Oil pipeline company is threatening to take N.J. homeowners to court if surveys denied
“A company that wants to build an oil pipeline through North Jersey is threatening to take homeowners to court if they don’t allow the company access to their properties to determine the pipeline’s path, environmentalists said Thursday.
A letter sent to a Parsippany resident in October by a lawyer for Pilgrim Pipeline said the company has a legal right to go onto private property to conduct land surveys and other studies. If the homeowner refuses, the letter said, Pilgrim will go to court to force access through the law of eminent domain, which allows private property to be taken for public use.
But the New Jersey Sierra Club and the Eastern Environmental Law Center said Pilgrim has no such right and is just trying to strongarm homeowners.
“It’s wrong legally, it’s wrong factually,” Aaron Kleinbaum, legal director of the law center, said in a conference call with reporters. “They do not have the right to go onto private property without permission.”
The letter comes as opposition to the 178-mile pipeline grows.”
Fallon, SCott. North Jersey 6 November 2014.