CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - "Everything from little bluebirds to big owls have houses out here," says Davidson College Director of Media Relations Bill Giduz, as he walks through the school's nature preserve, pointing next at a stream.
"Amphibians, reptiles…they all live here."
Davidson professors have been working on long-running studies related to all of them in some cases, for over a decade. But now Piedmont Natural Gas wants to build a pipeline across the preserve.
"They're talking about 70 feet wide for the trench," says Giduz. "They have to put the pipe underground so necessarily if they come through an area like this they're going to displace a lot of creatures."
But what's bothering the college the most…the way they say Piedmont went about its research.
Davidson says Piedmont contractors trespassed on its land to survey the preserve…that it cut down trees there…that it withheld information about the pipeline's route until January, when construction is supposed to start in March.
"It's not okay to do those sorts of things and get away with it," a student told WBTV Thursday.
An attorney for the school wrote a letter to state and federal regulators, saying "the obvious goal was to corner Davidson College by refusing to share information…"
But Piedmont issued this statement in response: "we strongly disagree…with the college's characterization of our actions and intent."
Still, the utility has also expressed desire to work things out with the college.
"There are alternative routes that the pipeline could follow that result in much less damage to the college property," Giduz says.
He remains hopeful that something can be worked out.
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