Marcellus Outreach Butler
Connect with us
  • Home
  • Get Involved
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Write Letters to the Editor
    • Contact Elected Officials
    • Track Permit Activity
    • Local Groups
    • PAF Farmers Letter to Governor Wolf
  • Concerned?
    • Krendale Neighbors
    • Emergency Contacts for Gasfield Residents
    • File a Complaint or Report an Incident
    • Property Values
    • Before You Sign a Lease
    • Water Testing
  • Fracking Impacts
    • Toxic Chemicals
    • Human Health Impacts
    • First Person Experiences
    • The Impact of Act 13 (HB 1950)
  • Resources
    • MOB Generated Info >
      • Butler Water Supply at Risk
      • Bat Signal
      • Spill Baby Spill
    • Books >
      • Fracking
      • Climate Change
    • Films
    • Websites
  • Membership & Giving
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Blog

The Eminent Domain Process is Broken

4/11/2016

 
Federal marshals with automatic weapons and bullet proof vests, sheriff deputies dispatched to "keep people safe," state troopers there in support... Something terrible must be happening in Pennsylvania's forests. Something terrible is happening and it's not just in the forests; large corporations are taking lands owned by Pennsylvanians, and the federal marshals, sheriff deputies, state troopers and the courts are being dispatched to help them do it.

The Nazi occupation of his native Hungary, the Communist "liberation," and the brutal Soviet suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 were evils that Stephen Gerhart, 85, had to endure when he was young. Who could blame him for thinking that the darker times he'd lived through were over when he moved to Pennsylvania in 1957?

Who could blame Gerhart if he thought that he would quietly live out the rest of his days in the wooded hills of Huntingdon County, on land that he and his wife Ellen had lived on for the last 34 years, in the forest they had pledged to protect by signing up for the Forest Stewardship Program when they bought the property in 1982?

Who could blame him for thinking he was living a nightmare when, on March 28th of this year, Stephen had to endure one more brutality at the hands of "the state" -- a chain saw crew ripping apart the woodlands that he and Ellen had looked after for all these decades?

This atrocity came about after Huntingdon County President Judge George N. Zanic ruled that Sunoco Logistics, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Corporation (ETC), was a public utility and could condemn, via eminent domain, a 3 acre right-of-way through the Gerhart property to run the Mariner East 2 pipeline.
The seizure of private lands so that pipelines can be constructed is a troubling phenomenon that has wracked several communities in Pennsylvania over the last several weeks.

In early March, Williams Partners, recently acquired by ETC, unleashed a chainsaw crew on North Harford Maple, a family owned sugar bush near New Milford. U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion had earlier ruled that Williams Partners was a public utility and allowed them to seize a 125 foot right of way through the heart of the producing trees to lay the Constitution pipeline. North Harford Maple is owned by Cathy Holleran and the Holleran family had derived a significant income from maple products produced on the property.

Neither the Gerharts nor the Hollerans wanted the pipelines to pass through their properties. Both families were offered compensation, the Gerharts were offered $100,000 for the 3 acre right-of-way. In both cases, it was not about the money; there was a desire to retain something money cannot buy.

In the Holleran's case, it was a life sustaining business and magnificent old maples. For the Gerharts, it was the beauty of the forest and the wild things that inhabit it. For Williams Partners and Sunoco Logistics, it was all about taking what was not theirs.

Eminent domain has its roots in antiquity, when all lands belonged to a sovereign. In the United States, the Constitution limits the power of eminent domain to condemnations "for the public good" and required "just compensation."

Both the Mariner East 2 and the Constitution pipelines are projects of multi-billion dollars corporations. Their aim is profit and the public good for their projects is debatable. What's not debatable is that neither the Gerharts nor Hollerans have received any compensation, let alone a just compensation as the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution dictates.

A just compensation would take the Holleran's business into consideration. A just compensation would take 34 years of nurturing the land into consideration. Of course, a pipeline presents a whole other wrinkle to eminent domain. With pipelines, you get compensated once but you continue to pay taxes on a piece of property that remains "yours" but you cannot develop. You also may not be able to get homeowners insurance due to the presence of the pipeline on your property.

Susquehanna County
On March second, with the sap flowing, seven federal marshals armed with automatic weapons and clad in bulletproof vests and a contingent of state police arrived at the Holleran property in Susquehanna County to protect the chain saw crew from the demonstrably nonviolent Holleran family and friends who were there to witness and document the destruction. The Constitution pipeline has not been approved in New York, so its completion is not certain, yet Williams Partners chose to move forward with the cutting anyway. With the family looking on, completion of the cutting was completed on March fourth. A visibly shaken Megan Holleran, a family member and field technician for North Harford Maple said, “I have no words for how heartbroken I am. We've been preparing for this for years, but watching the trees fall was harder than I ever imagined.”
Shortly afterward, Williams Partners announced that it was ceasing work on the pipeline for 6 months. When Megan Holleran heard this news she said, “It proves that I was right when I said it was completely unnecessary for them to do this at this time. It’s proof of how stupid it was that they came out and cut our trees already.”

Huntingdon County
On March twenty-eighth, county sheriff deputies and state police arrived at the Gerhart property to protect the chain saw crew. Judge Zanik, ignoring the fact that the pipeline has not yet been permitted in Pennsylvania, and that Sunoco misrepresented the character of the Gerharts' property (the wetlands were more extensive, by a factor of 7, than what was indicated on Sunoco Logistics' map), gave permission for tree cutting to begin.

The Gerharts, like the Hollerans, had assembled friends to witness and document the destruction. However, the Gerhart property also had three tree sitters: people perched high in trees or suspended between trees, to act as both a physical barrier to the crews and as protectors for the trees. The sheriff, proclaiming all the time that he was there to protect the safety of all involved, nonetheless permitted the chain saw crew to engage in reckless behavior that endangered those in the trees and arrested several people, including one individual that was not in the right of way. Those arrested were charged with indirect civil contempt and had bail set at $100,000. They also faced up to 6 months in jail.
​

The eminent domain process is broken. It allows wealthy interests to steal property from others. It may be legal, but it is not right. The courts may sanction it, but there is no justice in it.
Having lived through the Nazis, the Hungarian Communists, and the Soviets, Stephen Gerhart knows a little something about injustice. In a letter to Judge Zanik, Gerhart wrote, " It is unjust to give them [Sunoco Logistics] the right of eminent domain so that they can trample on the rights of the people of Pennsylvania."

Michael Bagdes-Canning


    Authors

    Blog posts written by members of Marcellus Outreach Butler.

    Archives

    April 2017
    February 2017
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    May 2011

    Categories

    All
    13
    Act
    Act 13
    Action
    Activism
    Air Pollution
    Alternative Energy
    Aquifer
    Banking
    Birth Defects
    Butler Township
    Cement Casings
    Chainsaw
    Challenge
    Chemicals Used
    Children
    Children's Health
    Civil Disobedience
    Civil Rights
    Clean Air Act
    Clean Air Council
    Clean Energy
    Clean Water Act
    Climate Change
    Commomwealth Court
    Concerned Health Professionals Of New York
    Constitution
    Constitution Pipeline
    Contaminated Water
    County Commissioners
    Court
    Cutting Trees For Pipelines
    Deception
    Definition
    Delaware Riverkeeper Network
    Dep
    Doctor
    Drilling Ban
    EMA
    Emergency Management
    Eminent Domain
    Energy Revolution
    Environment
    Environmental Impacts
    Environmental Regulations
    Evacuation
    Farmers
    Farmers Against Fracking
    Farms
    Farm Show
    Flaring
    Flowback
    Forest Stewardship Program
    Fracking
    Franklin Township
    Gas Industry Lies
    Gas Lease
    Gerhart
    Geyer Wellpad
    Governor Tom Wolf
    Grandparents
    Groundwater Contamination Cases
    Halliburtan Loophole
    Health
    Health & Safety
    Health Study
    Holleran
    Holleran-Zeffer
    Hormone-disrupting
    House Bill 1950
    Impact Fees
    Jackson Township
    James Cromwell
    Lake Arthur
    Law
    Law Suit
    Lawyer
    Legislation
    Long Term Effects
    Long-term Effects
    Maggie Henry
    Maple Farm
    Maple Sugaring
    Margaret Flower
    Mars Parent Group
    Mars School Board
    Mars Schools
    M.D.
    Middlesex Planning Commission
    Middlesex Township
    Moraine State Park
    Mortgage
    Municipal Water
    Nonviolent Direct Action
    Pa Constitution
    Pediatrician
    Pennsylvanians Against Fracking
    Pipeline
    Property Value
    Proposed Processing Plant
    Protest
    Radiation
    Rally
    Real Estate
    Renewable Energy
    Rep. Brian Ellis
    Residential Drilling
    Resist
    Rex Energy
    Rights Of The People
    Sacrifice Zone
    Safety
    School
    Seneca Valley School
    Sen. White
    Solar
    Stephen Cleghorn
    Stop The Frack Attack
    Supreme Court Ruling
    Sustainable
    Tar Sands
    Tourism
    Unconventional
    Vehicle Acidents
    Violations
    Water
    Water Testing
    Well Casings
    Well Integrity
    Wendell Berry
    Woodlands
    XTO
    Zoning

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.