's assertion
that it was acquiring land "through negotiated agreements with landowners,
thus minimizing the need" to condemn people's land.
In this photo taken Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, Lisa Richlin stands
along Route 220 at intersection with Thorndale Road next to her home near
Laporte, Pa. Richlin is in court with Central New York Oil and Gas Company LLC
on trying to get them to move a proposed entrance road for building the MARC 1
pipeline from a couple hundred yards north of her home at Thorndale Road to a
site a couple hundred yards south of her home. (AP Photo/Jimmy May) Close
In reality, the company had prepared
condemnation papers for dozens of properties even before winning commission
approval on Nov. 14. Within a few days, it began eminent domain proceedings
against 74 of 152 property owners along the pipeline's route through the
mountains of Bradford, Lycoming and Sullivan counties. Continued at ….. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/landowners-fight-eminent-domain-pa-gas-field-15477361