Washington Township Farm Targeted for Water Rights

Washington Township property owner Robert Smith finds himself embroiled in a dispute with the local municipal utilities authority, which seeks to use eminent domain to seize a water production well on Smith’s 100-acre farm.  The farm, which has been in Smith’s family for more than 200 years and has been farmed by Smith himself since the 1970s, is in the process of being preserved by the State Agriculture Development Board and Morris County Agriculture Development Board. 

Smith contends that the acquisition of a water production well would interfere with the farming operations and is opposing the township’s efforts to condemn an easement which would provide it with permanent rights to the well.  Hearings before the County Agriculture Development Board are scheduled for this month, and the Superior Court has set a July 9 hearing date on the township’s right to condemn.

Read more about this matter in a recent article in the Observer Tribune.

McKirdy & Riskin’s  Anthony Della Pelle and Joseph Grather serve as special condemnation counsel to the property owner in this matter.