Feb 22, 2017 3 min read

Owners of 12 parcels of land in Washington County are among those named in a fusillade of eminent domain lawsuits a natural gas company filed earlier this month, saying it needs access to their property to press forward with a $4.2 billion pipeline project.

Energy Transfer Partners subsidiary Rover Pipeline LLC filed the lawsuit against the Washington County landowners Feb. 3 in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, arguing a federal certificate gave it the ability to use eminent domain against property owners who hadn’t voluntarily made deals with the company.

“What happens is the matter really boils down to compensation and access to the property,” said attorney Jordan Walker, who represents Dave and Gretchen Rheinlander, a husband and wife who own a 5.3-acre parcel in the pipeline’s path through Hanover Township. “The landowner wants to be compensated fairly, and the pipeline wants to access the property.”

The roughly 713-mile project will bring gas from the Utica and Marcellus shale gas plays to connect with existing gas conduits in Michigan and Ohio. Along with swaths of Washington County and those two states, portions of the pipeline will stretch into northern West Virginia.

Rover filed lawsuits in all four states in the days after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a certificate allowing it to start construction Feb. 2.

“Timing is of the essence, and maintaining the project schedule is critical, as a delay in construction of the Rover Project would likely prevent Rover from meeting its FERC obligations under the certificate,” the company said in court papers.

The suit has been referred to the district court’s alternative dispute resolution program.

Walker said Tuesday he and the Rheinlanders hadn’t been properly served with the lawsuit or decided how they’d respond.

Rover said in court papers its timetable, which calls for natural gas to start flowing in July, is driven by the public need for providing a means of transporting large volumes of stranded natural gas to market.

On the Rheinlanders’ property, Rover plans to cut down trees to clear a 130-foot-wide swath and to maintain a 50-foot-wide permanent easement across the parcel.

Dave Rheinlander, 56, said land agents for Energy Transfer started negotiating with him probably two years ago. “And again, their initial offers were ridiculous,” he said. Eminent domain came up frequently during conversations about those plans, but he never got an offer he wanted to take.

The planned route through his 5.3-acre Meadow Road property also conflicts with his hopes to eventually build a cabin behind the family home.

“If that dream goes away, then what am I going to work for, and how do you put a price on that?” said Rheinlander.

He said he has “no issue with any company wanting to do business.” Instead, he objects to someone else dictating what happens on his land and how much to pay for using it.

“What my issue is, is the federal government stepping in and telling me I have to make a deal with a private company,” he said.