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PA State Senators Want To Give Away The Farm, Along With Our Property Rights

If passed, Senate Bill 166 and the flash of an industry ID would give gasland surveyors full access to private property in Pennsylvania. That’s right. Landowners must grant the gas industry full access to their land.

In other words, private property is no longer private.  

On January 16, 2013, the abysmal, and probably unconstitutional, SB166 appeared in the PA Senate courtesy of notoriously pro-gas legislators: Alloway, Solobay, Tartaglione and Eichelberger.

Their bill would strip a landowner’s right to deny survey teams access to their property or, in essence, chase them away. It means, a seismic testing team need only show credentials before they may drop explosive charges from helicopters on your back field. A pipeline surveyor would be free traipse through the woods felling trees with no concern for marked property lines. No zoning board hearings. No permits or letters. No fair warning.

It bears serious consideration as to who will be held responsible for material, environmental and collateral damage? Who is liable for any injuries incurred? Property owners? Or the companies who pay surveyors to trespass on private lands?

Protect Pennsylvanians Property Rights!  OPPOSE SB166!

Read It and Weep:

                                   “Surveyor’s Right to Enter Act” 

SENATE BILL This is No. 166 Session of Senate 2013

INTRODUCED BY ALLOWAY, SOLOBAY, TARTAGLIONE, SCHWANK AND EICHELBERGER, JANUARY 16, 2013 and REFERRED TO CONSUMER PROTECTION AND PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE, JANUARY 15, 2013

This ACT would:

* Provide for a surveyor’s right to enter the land of another to perform surveying services.

* Defines a Surveyor as: An individual registered as a professional land surveyor, professional engineer or agent

* Gives them the right to enter land of another if necessary to perform surveying using customary equipment and vehicles.

* States that the only requirements of a surveyor is they must carry a form of identification that indicates the surveyor’s registration or place of employment and the surveyor and s/he is required to display the identification to any individual requesting to view it.

* Notification of some type is required prior to conducting a survey and a surveyor shall make a good faith effort (?) to notify a landowner whose land s/he is surveying.

* The only land prohibited is land owned by a railroad company (must have written permission) or a place used for residence or storage.

* The duty of care section provides that the surveyor may not damage the land of another or is the surveyor provided immunity from civil liability for the damage.

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ONE SIMPLE ACTION:

Tell your legislators to oppose SB166.

Find your PA legislator HERE. 

Start with your state senators, this is where the bill will be debated.

Find PA Senate members HERE.

Send a note like this:

Dear [Pa. Lawmaker’s Name Here]:

Please oppose SB166, the “Surveyor’s Right to Enter Act.”  It would deprive Pennsylvania citizens of the private property rights we currently, deeply value. We need more property protections, not less. And we do NOT want leaky, toxic, explosive gas pipelines across our land!

Thank you,

Concerned Constituent, Pennsylvania

 

Tags: Alloway, Natural Gas Production, PA SB 166, Pennsylvania Property Rights

This entry was posted on January 22, 2013 at 11:09 am and is filed under Energy, Environment, fracking, hydraulic fracturing, Politics, Unconventional Gas Drilling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.