Columbia and two other gas companies that would benefit from the pipeline described the project as important to the public good, however, and Columbia said it eventually would attempt to take rights-of-way by eminent domain from landowners who declined to cooperate.
Jonathan Wood, of the West Bradford Board of Supervisors, described some landowners as feeling "frustration and helplessness."
Wood, whose 75-acre farm off Poorhouse Road would be in the pipeline's path, said Columbia has not proven to landowners that the project is necessary or that it would not damage the environment.
"We're all searching for honest information," he said.
William Sellers, director of the Brandywine Conservancy's environmental center, has helped organize the Landowners Steering Committee, which has solicited donations from property owners opposed to the plan. The conservancy oversees 50 acres of wetland, part of which may be crossed by the pipeline.
"The committee is trying to raise enough money to hire an attorney," Sellers said, to advise landowners on how best to fight Columbia's proposal.
The company, which needs federal approval before breaking ground, said it has submitted copies of its plan to officials in communities along the proposed route of the pipeline and has done its best to explain the project at public meetings with landowners.
Columbia, a natural-gas wholesaler based in Charleston, W.Va., buys gas
from producers in several parts of the country, primarily the South and Southwest, and channels it through 18,000 miles of pipeline to 73 retail gas companies in nine states.
