Lisa Richlin, seen in front of her home along Route 220 near Laporte, trying to get Central New York Oil and Gas Company to move a proposed entrance road for building the MARC 1 pipeline from what she says is a dangerous spot along the road.

LAPORTE — When federal regulators approved a 39-mile natural gas pipeline through northern Pennsylvania’s pristine Endless Mountains, they cited the operator’s assurances that it would make sparing use of eminent domain as it negotiated with more than 150 property owners along the pipeline’s route.

Yet a few days after winning approval for its $250 million MARC 1 pipeline in the heart of the giant Marcellus Shale gas field, the company began condemnation proceedings against nearly half of the landowners — undercutting part of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval rationale and angering landowners.

Some of the landowners are now fighting the company in court, complaining that Central New York Oil and Gas Company steamrolled them by refusing to negotiate in good faith on monetary compensation and the pipeline’s location. Their attorneys say CNYOG has skirted Pennsylvania’s eminent domain rules.

The company, a subsidiary of Inergy of Kansas City, Mo., insists it’s trying to reach a “fair settlement” with all property owners and wants to be a good neighbor.

The MARC 1, a high-pressure steel pipeline 30 inches in diameter, will connect to major interstate pipelines and the company’s own natural gas storage facility in southern New York state.

CNYOG hopes to start construction soon and finish by July, but it awaits permits from Pennsylvania environmental regulators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

It also needs to answer the legal challenge from residents.

Many of the complaining landowners say they favor natural gas drilling and some have leased land to gas drillers. What rankles them is that FERC has invested CNYOG with the power of eminent domain, taking away their bargaining power.

“Once the government becomes involved, this is what happens. Because you lose that leverage,” said Amy Gardner, who, with her husband, faces condemnation of part of their 175-acre parcel in Sullivan County.

Another landowner, Lisa Richlin, has appealed to federal regulators to force CNYOG to abandon plans for an access road along her property. Richlin said the road is at the bottom of a long hill and around a sharp bend where there have been many accidents, at least one of them fatal.

When Richlin pressed the company to use an alternate route a short distance away, she said, the company told her that would result in a six-month delay.

“I want them to go elsewhere. I don’t want somebody to die because of stupidity,” she said.