Hope Gas Morgantown pipeline suits: Landowners share their stories

Mar. 23—dbeard @dominionpost.com MORGANTOWN — Hope Gas continues to pursue 23 condemnation suits for rights of way for its Morgantown Connector Project.

The 30-mile pipeline is intended to increase natural gas supply to Morgantown. Hope filed 31 separate condemnation suits in Monongalia County Circuit Court, and eight of those have been settled and closed.

Not all of the remaining landowners are happy with their dealings with Hope and four of them approached The Dominion Post to tell their stories.

First, though, we again offered Hope a chance to comment on the progress on the project and the suits. Hope does not comment on active litigation but said, "We do understand the concerns of landowners and continue to work toward voluntary agreements."

Hope said, "American energy and infrastructure are important parts of West Virginia's future. This project will build connections allowing north-central West Virginia to access more local energy. Hope's Morgantown Connector is creating much needed system resiliency for the hospitals, businesses, and homes in Morgantown. This project is building critical infrastructure needed for the region's future growth and development.

"The project also offers immediate benefits to many people throughout the state, " Hope said. "Hope has a commitment to work with local contractors and suppliers on this project. Many of the dollars spent to build the Morgantown Connector will remain in the Mountain State. The project is also creating hundreds of local family-sustaining jobs for West Virginians and economic development opportunities for the Morgantown area."

Hope is asking the court to grant entry and easements in order to undertake construction of the project.

There are conditions. The landowner retains full right to own, use, enjoy and occupy the land that does not interfere with or is inconsistent with the rights of way and easements sought. But the landowner "shall not construct or permit to be constructed any house, structure or obstruction on, over or through said right of way that will interfere with the construction, maintenance or operation of the natural gas pipeline or appurtenances constructed therein."

In a number of cases, the court is holding Hope's petitions in abeyance pending Hope's provision of proposed fair market valuations of the properties in question.

In others, the court found that Hope is a West Virginia public service corporation that provides public services in the state and is authorized to exercise the right of eminent domain "to take private property for the public purpose stated ... upon payment of just compensation."

In this last group of cases, the court permits Hope to deposit with the court clerk the amount that Hope estimates as just compensation.

The Kerns case Ralph and Mary Jane Kerns have a farm along Sugar Grove Road west of Westover. Hope has deposited a bond in this case. Mary Jane told their story.

"Their contract's ridiculous, " she said. "Everything's for Hope. They're going to take our land, whether we want them to or not, that we've worked all of our life for. And at no fair price. ... They tie us up forever, and all we do is pay the taxes on the land that we can't possibly use. ... We've been here since 1968, and our grandfather was here before then."

Like others who spoke to The Dominion Post, the Kernses are concerned about the proximity of the line to homes. "The ramifications, God forbid, if this pipeline would explode, because it's a high-pressure one, are catastrophic, and it's all around our family."

While they don't care for Hope's offer, she said, "It's not really about the money, it's about taking our rights away."

The Six case George Six is one of several family members who have neighboring farms along W.Va. 7 totaling about 500 acres. They raise livestock on the farms.

One day, he said, they saw some flags and learned Hope surveyors were on their land. "They claimed that they had given us notice, but they had not given anyone notice — our neighbors or anyone — and decided that that was OK, just to go ahead and survey through. Well, me being a licensed surveyor, that's not the case. You just don't have that right."

So Hope representatives came and talked with them, saying they were planning a pipeline route. They let Hope go ahead, having long experience with pipelines under their land.

Hope told them, "Well, once we get our routing done, we'll come back and try and work out some details as to where we go and everything else, which was fine with us."

But Hope came back with a lowball offer, he said, and told them, "If you don't like it, we're going to use our right of condemnation."

The route was right through the middle of one of their properties that included a stream, Six said, cutting off access. Talks failed and the told the land man never to return. Hope filed its condemnation suit.

"We have tried to work a deal with Hope. any way that we could, and have been unsuccessful there." He's sold rights of way for eight times the amount Hope offered, he said.

One of his concerns is that the pipeline doesn't serve anybody along its route ; it's just a transmission line. "It's not going to benefit us as landowners."

The Sixes are in the timber business, he said. "We'll never have timber on our property. We will never be able to use that section of our property." But they'll keep paying property taxes on it.

"Some of the best building sites on the property they're going through, they're going right through the center of it. And we've asked them to just adjust the line and to work with us and all that. [But Hope says ] 'That's where it goes or else.' That's not right. That isn't right."

The Tennant case Marion Tennant lives in a hollow just outside Wadestown. We joined Tennant and his neighbor, Danny Thomas, for a tour of his property: the meadow where contractors were placing warning signs and unloading lumber that day for a bridge to cross his creek, and up onto the ridge behind his house where downed timber he'd like to sell, but won't be able too, lay thick along the route.

"They just dropped all the trees, " he said. "I'm 71 years old. I've lived here all my life. I grew up here. I wasn't interested in selling. And we didn't sell. They're putting their pipe in. They're going to maintain a 50-foot swath of our property that we have to pay tax on."

As with Six, Hope offered him the same low figure, and when he didn't accept, took it off the table for a far lower figure. "Now that's kicking the teeth brother. ... The property's been in my family for almost a hundred years. I wasn't interested in selling when people came to me."

Hope's timber cutting, he said, cut off all his access to harvesting it, including his timber on the other side of his ridge. Hope won't even move it to a spot where he can get to it. They just plan to burn it where it lies.

"They offered me less than $3, 000 for my timber. I've been informed that I've got one log up there that's worth $3, 000. I can't get to it. I don't have the equipment to get to it."

They want him to sign a waiver, he said, so they can come onto his other property and stack it. They will only move it 500 feet.

"They've never once came and sat down to negotiate a price. They just come in and said, 'We're going to put a high-pressure gas line through here. It's going to be a transmission line. It's going to feed Morgantown. Morgantown's low on gas."

The relationship with Hope got so bad he won't let their representative step off the easement. "You can go on this 75-foot easement here. I can't stop you because you've got that. But the rest of it, I own. Don't step on it. You're trespassing. From there, I'll call the law."

As with Six, he was never told Hope was surveying. "We found out through the grapevine why they were surveying. The surveyor showed up and all of a sudden you're seeing ribbons hanging." A coal mine longwall is going under his land and he thought that's what the ribbons were for.

We asked Tennant what kind of timber he's losing. He said walnut, oak, cherry, maple, poplar, locust. Trunks 16 inches to 24 inches across. "I've got a list of it."

He said, "It's time for me to just buckle down and fight. There's nothing I can do to stop it. And I can be a thorn in their side while it's going on."

Case background The Morgantown Connector Project will run a total 30 miles from Wadestown in western Monongalia County eastward to the edge of Morgantown and then northwest to site near Osage.

Hope wants to build the pipeline because it is experiencing a decline in supply capacity above its peak-day requirements. Also, Morgantown Energy Associates and other Morgantown-area customers want to increase their supply levels. In order to meet the demand, Hope proposed to enter into a 15-year contract with Columbia Gas for gas to be supplied to a new Hope-Columbia interconnection near Wadestown.

The pipeline is estimated to cost $177, 437, 169. Hope estimates that the project will generate about 600 jobs, which will make up about half the project cost. Other major costs are the 30 miles of pipeline and five measurement and regulation stations.

The new line would begin at Hope's interconnect with a Columbia Gas line near Wadestown. Using new and existing Hope right of way, it would run 25 miles to the Western edge of Morgantown to connect with other proposed Hope facilities (called Black Night) west of I-79 and Harmony Grove. Hope says about 5.5 miles of that right of way is in northern Marion County.

From Black Night, the line would use existing and new third-party rights of way to go five miles northwest of Granville to a station called Mineral northwest of Osage.

Hope is not proposing any rate hikes at this time for the pipeline but says it intends to recover costs in future base rate and purchased gas adjustment cases.