- In 2019, Risberg Pipeline started carrying natural gas through western Erie County and Ashtabula County, Ohio
- In 2020, builder of pipeline sued owner, claiming underpayment, and builder attached liens of $19M on rights-of-way
- Case failed to end in mediation; lawyers gathering more evidence as litigation resumes in federal court in Erie
A federal lawsuit is keeping uncertainty in place for hundreds of property owners who sold rights-of-way for a natural gas pipeline in western Erie County.
The suit over the 28.3-mile Risberg Pipeline has failed to settle in U.S. District Court in Erie, and both sides in the case are asking for more time to gather evidence as they prepare for trial.
As the case advances slowly in court, a far-reaching aspect of the dispute is staying intact: mechanic’s liens of $18,946,185 each are still attached to pipeline work on hundreds of swaths of land near Albion in Erie County.
The liens are an outgrowth of the federal suit that the builder of the pipeline, the Wood Group USA Inc., of Houston, Texas, filed in August against the Erie-based RH Energytrans, which owns the $86 million project. The pipeline, which opened in 2019, is made up of 15 miles of 12-inch steel pipe in Elk Creek Township in Erie County and about 13 miles of pipe in Ashtabula County, Ohio, where the project ends in North Kinsgsville.
The Wood Group claims that RH Energytrans owes it more than $35 million, with $18,946,185 of that due on the work the Wood Group said it…
