Pipeline upsets landowners

BY ELIZABETH SKRAPITS

On Dale Wilkie’s farm in the Dallas Township’s Kunkle section, he fears the old-growth woods filled with birds, butterflies and insects, a strip of the land where he grows corn, soybeans and sunflowers, and a 100-year-old heirloom apple orchard will be chopped down, uprooted and slashed up.

“They’re going to destroy the whole apple orchard,” Wilkie said.

To accommodate the huge amounts of natural gas coming from Marcellus Shale wells to the north and west, the Williams Cos.’ subsidiary Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC — better known as Transco — is enlarging the capacity of the Transco interstate pipeline through what is known as the Atlantic Sunrise project.

The project is not sitting well with several local landowners, who say the pipeline could run through the least appropriate parts of their properties, and who don’t trust Williams or its representatives.

But a spokesman said the company is willing to work with landowners throughout the long process of gaining federal approval for the project.

The $2.59 billion Atlantic Sunrise project involves running pipeline from Susquehanna County south through Wyoming, Luzerne, Columbia, Northumberland, Schuylkill and Lebanon counties, to connect to an existing part of the Transco in Lancaster County. It includes new pipeline loops planned for Clinton and Lycoming counties, as well as new or upgraded natural gas facilities in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

In Northeast Pennsylvania, the new Central Penn Line segment of the project would begin at an existing Transco compressor station at the pipeline in Columbia County; parallel the existing Transco pipeline through Fairmount, Ross, Lehman, Lake and Dallas townships; run through Wyoming County and end in Susquehanna County. A new gas pressure regulation station, a small facility that regulates the pressure of the gas in the pipeline, is proposed for Lehman Twp.

The purpose of Atlantic Sunrise is to increase the pipeline capacity and bring gas from the Marcellus Shale, instead of from the Gulf of Mexico, to markets on the East Coast, including southeastern states.

Much of the new pipeline would be laid in areas that are not densely populated, but in some cases the proposed route is too close for comfort.

In order to lay and operate the pipeline, Williams needs to obtain right-of-way easements from property owners that allow the company to use the land.

Although many have given permission, several landowners have not.

Theirs isn’t a simple case of “not in my backyard.”

Instead, it’s a question of “please put it somewhere else in my backyard.”

Wilkie, an organic farmer, describes himself as pro-gas.

Initially, he was told the pipeline would run on his property along the boundary line, near the road and out of the way of his woods and fields.

“I was OK with that. That’s why I let them in,” he said of the land men.

But Wilkie soon discovered the plan seemed to call for running the pipeline through the middle of his 80-acre property instead of along the edge of it.

“They want to cut it right in half,” he said.

Not only would the proposed route go through an old-growth woods, the apple orchard and fields, but it would render his property difficult, if not impossible, to subdivide if he ever decides to do so.

Williams spokesman Chris Stockton said there are 151 tracts of land in Luzerne County affected by the Atlantic Sunrise project, “the vast majority of which” are already crossed by about 140 existing miles of the Transco pipeline.

For the project, the company has “surveyed pretty much the entire county except for this handful of landowners,” or 143 of those 151 parcels, Stockton said.

“Our intention is to have a dialogue with them and understand their concerns,” he said of the holdout landowners.

In addition to Mr. Wilkie, those landowners include Dallas Twp. residents Thomas and Joan Byron and Robyn and Walter Kochan.

The Byrons said the proposed pipeline route would bisect their property, “orphaning” about 80 acres and effectively ruining a parcel used as a community park by several groups, including athletes at nearby Misericordia University and Dallas High School.

The pipeline path would also cross their water well, two streams, a wetlands area and an old-growth woods.

Robyn and Walter Kochan say the proposed pipeline route would intensify a flood hazard to their Lake Catalpa Road property, as well as to state Route 309.

They already deal with flooding issues during heavy rain, and they fear deforesting the land to build the pipeline will cause serious, permanent water runoff damage to their property.