General Q & A
FAQs
Generally, an easement is a legal interest that allows someone the right to use another’s property for a certain purpose. A pipeline easement specifically gives the easement holder the right to build and maintain a pipeline on the landowner’s property. It doesn’t grant the easement holder actual ownership of the land, just a right to use the land for pipeline purposes. The easement “runs with the land”, meaning that it remains on the property and applies to all future property owners. The easement should be in writing, signed by the landowner and recorded with the county recorder.
Typically, when landowners are approached about an easement they are presented with a standard agreement. These agreements may not refer to any individualized needs or property uniquenesses or considerations, rather they contain important legal terms that can make or break the pipeline.
Many agreements give the operator the right to conduct a range of activities such as : construction, reconstruction, modifications made with no landowner agreement, installation of various “stations”, the right to establish gathering lines anywhere on the property, sharing the easement with other utility companies or pipeline companies, or even preventing the landowner from granting a pipeline easement to another company.
Some amendments ALG and our team of attorneys fight for may include:
- Location of the pipeline
- Pipeline depth
- Width of the easement
- Additional work space
- Construction timelines
- Failure to meet the construction timeline
- Access roads
- Ditches and water surfaces
- Impacts on woodlands and timber
- Drainage
- Fencing
- Wells
- Existing outbuildings
- Livestock
- Pivots/water systems
- Exactly what is allowed in the easement
- Granting of easement rights to others
- Compressor stations
- Pump stations
- Meter stations
- Meter pits
- Native grasses
- Soil and seeding
- Substance the pipeline may transport
- Pipeline pressure
- Number of pipelines
- Access to pipeline for inspection
- Markers to identify the pipeline once completed
- Landowners rights to access or use the easement
- Termination or abandonment of the easement
- Dispute resolutions
*As well as language to protect the landowner from all pipeline company acts.
This can vary based on many factors including: how badly the pipeline company needs your land, what do they need it for and what are the environmental, demographic and construction damages to the land. These are just a few factors that will determine how much money a landowner can expect.
Some takings involve leases, annual payments or a one-time lump sum payment. ALG is very familiar with maximizing landowner compensation in all cases.
ALG has seen more and more pipeline companies using the threat of eminent domain to scare landowners into signing an unfair Easement Agreement, even when the pipeline company has not been granted the right to exercise eminent domain. These scare tactics do not work on clients of ALG as our clients know their legal rights and they know we protect those rights through eminent domain if the need arises.
FERC, stands for Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, is an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. FERC also reviews proposals to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines carried on or existing between states.
ALG specializes in FERC projects and we have had success in assisting landowners with the many complexities of FERC. ALG has FERC analysts who follow the daily FERC rulings and project plans.