Frank Mustac, Special Writer
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP — Owners of land that lies within the route of the proposed PennEast pipeline have received letters in their mail recently that at least two groups opposed to the pipeline say is misleading.
The main objection to the letter seems to be its rather strident heading, which reads “Notice of Intent to Enter Land to Survey.”
The letter’s content, however, reads less ominously and essentially requests permission from a landowner for PennEast representatives to enter their property “to conduct surveys needed before PennEast formally files its application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.”
The PennEast company needs approval from the federal agency to build the roughly 110-mile billion-dollar-plus natural gas pipeline that would run from Luzerne County in Pennsylvania near Wilkes-Barre, pass through parts of Hunterdon and Mercer counties and end at a junction with an existing pipeline in southeastern Hopewell Township near Blackwell Road.
“This is yet another instance of PennEast using scare tactics to mislead landowners into believing that surveyors have carte blanche to enter their properties. Let’s be crystal clear; they do not,” said Patty Cronheim of Hopewell Township Citizens Against the PennEast Pipeline. “Landowners have had to proactively notify PennEast to stay off their land. When will they get the message that we don’t need their pipeline, and we don’t want it?”
Because portions of the proposed pipeline route has been changed, she said, this type of letter from PennEast may be the first communication that the most recent affected landowners receive, informing them their properties lie in the path of the pipeline.
“This letter, it’s a way for PennEast to quickly get surveys before these people even have a chance to come up to speed and find out what’s going on,” Ms. Cronheim said.
PennEast Spokeswoman Patricia Kornick, speaking by phone Tuesday, said, “While I can see the misinterpretation of the phrase, ‘Notice of Intent to Enter Land To Survey,’ and while I can see it being misconstrued, the intent of the letter is very much to be able to continue to work collaboratively with the landowners regarding survey permission.”
Ms. Kornick echoed portions of the PennEast letter to landowners, including a part that reads, “By design, the FERC pre-filing phase encourages a collaborative approach in order to gain your specific insights and to minimize impacts to your land, when and where possible, in order to better define the (pipeline) route.”
Ms. Kornick added, “While surveys are important throughout the process, they are not the only manner that PennEast is going to use to determine the final route.”
Only about 35 percent of owners of land in New Jersey along the preferred pipeline route have permitted PennEast access to their properties, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. That means about 65 percent of landowners have withheld their consent.
The New Jersey Conservation Foundation received one of the letters because it owns preserved land in the path of the proposed pipeline. The letter is published on the Hopewell Township municipal website www.hopewelltwp.org/penn_east/NJ%20Conservation%20Foundation%20to%20FERC%20081815.pdf).
Tom Gilbert, a campaign director for the foundation, said the letter from PennEast creates the “impression that the company will be coming on the land to survey and that they are just notifying you to that.”
“That’s very misleading and inaccurate,” Mr. Gilbert said by phone Monday. “They cannot enter a landowner’s property without that landowner’s permission.”
He added, “There does appear to be a pattern of pretty aggressive behavior by PennEast and its agents trying any way they can to get the information they want. But its pretty clear that the vast majority of the landowners are not amenable to cooperating with them at this point. There is so much opposition to this pipeline. People don’t want it.”
PennEast and its agents, according to a statement from the foundation, have no legal right to access private property unless and until they would be granted the right of eminent domain under a certificate of authority from FERC.
“A decision on whether or not that would happen is likely several years away so landowners should not feel pressured or rushed by PennEast to make a hasty decision,” said foundation Executive Director Michele Byers.
Back in late July, Hopewell Township officials approved a resolution prohibiting the PennEast company from surveying public property within the municipality.
Hopewell Township is a co-owner of the Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain, along with Mercer County, the Friends of Hopewell Valley Open Space and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
According to language in the Hopewell Township resolution, the township “objects to granting any survey access” at the preserve, which is one of the public open spaces that “will be impacted by the preferred pipeline route.”
The township’s action, in part, endorses an announcement made by Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes on July 22, informing “officials associated with the proposed PennEast Pipeline project that the company would no longer have access to lands owned by Mercer County for the purpose of surveying the property to facilitate the project.”
In its letter to landowners, PennEast gives several websites to find more information about its proposed natural gas pipeline.
For landowner rights during the regulatory process, the letter offers FERC’s website at www.ferc.gov while the current proposed pipeline route can be found on the project website — www.penneastpipeline.com.
