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DALLAS TWP. — For more than a century, the timber-frame bank barn on Dale Wilkie’s farm has withstood anything Mother Nature could throw at it.
Snow, rain, the destructive forces of wind.
But now it appears the barn won’t be able to survive a manmade situation.
The Atlantic Sunrise natural-gas pipeline is set to traverse 2,700 linear feet of Wilkie’s property, and in its path stand old apple trees, a large American Chestnut and the barn itself.
When the pipeline comes through, the orchards and the two-story barn will be torn down due to a change in the proposed route that would have avoided Wilkie’s barn.
Construction on the pipeline — which will move from Pennsylvania into five other states and will carry 1.7 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day — is expected to begin in the fall, pending permits from the state Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Officials with Williams Partners, which is building the pipeline, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which approved the project, say the route was altered to go through Wilkie’s barn at his request.
Wilkie, however, said that’s not entirely true. The result is a disagreement between Wilkie and Williams Partners over the replacement value of the barn, which is used for storage. The structure’s value will be determined at a compensation hearing at a date to be determined, but Wilkie said he’s received an estimate as high as $475,000.
A hard choice
As for the existing barn, Wilkie said he was left with two options: “Run the pipeline through the middle of my property and impact my entire farm, or run it along the road and lose my barn. It’s a hard choice.”
Before his options were narrowed, he said, other routes offered would have avoided the barn and the middle of his 80-acre farm, but Williams wouldn’t agree to the locations. Left with two choices, Wilkie said he agreed to have the pipeline go through his barn as long as Williams agreed to pay the replacement value.
According to project maps, the pipeline was re-routed from its original path — which would have avoided his barn — in 2015 after a neighboring property owner filed for the change with FERC.
Since then, the barn has been taken under eminent domain by Williams. The company recieved the authority to seek eminent domain after FERC granted a certificate of public conveyance for the pipeline project.
“FERC told me in 2015 they were re-routing the pipeline through the middle of my farm, but I wouldn’t agree to that,” Wilkie said. “There are wetlands behind my barn, so then it was to run it through the barn.”
Tamara Young-Allen, a spokesperson for FERC, said the pipeline route was changed because Wilkie suggested it.
“Dale Wilkie in the final (Environmental Impact Statement) indicated he seemed to be OK with the project going through his property and the barn,” Young-Allen said.
When asked why eminent domain was used to claim the barn if Wilkie was “OK” with the route, Young-Allen said it simply is part of the approval process.
“The commission found it was in the national interest to approve this project, and with that comes eminent domain,” she said.
Still, Wilkie said he was agreeable to the altered route only if he received replacement value for the loss of his barn.
“Why would I want the pipeline going through my barn?” he said. “They altered the route and I had to make a choice.”
Pole-barn option
Williams spokesman Chris Stockton said more than 60 percent of the pipeline route has been changed based on feedback from landowners and other groups.
The pipeline will run from Susquehanna County through Wyoming County and the Back Mountain to eventually Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Stockton said the change on Wilkie’s property was approved by FERC “based on guidance from the landowner.” According to Stockton, Williams offered to build a pole-barn of the same size and functionality as the existing barn. He said the company determined a value of the existing barn and also offered to put aside the wood from the structure for Wilkie’s use.
Williams will deconstruct the barn, but Wilkie said that’s not good enough.
The existing barn is built with hand-hewn beams — some of which are chestnut — and fastened with wooden pegs going through mortise and tenon joints. He also replaced the structure’s stone foundation with cement block and concrete.
A metal-pole building with no foundation doesn’t replicate the barn he is losing, Wilkie said.
“I had an architectural firm look at my barn, and they said it would cost a minimum of $400,000 to duplicate it. Another local builder gave me an estimate of $475,000,” Wilkie said.
Stockton acknowledged there’s a disagreement over the value of the barn and reiterated that Williams is “willing to provide a comparable barn elsewhere on the property.”
Barn not historic
Wilkie said he believes the barn dates to the 1880s and, in addition to repairing the foundation and installing a well, he was planning to continue refurbishing the structure. He said the barn was used by Oliver Ellsworth for a dairy operation decades ago, and the area is known as Chestnut Hill.
Stockton said the state Historic Preservation Office reviewed the route going through the barn and comfirmed that demolition of it would not adversely affect it as a historic structure. Stockton also said the barn isn’t eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, a status that would save it from demolition.
Wilkie said he has other concerns with the pipeline route, including $24,000 in compensation he was offered for the 2,700 linear feet on his property, not including the value of the barn.
Stockton wouldn’t confirm what Williams Partners pays individual landowners, but he said the company has paid much higher values than the appraised value because the company wants to maintain a positive, long-term relationship with those landowners.
The compensation hearing to resolve the dispute between Wilkie and Williams on the barn will be held on the state or local level and doesn’t involve FERC, Young-Allen said. She also said Wilkie is an intervenor in an appeal of FERC’s order that approved the route change, and the matter has yet to be heard.
In the meantime, Wilkie said he’ll continue to push for what he thinks is fair compensation for his barn and property.
“I thought we could work together,” he said. “My mistake was I cooperated with them and let them do their environmental studies and survey my property. I learned it’s best not to do that until they give you a price or option that you think is fair.”
