Pipeline company files suit against W.Va. landowners

REGISTER-HERALD ^ | Wednesday, April 1, 2015 | Tina Alvey

[Rodamala]

If it is just surveyors... in most states, by law, you must grant access to Professional Land Surveyors. I know that most railroads charge an "access fee" and then a charge for any flagman protection required to protect against trains.

[Milton Miteybad]

Maybe, but I doubt it. You'd have to see a set of alignment sheets to say one way or another, and you can only come up with those after a survey.

There isn't much harm that will come from a survey, which may reveal surface hazards that would render placement of a pipeline infeasible. They want to stay away from residential areas as much as possible, and that's the kind of surface hazard the survey is intended to identify.

As noted before, you hardly ever find a landowner who likes the idea of a pipeline crossing their tract, and this would especially be true in an area like West Virginia, where pipes in the ground aren't as common as they are in the Southwest. But once you explain to them that the operator will need to cross, but they can put the line in a place that's least likely to interfere with their enjoyment of the surface, they usually come around, especially if they have a great amount of input as to the placement of the line. They still may not like the idea, but after the construction is complete and the area is re-seeded, they can't tell anything is even there.

[TigersEye]

You'd have to see a set of alignment sheets to say one way or another, and you can only come up with those after a survey.

Yes, you would.

[TigersEye]

...8” pipes and 2-3ft offsets...

I missed that. I'll re-read the article.

[Svartalfiar]

There’s no reason eminent domain should ever be able to be used by a private company. The only time it has any kind of validity is for national defense, and that’s a high bar to meet.

[Trailerpark Badass]

That’s from my experience mapping gas lines. These may be different, and it was 15 years ago, so I may have it wrong.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

You live in West Virginia. Sell them the mineral rights, they say, and they tell you that all they are going to do is mine a little coal, they won’t disturb you in any way. Then comes the sheriff and some deputies onto your property to evict you from your land because your farm and house sit in the path of the only reasonable spot for railway access to the main seam.

In the end, you and your family and worldly possessions are in a horse-drawn wagon headed for Missouri because its relatively flat and you figure that you won’t ever have to be bothered again with coal companies digging up your property.

A gas line would be a little more quiet, but its still the principle of the thing.

[TigersEye]

If it's an 8" pipe underground that's one thing. But not all gas pipelines are 8"s or underground.

The article doesn't really say.

[Trailerpark Badass]

True.

[stylin19a]

Not sure why this is a federal issue.
It probably should go through the state courts first.

The landowners may want to point to
Landowners vs. Transcanada keystone pipline, LP, and Andrew Craig.

http://boldnebraska.org/victory-for-landowners-as-court-grants-injunction-halting-eminent-domain-by-transcanada/

[TigersEye]

I’m not against progress. The pipeline has to go somewhere and it’s going to cross some people’s properties.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

How do you compensate someone for land that’s been in a family since the revolution?

[Malsua]

There is a 24” gas pipeline that runs through my town put in years ago in northern nj. There was a 75 foot wide clearing above it. In the past few years, they added
Second, bigger pipeline next to it. They cleared 100 yards of trees that had been there for 75+years. Look at Google maps or earth. Looks like a monster from a godzilla movie made a huge path across the area.

If that was my land in wv, i’d resist as well Despite it being futile.

[bert]

Well, regarding permission to survey.

Since the preliminary survey on Google Earth, you need to follow up on the ground. Access will cost you $5 per lineal foot

[thackney]

The breadth and length of a pipeline might take 80% to 90% of some properties.

They don't route the pipelines through existing subdivisions, they go around the most populated sections. That is partly why the survey is done first. Pretty normal to route through the fields away from the homes.

[thackney]

If it's an 8" pipe underground that's one thing.

It will be underground. The photo you posted is of the pipe before it is laid in the trenches. Several sidebooms like what you pictured will walk it over. Normally done in roller slings to allow a continues transition of moving the line done while the side booms move forward.

Your picture is from before this step. The are lifting the sections to be welded together (see weld shack in background). When finished, this will all be smooth field planted over or pasture land once again.

[TigersEye]

Subdivisions? Fields? Ever been to West Virginia? lol

[TigersEye]

As I said...

...not all pipelines are buried.

[thackney]

This pipeline is buried.

Your first picture is from the Pakistan to China pipeline.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/594264/new-stakeholders-ip-gas-pipeline-could-be-extended-to-china/

In the US, and most modern countries, major pipelines are not installed above ground except for extreme reasons, such as protecting permafrost.

Your second picture, shows one of the reasons why. Pipeline expand and contract with temperature changes. Exposed in the air, the small expansion and contraction of steels from minimum to maximum ambient condition adds up when you measure in miles. Above ground lines require expansions loops, greater expense in maintenance and greater exposure to damage.

I'm not sure what your third picture pipe is from. Oil/gas pipelines do not use that type of jointing. Perhaps it is a aquaduct?

Regards, major oil/gas lines are nearly always buried. Our country is covered in pipelines and most people never even know they are there. A couple hundred feet from my house, a few run through our subdivision. Those pipelines went in first and the subdivision was built around them. It provides a nice continuous green pathway, we get deer that move through the neighborhood partly because of them.

[TigersEye]

This pipeline is buried.

How do you know that? The article doesn't say anything about it and you don't provide any proof either.