****UPDATE: Bryan told WCHL that after the initial story, PSNC “made it possible for me to regroup and again offer the magic of horses to children and adults.” Bryan added that she now has a “strong” relationship with PSNC and that the utility company has worked to address her concerns.****

 

On five acres off Old NC 86, down a narrow dirt road on the western outskirts of Carrboro, horses munch hay in the shade. A small arena, paddock and barn are tucked away in the woods next to the house where Wendy Bryan and her husband live.

This is Duck Bridge Farm. For decades, Bryan has used the space to run a therapeutic riding program that gives adults and children with cancer a place to escape their worries.

But 14 months ago, that came to an abrupt end when the utility company PSNC added a natural gas pipeline and regulator station nearby.

“The first thing people ask is, ‘is that fracking?’ Some of the parents have said, ‘is that gas coming out of there?’ [They’re] very concerned about their not completely healthy children,” says Bryan. “And I say, ‘no, it’s actually just gas passing from the regulator station to the pipeline.’”

Last year, PSNC installed a natural gas pipeline running from Alamance to Orange County alongside a line first installed in 1952. To accommodate the second line, the company extended its easement on either side of the pipeline, cutting down trees to clear the way.

Photo via Wendy Bryan

Photo via Wendy Bryan

The pipeline runs down the edge of Bryan’s property. It took months for workmen to clear the trees and install the line.

“I assumed that would take a couple weeks to cut down so many trees, but it ended up taking six months,” recalls Bryan. “I tried to teach and ride when they told me they were not going to be doing anything noisy or disruptive, but it just didn’t pan out.”

Bryan says the tree-cutting spooked her horses. She had to close down the riding program after she was thrown from a horse and trampled.

“I did try to teach intermittently, but there was always a bad experience. I’m not going to put in danger anybody’s life and limb, literally.”

Work on the pipeline also cut off access to her barn for six months, leaving bales of hay to mould. With no income from the riding program, Bryan was forced to sell many of the horses she’d trained to work with cancer patients.

“We live in town and on small property, so we don’t have pastures of greenery for horses to graze on,” Bryan explains. “We have to provide all the hay. It’s very expensive for me to keep a horse- $500 a month per horse. So I sold six of my horses and my new John Deere tractor just to provide for the two remaining horses that we have here.”

Throughout all this, Bryan was confident classes could resume once the workmen were finished and the noise died down.

Then, she heard a new noise; a piercing, grating noise that went on and on.

View of the regulator from the arena. Photo via Wendy Bryan.

View of the regulator from the arena. Photo via Wendy Bryan.

A neighbor sold the land next to Bryan’s riding arena to PSNC to build a regulator station where the gas is compressed, then sent down the line. The sound intensifies when the demand for gas increases. Bryan says on cold days, the noise is deafening.

“The way I would describe it is a chainsaw sawing through metal,” says Bryan. “It’s a very loud sound, so loud we had to relocate our bedroom in our house because it kept us awake at night.”

Bryan says the noise makes it impossible to restart her riding program. While PSNC has installed some plastic sheeting around the regulator to dampen the sound, she says it’s not enough. She told WCHL her efforts to communicate with the company have proved frustrating.

“I’d love for them to respond to my questions that I’ve been presenting, and just have a better line of communication, so I know what to expect, how to plan,” says Bryan. “I would love to get going.”

Jodie Roberts-Smith is the public affairs coordinator at PSNC Energy. She says engineers are still assessing the situation at Duck Bridge Farm and investigating other noise abatement options.

“We have discussed and we are working with Ms. Bryan on a number of options that we hope would help everyone come to a mutual agreement on the matter,” Roberts-Smith told WCHL.

But it’s not clear when those improvements will be put into place.

“I haven’t been given a time frame because I’m not certain our company knows,” says Roberts-Smith.

In the meantime, Bryan’s clients are waiting.

“They call, all the time. ‘Are you ready? Can you start?’ I don’t really have a horse right now for them. If this ever gets resolved I am so anxious to get some nice safe horses like I had before,” says Bryan. “The tragedy in all this is I’ve lost three of my students. They’ve succumbed to cancer. And that broke my heart, because they all swore that that’s what kept them going.”