I went back to school to become a chemical engineer and worked in that field for nearly 8 years.

And if there is more than one telephone in your family, maybe it's time to consolidate to sharing just one.I know these aren't fun choices, but if it's between TV/cell phone/Internet and being able to eat, I would choose the eating.As for your creditors, unless they're the type who will cause you physical harm if you don't pay, I would suggest not paying.

If I operated inappropriately and legitimately caused harm to someone, believe it or not, I wouldn't need a judge to tell me to pay that person.

You could honestly go down 15% off of the ARV of a similarly valued piece of land in your area and what is the harm done?

Often if you have a valid reason for taking some action other than playing games, they'll likely buy it, depends on how good your initial reason was or is, especially if there is no harm and done well. :)

I do not know the legality behind not being able to change locks if the property has not been occupied, but do not see the harm in trying to secure your property in the meantime.  

My understanding is that the EPA is beginning to ratchet up additional testing for more chemicals and certain states, and that testing of these will initially be more expensive.  

Needless to say the insurance was not renewed at the end of the year.Insurance companies rarely if ever pay out like you would assume that they should, and often do more harm then good as the very long delays in repairs causes significant stress on your tenants and strains your relationship with them. 

What course of action would cause them the least amount of harm in the short/long term?

Unless the $50. is make-or-break then what's the harm?