PennEast clearly endeavored to be model citizens (or as close as they can get) during the DEIS comment period from July 22-September 12th.  Most likely they didn’t want a bunch of nasty citizens complaining to FERC and getting it on the record.

So they waited until the comment period is over.  And now that it has, they’ve picked up right where they left off.

Two days after the comment period ended PennEast had a Real Estate company send letters out to everybody letting them know that they’d be swinging by in a few weeks to asses the value of their properties.  Even to people who have phoned, faxed, emailed, and told PennEast in person to bugger off and leave them alone.  A copy of one of the letters is shown below.

Here is what I wrote to FERC about this latest violation of property owner’s rights.

I urge any landowners who have received this to call up Integra Realty AND send them a letter via registered mail indicating that this assessment is unwanted by you, the property owner, and that it constitutes harassment.  Let them know that you have told PennEast in no uncertain terms that they and their agents are unwelcome. And that you will do whatever is required to protect your legal rights.

My name is Michael Spille, I am writing on behalf of West Amwell Citizens Against the Pipeline (WACAP). We are an organization of over 200 individuals who reside in and around West Amwell, NJ who have a number of issues with the proposed project.

Today, multiple members of WACAP received the letter shown below.  In this letter, a real estate company is indicating that they are going to be coming into the area to assess the value of people’s properties.  This is letter is being sent to numerous landowners who have refused all survey access to PennEast, who have sent registered letters telling the company to leave them alone, and have made it abundantly clear on this docket that they want nothing to do with the company.

Further, at this stage in the FERC process PennEast in fact has no special rights.  Absent a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, PennEast is simply a vanilla private company with no authority.

Sending these letters to landowners who have indicated they do not want solicitations from PennEast is harassment.

Further, asserting that they will assess the properties automatically if the landowner does not contact them is further harassment.

Integra Realty Resources and PennEast have no rights to visit any of these locations, and no right to assess the value of any properties.

Further, it is clear that PennEast waited until AFTER the DEIS comment period ended to begin this harassing campaign.  It is clear PennEast does NOT want this harassment on the official record for the DEIS.

We ask FERC to contact PennEast immediately and ask them to cease and desist this activity.