PennEast Pipeline Company respresentatives canceled their appearance at Thursday's Towamensing Township supervisors' meeting, but residents still voiced their opinions about the project that will slice through the township.

Resident George White presented a statement from Roy and Linda Christman, who were unable to attend.The Christmans said they will fight any effort to take land by eminent domain since their farm was hit twice already, first by Bethlehem Water Authority and second by the Corps of Engineers for Beltzville Lake."The Beltzville project reduced what was a 460-acre farm to a 29-acre farm," the letter said."Nonetheless, both of those eminent domain actions were for the public good, in one case for water supply; in the second case for flood control and a park."The pipeline benefits only a private company, they added.The couple questioned whether the benefits of the pipeline outweigh the costs and whether they will still be able to farm that land.They said they have several unanswered questions:• Who is responsible for keeping the right-of-way above the pipeline clear of trees and vegetation?• What is the circumference of the pipeline?• Will the gas in the pipeline be refined? Is it true that unrefined gas, straight from the wellhead, is more likely to explode?• Who maintains liability if the pipeline explodes?• Can UGI transfer responsibility or sell the pipeline to another company? What happens if the company goes bankrupt?• Will our homeowners' insurance increase as a result of the pipeline?Mike Cody of Jim Thorpe attended the meeting. He said the pipeline is scheduled to cross his back yard. He doesn't know if it takes the house or not and cannot make plans with so many questions unanswered."I'm not anti-gas but why in my backyard when the gamelands are nearby? They are being manipulative," he said, noting that final decisions will be made by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.In addition to Towamensing, the $1 billion, 100-mile-long Marcellus gas pipeline is expected to slice through Lower Towamensing, Penn Forest and Kidder townships as well, according to a map of the proposed project released by developer PennEast Pipeline Company of Berks County.The pipeline, which could be built as early as 2017 and be in service later that year pending regulatory approval, would carry 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day and would run from Luzerne County through Carbon, Northampton and Bucks counties to Trenton, New Jersey.A PennEast representative will meet with landowners in November in Palmerton.The date and location have not been scheduled.