Farmers from west McHenry County learned they will need to safeguard their land’s farming and development potential should Guardian Pipeline proceed with plans for a 36-inch-diameter gas line through the county.
Danny Leifel, an attorney with the Illinois Agricultural Association, met with about 35 farmers this week in the McHenry County Farm Bureau office in Woodstock to explain the possible pitfalls of such a project. Guardian has proposed a gas pipeline running the length of the county’s western edge.
Although federal regulators have not yet approved plans for the project, farmers in that corridor worry that such approval will come.
Leifel said one troubling aspect of the proposal is the company’s refusal so far to agree to an “agricultural-mitigation plan” with the state Department of Agriculture. Such plans spell out how pipeline builders would seek to protect farmland from damage.
Leifel said farmers need to make sure they can plow fields, sink post holes and protect drain tiles. He suggested making any agreements with the pipeline firm a part of land easements to make them enforceable in court.