Washington jury sides with gas firm
A Washington County jury awarded $58,500 – the amount National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. had calculated as compensation for land condemned for installation of a high-pressure, 20-inch natural gas transmission pipeline – to former Buffalo Township landowners.
The attorney for National Fuel said the land in question amounted to a bit less than 2 percent of the 117-acre horse farm Dr. Larry G. and Mary P. Smith owned in February 2011 when the condemnation was filed. An expert for the company testified the property had a value of $1,464,000 at the time, and its value decreased to $1,405,500 after construction of the pipeline.
Temporary and permanent easements were 50 feet wide, and the pipe was placed three feet underground in the middle of the swath that begins in Holbrook, Greene County, and heads north of Pittsburgh.
The Smiths were seeking additional compensation as their attorney told the jurors valuable trees were removed as a buffer between their home and Interstate 70 and made them vulnerable to trespassers who walked on the newly cleared right of way.
Jurors traveled to the property in question Jan. 10 in two county vans, and, at the request of the Smiths’ attorney, Senior Judge William Nalitz placed the costs associated with the viewing on National Fuel because attorneys for the company, based in Williamsville, N.Y., requested the trip.