Easement Condemnation and Negotiation:
Tips for Landowners Affected by the Pacific Connector Pipeline

A description of eminent domain (condemnation) and how it works in general follows these tips. The points below outline factors landowners would do well to consider in deciding how to respond to the Williams Pipeline’s efforts to obtain an easement through their property for the Pacific Connector Pipeline. While landowners’ legal recourses when faced with the threat of condemnation by a private company are constrained to a degree that would be hard for most Americans to believe, exercising these admittedly limited legal rights may affect the pipeline company’s decisions to some degree. In addition, landowners may be able to delay pipeline construction long enough for Oregonians to learn about and find the will to stop the Pacific Connector Pipeline by political action, as citizens in other parts of the country have succeeded in doing. At the very least, landowners should take the minimal steps outlined in the last two bullets in the "Initial Contacts" section and those in the "Negotiation" section below to improve their chances of getting fair treatment.

If you are thinking that having the pipeline come through your land might be like having a natural gas line run down the street in front of your house, these are factors to consider:

• Digging a deep trench, laying multi-ton three-foot-diameter lengths of pipe, and welding the pipe joints are major construction activities, requiring the presence and operation of heavy equipment on your land, for weeks at the least.
• The course of the right-of-way through your property will be readily visible and permanent:
  • The permanent easement area on private land will be approximately 75 feet wide and will be kept clear for maintenance and security purposes. During construction, the easement area will be 95 feet in width.
  • It will include a permanent roadway to facilitate maintenance.
  • Maintenance will include periodically clearing brush and trees on the roadway and over the pipeline.
• The precise course of the pipeline to your property can change at the last minute before construction based on what the construction engineers learn about in-ground conditions as they prepare to dig.
• Williams Pipeline may be able to sell the easement through your property to other utility companies as well.
• If a problem later develops in the pipeline through your land, the company may have to uncover a significant section of pipe for repairs. A recent pipeline repair on one Jackson County landowner's property required reopening the trench with heavy equipment and took almost 2 years.
• If the pipeline company is doing its job, inspectors will periodically cruise the pipeline route on vehicles or on foot. They will not need to ask your permission to come through your property.
• You probably will not be allowed to use the right-of-way area on your property for trees, buildings, in-ground pools, sheds or patios or for storage of equipment, vehicles, bulk goods, or flammable materials. You will likely need to get written permission from Williams for activities such as paving, installing fences, raising certain crops, and placing underground utilities, driveways, above-ground pools or drainage ditches over the pipeline.