MONKTON — The Shumlin administration has stepped in to soothe contentious right-of-way negotiations between Vermont Gas Systems and a group of Monkton landowners.
Vermont Gas recently sent letters to several landowners along the company’s proposed natural gas pipeline extension stating that their land will be taken by eminent domain if they fail to negotiate an easement agreement. On Thursday evening, state officials assured residents the rhetoric would be toned down.
“We’re not happy with that process. They are going to restart that process,” Public Service Department Commissioner Chris Recchia told the group.
Vermont Gas plans to break ground on a 41-mile, $86 million natural gas pipeline extension from Colchester to Middlebury this year. The Public Service Board, the state’s utility regulator, approved the project last year.
Vermont Gas said it has secured easement agreements for more than 50 percent of the pipeline. State officials are asking the company to directly negotiate the remaining easement agreements with the landowners affected by the pipeline’s right-of-way.
The company hired the project management firm Clough Harbor Associates, of Albany, N.Y., to negotiate deals with landowners. The firm’s land agents sent letters to several property owners with easement offers to point out Vermont Gas’ right to take the land through eminent domain if they did not negotiate the offer.
“I think their land agents have been a problem. The letters that went out I think were disconcerting to people,” Recchia said. He continued, “I did not read them as constructive, to be honest with you.”
He said the department will work with Vermont Gas to add clarity to its easement offers.
Vermont Gas said existing easement agreements will remain unchanged but it will use in-house land agents at landowners’ request, according to Steve Wark, a spokesman for Vermont Gas.
“I don’t know how much that will change the dynamic, but if it’s helpful, it makes sense for us to do that,” Wark said in an interview Friday. He said the company will “continue to negotiate in good faith.”
If landowners are not able to reach an agreement, Vermont Gas still has the right to take the land through the process of eminent domain in which the Public Service Board orders the company to pay fair market value for land deemed to serve a public good.
In some situations, the agents issued property owners easement offers nearly 10 times fair market value, as assessed by the company’s appraisers, according to letters sent to Monkton residents.
The state is urging landowners to negotiate with the company if they want a shot at a better deal for their land.
“It is in your interest to try to engage in a constructive discussion with them,” Recchia said. Landowners can negotiate the location of the easement and a price before signing an agreement, he said.
At Thursday’s meeting, some landowners questioned how the department’s recommendation will change the process. The landowners want to see a baseline easement agreement for all residents, full disclosure of the company’s offers and fair compensation for the risks associated with hosting a pipeline.
Michael Alderman is a landowner in Monkton whose property is roughly 350 feet from the proposed right-of-way.
“I was called, they came and met me, they pushed a package in front of me, they said ‘here, sign this, we’ll give you this $500 check,’ and then they said, ‘sign this piece of paper and don’t talk to anybody,’” he said at the meeting.
Alderman said he wants to be compensated for the risk of hosting the pipeline.
“Vermont Gas is going to be making money on this pipeline forever, and I’m going to be bearing the risk forever,” he said in an interview. “That’s not right.”
Some residents want to be compensated for legal fees if they enter into the process of eminent domain.
“I almost think that it is in Vermont Gas’ best interest, if they want to make this go, that they set up some kind of legal fund for us,” said Maren Vasatka, a resident of Monkton who has been coordinating the concerns of the landowners.
Vermont Gas said it will not put up money for a legal fund for landowners to challenge the company in eminent domain proceedings. The company has paid $2,000 to fund a workshop designed to inform landowners on how to negotiate an easement with the company, Wark said.
He said it does not make sense to pay for further opposition to the project.
“That’s a cost that would be passed on to ratepayers, and we don’t think that it’s fair for ratepayers to shoulder that additional burden,” Wark said.
Some residents asked the department what would happen if the landowners failed to negotiate with the company. Recchia said it would be better for them to negotiate the terms of the easement than to stonewall the land agents.
“They would go through the eminent domain and legally take what they need to get the project done and send you check – whether you cash it or not – for the value of that and go do the work,” he told the landowners.
Monkton-area lawmakers, including Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison, Rep. Michael Fisher, D-Lincoln, and Rep. David Sharpe, D-Bristol, attended the meeting Thursday night.
