Georgia man grew farm to 1,600 acres; $3.2bn pipeline now runs through his land

A 79-year-old landowner in western Georgia is challenging a major energy company after learning that a $3.5 billion natural gas pipeline project was moved away from a utility executive's home and routed across 2.5 miles of his private land. Donnie Peek bought his first 150-acre property in Muscogee County in 1967. Over the following decades, he expanded it into a 1,600-acre estate along the Chattahoochee River. After discovering the sudden route change, he filed a formal challenge with federal energy regulators. The Southern System Expansion 4 project is managed by Southern Natural Gas (SNG), a joint venture between energy companies Kinder Morgan and Southern Co. The project originally followed an existing utility easement that crossed four separate residential properties. Revised plans released earlier this year showed that developers had changed the route. The new plan sends the pipeline around the home of Chris Lane, a 25-year Southern Co. power plant manager, while placing the added burden on Peek's property.

Peek was already used to having energy infrastructure on his land. A propane pipeline built in the 1960s already crossed his property. When developers first announced plans to put the new gas pipeline along that same easement, Peek did not object. Using existing rights of way is common in the industry because it can lower costs, limit damage to land, and reduce legal disputes. The revised plan, however, left the existing right of way as it came near Lane's home. The new route turns directly east along the edge of Lane's property. It then makes a sharp turn north to completely avoid his home. To cover the extra distance, developers added about 1,400 feet of pipe and placed 2.5 miles of continuous pipeline across Peek's land. According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the detour adds millions of dollars to the cost of the interstate gas network. The system stretches 7,600 miles from Texas to the American South-East. In a March letter to Kinder Morgan's Land and Right-of-Way Department, Peek asked the company to return to the original straight route. The company rejected his request. In a formal response, it said that going back to the old route would "impact landowners and potentially more landowners."

Peek became concerned after learning that the neighbor whose property was spared from the pipeline worked as a senior manager overseeing power plants for a Southern Co. subsidiary. "That's when I said, 'Well, this thing smells,'" Peek told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I think anybody with a little bit of sense puts it together … why they deviate this thing around, especially around this one property owner who is a pretty high up executive at the Southern Co." In an affidavit filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on 28 August, Peek described a conversation with Lane. Peek said the executive told him that "there was 'no price at which he (Mr. Lane) would allow the pipeline to cross his property.'" Peek also said in his filing that a representative of Pinnacle Resources Group, which was working as an intermediary for SNG, told him that Lane's property could not be taken through eminent domain because of his position. SNG denied that Lane received special treatment. In a statement provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the company said: "There is no policy that exempts Southern Co. employees from this process." SNG said the route was changed to reduce the number of affected landowners from four to one. The company said the current route "represents the option that best balances overall landowner impacts with the project's operational needs."

As talks continued, SNG offered Peek $300,000 (£225,000) for additional easement rights across his land if he could convince his neighbors to accept the original route. Peek could not reach an agreement with the other property owners. The company then offered to pay him the full cash amount directly if he agreed to the diverted 2.5-mile route. Peek rejected the offer. "That was the point when I told them, 'It's not about the money, it's just the fact that one person was involved getting it moved on my property instead of getting it to pass by his house,'" Peek told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Lane declined to comment publicly. However, emails obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show that he had earlier sent two alternative route proposals directly to Kinder Morgan. One proposal would have avoided the entire neighborhood by using an existing transmission line right of way near an Alabama power plant. Peek said he was completely left out of those discussions while the alternative routes were considered.

As construction preparations continue across the South-East, Peek's legal team has filed a petition with FERC asking the agency to rehear the case. FERC has regulatory authority over interstate natural gas pipelines. FERC has already given primary approval for the larger 7,600-mile system expansion. However, Peek's filing asks the agency to require SNG to return to the original straight-line easement. In his affidavit to federal regulators, Peek argued that returning to the original route "would have effectively eliminated the destruction of thousands of trees, shortened the pipe and more fairly shared the burden of the pipeline easement among the surrounding landowners." Allen Fore, an executive at Kinder Morgan, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that many engineering and environmental factors can lead to changes in pipeline routes. He added that company officials hope to speak directly with Peek after the legal reviews are completed. The petition is still being reviewed by FERC officials in Washington.