The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project’s (MPRP) developer wants federal courts to give it the authority to temporarily ban landowners from hunting on their own properties. The electric company is concerned this year’s hunting season poses a threat to their land surveyors.
The MPRP is a controversial 70-mile power line that could cut a 150-foot-wide tract across Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick Counties.
The developer filed the motion to amend their previous court order in October. This comes after the company took over 300 landowners to court for access to their land. They needed access to perform geological surveys to collect data to complete the MPRP’s application.
The developer says the MPRP is needed to strengthen the local power grid, arguing it is becoming overburdened. Opponents dispute this, saying the power line will only serve as an extension cord for Northern Virginia data centers.
Legal Argument
Maryland’s hunting season generally runs from late September to early March and differs by the species of animal hunted and the method of hunting.
The Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), parent company to the MPRP, learned members of the 300 landowners named on their court order were planning to hunt this season when Victoria Issac left them a voice message. Isaac is one of the defendants in PSEG’s court orders. “…I’m calling because I want to make sure that I am home when the survey happens,” Isaac explained. “...Not knowing what kind of insurance that you carry, don’t want anybody to be on the property without me being home or when potential [sic], the hunters are going to be on the property since it’s now deer season[.]”
Isaac was named in the court filing along with another landowner, Michael Davis, who posted photos of a notice left on his property by PSEG representatives on the StopMPRP facebook page. StopMPRP is a grassroots organization opposed to the MPRP.
PSEG argued it is self-evident that their land surveyors cannot work safely if landowners are hunting while they are working and suspended operations at those two locations at the time.
Because the developer has received court orders providing them access to private properties, and permission to remain there until the Maryland Public Service Commission makes their final ruling, they argue the law says, “[a]ny person who has knowledge of an order issued pursuant to subsection (b) and who obstructs any civil engineer, surveyor, real estate appraiser, or any of their assistants acting under the authority of the order may be punished as for contempt of court.”
As a compromise, PSEG proposed landowners should be allowed to request permission from the developer to hunt on their own properties during the period land surveyors may be present.
Local Impact
Brandon Hill is a Baltimore County resident and developer of his own food forest. Food forests are an alternative to modern day farming methods and involve the cultivation of flora, fungi and fauna in a way that simulates a full ecosystem.
Hill began hunting last year to be more sustainable and hopes to gather enough food this year to feed his family. He hunts with a firearm and mostly focuses on deer, so his window to hunt in 2025 is around late September to early December.
With the existing court order, PSEG only needs to provide 24-hour notice to a property owner before entering their land. If the developer gets the amendment, Hill says he could miss his chance to provide for his family. “If they post notice on someone’s property who’s only a firearms hunter -like myself- for a three week notice, we could miss the entirety of our firearms season,” Hill explained. “They’ll say there’s other seasons, but I don’t hunt with a bow…I’m not proficient with blackpowder.”
Hill says PSEG’s behavior is out of character, and argues when he has spoken to other surveyors, they often don’t work during hunting season so as not to get in the way.
Because PSEG does not yet have a CPCN for the MPRP, they don’t technically have eminent domain powers. Hill is worried about what kind of precedent a decision from the courts may have when future projects come to Maryland. “If these precedents are set now in our case, that companies can just come in and tell you whatever you can do on your property, when they’re doing these surveys, then there won't be grounds to stand on for anyone else to oppose these cases in the future,” Hill said.
Land owners along the route of the MPRP are unfairly being singled out, Hill argues. He says his neighbors -who live further away from the proposed route- plan to hunt as well, but won't be affected by PSEG’s decision. Banning landowners on the route ultimately won't make the surveyors any safer, he explained.
Hill doesn’t think the comments made by a few people on the internet should warrant a judge giving an out-of-state electricity company the right to tell him -or his neighbors- when they’re allowed to hunt. He thinks the company is blowing those posts out of proportion. “Saying that you should be careful on my land during hunting season is not a threat, it’s just a fact,” Hill said. “In hunting season around here, we put orange vests on our dogs and I wear an orange hat because there are so many people around me that hunt.”
Hill also points out that, as a hunter, he always makes sure there is a backstop to any shot he takes, so that no bullet is simply flying through the air if he misses. Additionally, he argues he would never knowingly hunt if there were people down range of him.
