MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Columbia Gas Transmission is suing a Petersburg company whose timber-cutting operation may threaten the safety and stability of three underground pipelines.
Ohio-based Columbia sued Robert Borror Logging and four Pendleton County landowners earlier this week in U.S. District Court in Elkins.
Columbia wants Chief Judge John Preston Bailey to issue a permanent injunction that would stop Borror from operating in a way it considers improper and unsafe under a right of way agreement.
Borror has no telephone listing and has yet to file a response.
But Columbia says it's driving trucks and hauling logs on roads it had earlier agreed to protect.
Underneath those roads are 26-inch and 36-inch pipelines that carry natural gas. Columbia says the stress on the ground could increase pressure in the pipelines or create cracks.
The Associated Press