Pipeline Tactics Upsetting Homeowners

Surveyors are making some homeowners angry with their bullying tactics for surveying. Companies just can’t act like this if they want to keep business, no matter how far upstream they are.

ALBANY, N.Y. — A proposed $1 billion oil pipeline from northern New Jersey to Albany is years away from completion, but it’s already fueling controversy.

Opponents of the Pilgrim Pipeline project said on Thursday that the company’s lawyers are sending threatening letters to homeowners that hint at condemnation proceedings if they don’t let company representatives on their properties for surveys.

“Nothing is more frightening to a homeowner when someone says to you, ‘We are going to condemn your land,'” said Jeff Tittel, director of the Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter, in a phone conference.

“This is intimidation. This is ‘The Sopranos,'” he said, alluding to the HBO series about a northern New Jersey mob family.

Read on at the Times Union.