Business & Finance

Georgia Landowner Challenges $3.5 B Pipeline After Route Shift to His 2.5‑Mile Property

By TOI World Desk

A 79‑year‑old landowner in western Georgia, Donnie Peek, has filed a formal challenge with federal energy regulators after a $3.5 billion natural gas pipeline project was rerouted to cross 2.5 miles of his private land. Peek first purchased 150 acres in Muscogee County in 1967 and expanded the property to 1,600 acres along the Chattahoochee River. The Southern System Expansion 4 project, managed by Southern Natural Gas (SNG)—a joint venture of Kinder Morgan and Southern Co.—originally followed an existing utility easement that crossed four residential properties. Revised plans released earlier this year moved the pipeline around the home of Chris Lane, a 25‑year‑old Southern Co. power‑plant manager, and added 1,400 feet of pipe, resulting in 2.5 miles of pipeline on Peek’s land. Peek had previously accepted a propane pipeline that crossed his property in the 1960s and did not object to the new gas pipeline when it was first announced. 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 the request, citing potential impacts on other landowners. Peek expressed concern after learning that Lane’s property was spared from the pipeline and that Lane had told him the pipeline could not cross his property at any price. SNG denied that Lane received special treatment and stated that the route change was made to reduce the number of affected landowners from four to one. The company offered Peek $300,000 for additional easement rights if he could persuade his neighbors to accept the original route; when that failed, SNG offered to pay the full amount for the diverted route, which Peek rejected. Peek’s legal team has filed a petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requesting a rehearing and a return to the original easement. FERC has already approved the larger 7,600‑mile system expansion but is reviewing Peek’s petition. The petition argues that the original route would have eliminated the destruction of thousands of trees, shortened the pipe, and more fairly shared the burden among surrounding landowners. The company says the current route best balances overall landowner impacts with operational needs. The petition remains under review by FERC officials in Washington.