By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Pipeline officials with Kinder Morgan don’t see the protests by Wood County landowners as a fatal flaw to the Utopia pipeline plans to cross their properties.
When landowners say “no,” the pipeline officials hear “maybe,” according to Allen Fore, vice president of public affairs for Kinder Morgan.
Often property owners hold out until the eminent domain process is underway, but end up entering agreements with pipeline companies, Fore said. In fact, 98 percent of the land acquisition done by Kinder Morgan never gets to the point of final court resolution, he added.
“We have worked with tens of thousands of landowners,” Fore said during a recent stop in Bowling Green.
Several landowners in Wood County are protesting Kinder Morgan’s efforts to access their land through eminent domain. Fore believes that’s because they aren’t aware of the compensation that will be offered and the mitigation to their property that will be provided.
Some of the landowners from the Pemberville area have stated that no amount of money will convince them to let the pipeline be buried on their farmland or building lots. But Fore said these objections are no different than those he has resolved before.
“There’s a lot of passion in the process,” he said. “The challenge is on us to make sure people have accurate information.”
“It may start out adversarial, but often it doesn’t end that way,” Fore said.
But this case may be a bit different since the proposed Utopia pipeline is not sending natural gas to sites to generate public power. The Utopia line will be sending ethane to a private company in Ontario that makes plastic products.
Therefore, the local landowners are asking the courts to rule that the Utopia pipeline does not qualify for eminent domain authority.
But Fore argued that gathering ethane is part of the natural gas production process when it’s extracted from shale in southeastern Ohio.
“There wouldn’t be an industry if you couldn’t move the product,” Fore said. The shipping of ethane benefits the natural gas extraction, since it’s a result of the same process.
“We’re confident that it does meet the qualifications for eminent domain,” Fore said. “We think it’s a very important use that Ohioans will ultimately benefit from.”
Looking at the “big picture” for Ohio, this project will help the state, he said.
Kinder Morgan recently released a study of the economic impact of the Utopia Pipeline, saying Ohio stands to benefit from $237.3 million in economic impacts during the first five years of the project. The study says the pipeline will:
- Generate $4.9 million in tax revenues.
- Create 2,132 direct and indirect jobs in Ohio.
- Contribute $144.9 million to Ohio’s gross state product.
- Provide $87.5 million uplift to the Ohio economy through additional income and spending.
Those numbers, however, mean little to individual farmers who fear the pipeline will forever change the use and productivity of their land.
But Fore defended Kinder Morgan’s reputation of working with landowners affected by pipeline projects.
“We set the standard for other pipelines to follow,” he said. “We have a good reputation.”
Kinder Morgan works with county farm bureaus, county commissioners and township officials to make sure landowners and local governments are treated properly. The township roads must be repaired after the pipeline construction.
People affected naturally want to know the pipeline company’s restoration process. So the firm’s project manager has been out talking with individual landowners – addressing their specific needs, Fore said.
“It’s not a cookie cutter approach,” he said.
It’s this stage which results in issues being resolved, he said. “Can we satisfy every landowner? No.” But the pipeline officials are making progress every day, he added. “We’re going to continue working very hard with landowners where it’s not resolved.”
“Ohio landowners are smart and get down to the details. They don’t want half answers,” Fore said.
Kinder Morgan has a 24-page Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreement for the Utopia pipeline project. Following are some of the items it covers:
- Soil removal and replacement
- Repair of damaged drain tile
- Rock removal
- Removal of construction debris
- Pumping of water from open trenches
- Compaction, rutting, fertilization and liming
- Land leveling
- Backfill profile and trench crowning
- Prevention of soil erosion and wet weather construction
- Repair of damaged soil conservation practices
- Control of trench washouts, water piping and blowouts
- Damages to private property
- Clearing of trees and brush from the easement
- Interference with irrigation systems
- Ingress and egress routes
- Temporary roads
- Weed control
- Advance notice of access to private property
- Reporting of interior agricultural impact mitigation work
“You don’t get to a 98 percent success rate by misleading landowners,” Fore said, adding that due to the nature of pipelines, many relationships with property owners last for generations. “You make sure you do all you can to satisfy the landowners’ wishes.”
Kinder Morgan is working with Ohio State University to conduct a multi-year study on the long-term impact of pipelines on crop yields. The data may help the industry improve its construction process.
So in the future, “we can improve on what we think it a good process,” Fore said.
The extensive mitigation program and fair compensation convinces most landowners to allow the pipeline access to their property, Fore said. How much the property owners are paid varies depending on the local evaluations and the unique qualities of the property.
“Landowners deserve to be fairly compensated.”
Since so many of the Wood County landowners object to the Utopia pipeline being buried on their property, the citizens and the county commissioners asked Kinder Morgan to consider rerouting the pipeline and possibly use road corridors that already have right-of-way.
However, Fore said it’s not that easy. Putting lines next to roads poses other problems, such as difficulty when roads are widened. “We have co-located next to infrastructure,” but it’s sometimes not allowed.
The pipeline firm looks at environmental issues and impacts on landowners. Moving the plans to put the line “over there” isn’t always possible. “Somebody else is ‘over there.’”
“We try to find the least impactful route,” Fore said.
