‘They want to steal your land’

CLEARVILLE - A Texas-based company looking to build an underground natural gas storage facility is asking a federal court for permission to take land for the project through eminent domain.

Steckman Ridge Storage Co., a joint venture between Spectra Energy Corp. and New Jersey Resources, wants to create an underground storage facility capable of holding 12 billion cubic feet of gas in the Clearville area.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued Steckman Ridge a certificate of public convenience and necessity for a natural gas storage facility in the area.

Now the company has asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania for permission to take the needed land through eminent domain.

Notices of the request have been filed for several properties.

In response to the planned project, more than 50 landowners in this Bedford County town formed the Clearville Landowners Property Group and are petitioning for the right to drill for natural gas in shale deposits, which would not be possible if the storage field is created.

''Drilling near a natural gas storage field could result in subterranean explosions, slips and other dangerous unknowns,'' group member Sandra K. McDaniel wrote in a letter to the Mirror.

McDaniel said Pennsylvania General Energy started drilling gas wells in the area around 2002, with most wells lasting about two years. PGE sold the wells to Spectra Energy in 2007, which created the Steckman Ridge storage-facility plan.

The fight to stop the natural gas storage area began more than a year ago, McDaniel said.

''They told us we had no choice,'' she said. ''They said this was a federal-backed project. You either do it or else, really.''

McDaniel and her husband, Joe, are retired and trying to live their lifelong dream of a place in the country.

''We chose Clearville to fulfill that dream and share our land with others,'' she said.

Although Spectra Energy does not have the final certificate to begin work on the storage project, McDaniel said it has begun construction, choosing not to wait out the results of a re-hearing with the FERC.

''We're still on the edge,'' McDaniel said of the more than 50 upset landowners. ''It's just been a nightmare, just a total nightmare. They just want to steal your land, so to speak.''

McDaniel fears the project will be a devastating blow to the rural town.

''Our properties will never be the same,'' she said.

Officials at Spectra Energy said the company will comment on the project in the future.

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bigdogmom
07-22-08 9:32 PM »Report Abuse	oops, you're not your
bigdogmom
07-22-08 9:32 PM »Report Abuse	this isn't much different than the tax reassessment. they'll get your land one way or the other- youwon't be able to afford the taxes if it's taxed upon the possibility of housing regardless of the fact that your a farmer. Now they'll take it for gas!!
MeerReedr
07-22-08 5:00 PM »Report Abuse	This kind of thing happens more and more today. Even developers of shopping centers, hotels, etc., use it. All they need to do is lean on the appropriate local or regional government officials and promise economic salvation or whatever, and the next thing you know they're misusing eminent domain laws to steal private property for commercial use. It IS a violation of our Constitution, but then, why obey that dusty old document when you can pay some big-shot law firm to work around it? They know the little guy doesn't have the means to fight back.
PatriotPA
07-22-08 4:57 PM »Report Abuse	This is not a federal matter, this is a local and state matter. Vote for Bob Barr Libertarian Candidate!!!!
itsmee
07-22-08 3:04 PM »Report Abuse	Is this what we can expect for the rest of us? The law forbids taking of land for privet enterprise but the government does it all the time. I sure hope that big of a container of gas never leaks. That would be a really big boom.
Aces20
07-22-08 8:59 AM »Report Abuse	That's our government... bunch of thieving ******** along with their big business partners. Gotta make a billion doesn't matter who dies.
imovedaway
07-22-08 8:46 AM »Report Abuse	This is wrong in every way.eminent domain should not come into play in a situation like this
Anthony
07-22-08 8:23 AM »Report Abuse	Agreed Chux. I don't agree that Oil companies should have the rights to come on private property and drill without permission from the owner.
Chuxspringer
07-22-08 8:15 AM »Report Abuse	Yes AND why don't they have to pay to lease just like Gamesa and the wind farms?
JohnGP
07-22-08 7:06 AM »Report Abuse	This is a violation of our Constitution!

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