By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Eminent domain often allows pipeline companies to plant their lines where they wish. The only point left to dicker is the amount they have to pay landowners to cross their property.
But the pipeline case being heard in all three common pleas courts in Wood County is different. Unlike pipelines that are sending gas to companies that supply energy for public consumption, the Utopia pipeline proposed by Kinder Morgan would be sending ethane, a byproduct of the fracking industry, to a private plastics company in Ontario.
Kinder Morgan is planning to start construction later this year on the $500 million ethane pipeline from shale sites in southeast Ohio to Canada. The proposed Utopia line would run south of Pemberville, then north of Bowling Green, then cross the Maumee River south of Waterville.
Kinder Morgan claims the company has the power of eminent domain to bury the pipeline in 21 miles of Wood County.
“Our position is they absolutely do not,” said Andy Mayle, an attorney working with Maurice Thompson of the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law. According to Thompson, a private pipeline company’s taking of land for its own gain violates the Ohio Constitution’s strict protection of private property rights.
Thompson and Mayle represent 16 families in Wood County who are contesting the eminent domain claims of the Texas-based pipeline company. The case is being heard by all three common pleas courts in the county because Kinder Morgan has sued so many landowners, Thompson said.
The landowners’ arguments are two-fold, Thompson explained. First, the private pipeline will provide no public use so it does not qualify for public domain authority. Second, the pipeline company did not explore alternative routes as suggested.
The local families have asked that the pipeline company consider placing the line along road right-of-ways, to avoid going through farm fields or housing lots. The Wood County commissioners have also asked the company to consider routing the pipeline along highways to lessen the burden on landowners. But the pipeline company would not budge on its route.
However, it appears the company is now reconsidering its previous reluctance to deviate from its proposed route.
After last week’s court hearing, Mayle got a call from pipeline representatives saying that an engineer has now determined that the line could be rerouted to run along the perimeters of properties rather than through farmland or residential lots. The pipeline officials also indicated they would be offering “substantially more money” to landowners, Mayle said.
“From our perspective, the land is not for sale,” Mayle said.
“Our goal is to beat it, not negotiate with terrorists,” Thompson said.
On Monday, the landowners packed into Judge Alan Mayberry’s courtroom. It was decided that rather than present the same testimony as given last week in Judge Robert Pollex’s court, that Mayberry would instead review the 75 pages of arguments from both sides.
The landowners, many of them farmers, voiced their concerns to Thompson as they met outside the courtroom.
“We’re living off the land. The damage will affect our livelihood,” one said.
“Our building lot is no longer a building lot if they dig through it,” another said.
“I don’t know why they would deliberately move a line next to houses,” said one, voicing concerns about pipeline explosions.
Others complained of frequent harassing phone calls from the pipeline company, and of devious tactics to get on their land. “They wined and dined us,” one person said.
If a judge rules in favor of the landowners, Kinder Morgan will have to find another way to get the ethane to Canada, Mayle said.
If the pipeline company wins the eminent domain argument, then compensation remains an issue. Most pipelines offer landowners $40 to $50 per linear foot, but Thompson will try to get closer to $200 per linear foot, Mayle said.
Though many of the landowners did not want to speak publicly, Jerry Bruns said he has no intention of selling out to the pipeline company. His farmland near Pemberville has been in his family since the 1860s.
Bruns said he and other families objected to the land surveys by the Texas-based pipeline company – to no avail. “They got a restraining order. We couldn’t even go on our own property,” he said.
“It’s basically going to damage the soil of the farm,” by compacting the ground, he said. Despite claims by the pipeline company that the soil will be restored to its present condition, Bruns has seen the effects of such projects. A portion of his fields was packed down by a heavy truck five years ago, “and nothing is growing there yet,” he said.
