Pipeline Easement
Pipeline Easement or Right-of-Way Agreement (collectively called "Easement Agreement") -
Background
Here are a few things you get with a pipeline easement: no right to grow trees on it, limited right to put up fences, and if you do, you have to have gates in them that the pipeline company can put their own lock on. But you do get to continue to pay taxes on land you can no longer fully use; land that now contains a potentially corrosive, leaky, explosive hazard that you can’t tap for your own use. This references a Kinder Morgan Right-of diagram.
Kinder Morgan can decide to use the easement to burry additional pipelines under your property. You may get another pipeline, and meanwhile the pipeline company will claim rights over local governments and developments.
If there is a leak or incident, local government, state government, medical emergency vehicles, and of course pipeline company vehicles and personnel use your property without your permission. And not just on the pipeline easement, either. While this is going on you can be denied access to your property.
The owner of the land was given a one time payment as compensation for the easement. Subsequent landowners get no compensation, they just carry the burden.
Source: http://spectrabusters.org/2014/11/16/why-accepting-a-natural-gas-easement-is-a-bad-deal/
Kinder Morgan’s right of way writeup says:
Kinder Morgan’s right-of-way agreements are negotiated individually with each landowner; therefore, right-of-way widths and terms of agreement may vary with each individual property. A change in property ownership does not alter the right-of-way agreement. Landowners may obtain a copy of their easement agreement from their local county courthouse.
Down PDF: http://www.water.ca.gov/regulations/docs/082614/KinderMorgan-ROW-HANDOUT-2008-1.pdf
- The effect of the pipeline easement is measured by the market but the impact range could be nominal to substantial. It could be as little as 50% of the easement land value, or up to 30% or more of the whole property value.
- Compensation may have been determined at the time the easement was negotiated. Some states allow just compensation to be in the form of an annual royalty payment instead of a onetime purchase, and this royalty goes with the land.
- There is always the risk of a pipeline leak. If there’s a leak, natural gas can asphyxiate you within minutes. Health reports state that breathing such gas is harmful to your health, especially on a prolonged exposure basis.
- The typical diameter of a gas transmission pipeline would range from 6” to 42”. For the specific measurements of the pipeline on your property, review the easement document or call the pipeline’s company.
- Natural gas is the gas state of the substance which is undetectable by smell, sight or feel. Sometimes, natural gas has an odorant added to make a leak detectable, but it’s rarely added to gas in transmission lines. The gas is transported under high pressure. The pressure rating and odorant information can be requested from the gas company.
- Any break or explosion would be catastrophic in comparison since the cutoff values typically are miles apart, hence the volume of gas being exposed is much greater than any other means of transportation.
- Gas line accidents and incidents are done on a self reporting basis. There is evidence of leaks going unreported and off the radar to the public exposure due to these reporting guidelines. The US DOT Pipeline Safety rules requires a gas company to report an accident only if there is a loss of life, severe injury to a person, or $50,000 of property damage.
Source: http://www.forensic-appraisal.com/gas_pipelines_q_a
In 2010 a 30" diameter, high-pressure natural gas pipeline ruptured and exploded in San Bruno, a small town located on the San Francisco peninsula between Silicon Valley and San Francisco. The incident killed eight residents. It destroyed 38 single family residences and left a crater 40' feet deep, 167' long and 26' wide.
Bill Lowry is a federal pipeline safety official and he stated, "If I was building a house, I wouldn't build it on a refinery, … I wouldn't build it on a pipeline, because they're all industrial facilities. That's just the reality."
- Most pipeline explosions occur when construction crews accidentally cut into a line.
Source: http://abc7news.com/archive/7661806/
Natural-gas-transmission pipelines are not routinely fully disclosed to residents. Security concerns are part of the reason that exact line details are not widely publicized. High-strength steel pipes, often as wide as a large truck tire, transport natural gas at up to 1,400 pounds per square inch, a pressure roughly equivalent to the weight of five passenger cars. Some run just three feet underground in dense urban and industrial areas.
Over the years, pipeline breaks have killed dozens of people and resulted in millions of dollars in damage to property. On Dec. 24, 2008, a gas leak in a small pipe caused an explosion that killed one person and injured five in Rancho Cordova California. In the past 20 years, federal officials tallied 2,840 significant gas-pipeline accidents nationwide, including 992 in which someone was killed or required hospitalization, according to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Those accidents killed 323 people and injured 1,372. Once a high-pressure pipeline fails anything can trigger a deadly blast such as a cigarette or rocks smashing as high-pressure gas shoots by.
Source: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/with-gas-lines-a-danger-lurks-underground/
Resources
- The National Pipeline Mapping System
- Forum, Buying a House, Need advice - Gas lines behind the house
