Maria Kretschmann, who studied ceramics at the Rochester Institute of Technology, had been living in Philadelphia for 10 years when her parents told her about an energy company’s plans to build a natural gas compressor station next to their farm.
She said she was obsessed with stopping it and shuttled between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to pick up the battle before returning to Pittsburgh in 2017, a city she hadn’t lived in since she left at the age of 17.
The kale harvest, which Don Kretschmann said, was the best of the season. (Alexandra Wimley / Post-Gazette)
In 2014, Cardinal PA Midstream LLC submitted plans to the local community to build a gas compressor station on 46.6 hectares just behind Kretschmann’s Kohlfeld. The station would connect to four natural gas wells and condensate, a type of ultra-light oil made from the gas that the company would then bring to market.
The family had evidence that something like this could happen. The Kretschmanns had turned away “tens of millions of countrymen” who turned to them to sign gas leases, said Kretschmann.
The family stood up for the neighbors, worried that the station might contaminate their crops, and spoke out at community meetings where many people wore buttons to read the Kretschmann farm. Mr. Kretschmann’s appeals were directed to Richard Weber, chairman of PennEnergy Resources LLC, Cardinal PA Midstream, who befriended Mr. Kretschmann – each trading book should read the other and chat about the future of energy.
At a municipal hearing in July 2014, Mr. Weber testified that the municipality was on the verge of developing its natural gas reserves in such a way that “residents would incur substantial license fees over decades,” according to a later court ruling.
New Sewickley Township approved the plans for the compressor station, which continues to hum and occasionally flares over a valley from the Kretschmann house.
After the plan was approved, the Kretschmanns appealed to the courts, first to the Common Pleas Court of Beaver County, then to the Commonwealth Court, and finally to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In the process, tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills were lost and lost every step of the way.
“We were all angry,” said Maria Kretschmann. “It’s just a completely incompatible land use.”
What the family didn’t know at the time was that by the time Cardinal submitted its municipal application for the compressor station, oil and gas leases had already been signed with 678 landowners in the parish, which is roughly 71% of New Sewickley Township. Mr Kretschmann said he was surprised to find out, but daughter Maria said the family knew the opportunities from the start.
“We knew from the goals that we couldn’t win,” she said. “We did it because it was the right thing to do.”
The family has since been a resource and “refuge for people who come to their senses” when it comes to fracking and natural gas production, she said.
The experience drove a wedge between Mr. Kretschmann and some of his neighbors.
“I still feel very bad,” he said years after the Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal. “They were really good neighbors.”
In the end, it was “part of the environmental message, our philosophy” to pursue the case against long odds, he said. “Let’s put it that way.”
I am still going forward
Organic cider: Maria Kretschmann sorts apples into cider. (Alexandra Wimley / Post-Gazette)
All that is left over after the cabbage, kale and dill is harvested are “little things that will come to an end when the farm closes,” said Kretschmann.
In a few weeks he would be driving the three Mexican brothers to the airport for their winter flight for the winter, but not before making arrangements to start new jobs for a nearby landscaper in the spring.
Mr. Kretschmann had also ensured that his CSA customers would be catered for by selling his customer list and associated computer programs to Who Cooks for You, an organic farm in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, at what he called a “modest price”. With the understanding, they will contact each customer about a new CSA service in the spring.
The last boxes from Kretschmanns for consumers were overflowing.
Nephew Hans Kretschmann planned to return to Maryland after the harvest. Daughter Maria Kretschmann would take a job at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank if work on the farm comes to a standstill and the company with the cider is on hold.
Mr Kretschmann said he will continue to help his daughter grow the apple orchard and spend the coming months completing work on a family business he created to protect his land from ever being used for anything other than organic farming.
“It’s the sun that feeds everything,” he said. “People don’t really believe that the sun shines even in winter.”
Mr Kretschmann said he will continue to help his daughter grow the apple orchard and spend the coming months completing work on a family business he created to protect his land from ever being used for anything other than organic farming. At the moment most of the land will lie fallow.
Kris B. Mamula: kmamula@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699
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