The Pipeline

This is a picture of the trench that they will put the 42 inch pipe in. It's over 8 feet deep. The dog is the one someone dropped off on us. At first I didn't like her but she's grown on us. She doesn't chase sheep and doesn't jump on the kids. She really likes them a lot. She lets Philip sit on her and lets James cut her fur. Not that she has much to cut. Her name is Pickles. And I'll be the first to admit she's rather ugly.

About two years ago we started hearing things about a pipeline being built between a town called Bennington and a town in Texas called Sherman. This pipeline would then join up with another pipeline going through Louisiana. Some people came and surveyed. Then nothing for a while. About a year later a different company came and started surveying again. This time they were serious. They are installing a 42 inch, high pressure natural gas pipeline across our land at the Wade Place. The start of construction was supposed to be April 2008.

We worked with the people who wanted to come onto the land to survey. We only asked that they notify us first with a phone call or stop by the house and leave their card. Archaeologists came to look at an old barn. Someone came to see if they could catch an endangered beetle. None were found. We asked if they would want an access road. We were told "No, they will always stay on the easement." We got an offer based on the actual value of the land that they would be "taking." It was ridiculously low. We got another off that was double that. We got a lawyer.

Time ground on and it was time to get down to business of negotiating the easement.

That contract we were mailed gave the pipeline company the right to an easement across our place but it gave no rights in return. We did not accept the first or second offers. Right before their third and final (so they said) offer they added a permanent access road that went right in front of our house. We said, "No way in h*ll." They wanted to use our driveway for construction traffic. The drive goes from the gate at the road by our house and up to the barn. It is 61 feet from our front door. Not only did we not like the idea of the construction traffic going by our house but we didn't like the idea of the road being permanent. Nor did we like the idea that "anyone" from the pipeline company could drive onto our place at will. We were worried for the safety of our children.

By the time we knew for sure they wanted the road it was too late to file our complaint with FERC (federal energy regulatory commission.) The pipeline had already submitted the plan for the road 5 months earlier and it was approved by FERC. Sneaky?

We nearly went to condemnation court over this issue. We were one day away from having to pay our lawyer to write a brief. (I'm still not sure if the law allows land to be condemned for an access road or not.) But then the pipeline's lawyer's wife had a baby and he was out of the office on the critical day. Another company lawyer agreed to make the road temporary and move it to where we wanted it. They also agreed to bury the pipe 4 feet deep and do soil separation. This is so they will be able to put the top soil back on top. In the end they decided they did not want to use the road in the new place. So they paid for a road they might never use.

The latest news is that they want to move the pipeline because they need to approach a creek from a different angle. This will add 1700 feet of pipeline to our land. They will have to pay us for that easement and return the old easement to the original condition. As of yesterday they were still laying the pipe beside the ditch. I guess the contractors are just going to keep working until they are told to stop. This extra money for the new easement will be about 1/4 of the original amount paid. Wow.