Objecting to pipeline, 6 say eminent domain doesn’t fit
Land can’t be condemned under eminent domain to construct a 440-mile crudeoil pipeline across Arkansas because the pipeline wouldn’t serve any customers in Arkansas, said a complaint filed Wednesday in Johnson County Circuit Court.
The proposed Diamond Pipeline wouldn’t operate as a “common carrier for public use” in Arkansas but instead would be used for private economic development, according to the filing signed
by four attorneys representing six plaintiffs.
The proposed $900 million pipeline would go from Cushing, Okla., to Memphis, transporting up to 200,000 barrels a day of domestic sweet crude to a Valero refinery, said an Aug. 24 news release from Plains All American Pipeline, which plans to build the pipeline.
According to the plaintiffs’ complaint filed Wednesday in Clarksville, “This pipeline will not be receiving, transporting or delivering oil from or to a single public citizen of the state of Arkansas.”
That means Diamond Pipeline LLC of Houston is not a “common carrier” under Arkansas Code Annotated 23-15-101 and as required under the U.S. Constitution, according to the filing.
“All pipeline companies operating in this state are given the right of eminent domain and are declared to be common carriers, except pipelines operated for conveying natural gas for public utility service,” according to that section of state law.
But the plaintiffs are arguing that the Diamond Pipeline won’t be “operating” in Arkansas so much as just passing through.
“Since the pipeline cannot be utilized by any public citizen of the state of Arkansas, the taking of private property for the pipeline is not for public use,” the filing states.
Diamond Pipeline and its agents have told landowners in Arkansas that their property will be condemned to obtain easements for the line if they don’t voluntarily grant an easement, according to the court document.
Plaintiffs in the case are Edward Lee Brinks, Brett Collins, Turner Whitson, Sarah V. Williams Gorrell, Leroy Gorrell and Danielson Farms LP.
According to the filing, Brinks and Whitson live in Johnson County. The other plaintiffs live in other Arkansas counties.
Erik Danielson, a Fayetteville lawyer, is the attorney for the Gorrells and Danielson Farms. Danielson said his family farm is in Logan County.
The plaintiffs are asking the court for a declaratory judgment.
“We would like some clarification from court on that issue,” Danielson said, adding that he didn’t want to comment further Friday.
A spokesman for Plains All American Pipeline didn’t return a telephone message Friday afternoon.
The company’s website, plainsdiamondpipeline.com, says the pipeline is expected to provide 1,500 construction jobs in Arkansas and Oklahoma and 15 permanent jobs after it is completed in late 2016.
“The pipeline is designed to transport domestic sweet crude oil grades produced in the Permian Basin, Bakken and Mid-Continent regions,” the website states.
The news release from the pipeline builder states, “Valero holds an option until January 2016 to become a partner in the Diamond Pipeline and purchase a 50 percent interest. Construction of the pipeline will enhance the refinery’s long-term ability to produce gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for the greater Memphis and eastern Arkansas area.”
The proposed pipeline has some people in Arkansas concerned over its potential environmental effect.
The planned route crosses the wildlife-management areas of Raft Creek Bottoms, Rex Hancock Black Swamp and Henry Gray Hurricane Lake, Ricky Chastain, a deputy director for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, has said.
The three wildlife-management areas contain big tracts of bottomland hardwood forests in eastern Arkansas, and the commission wants to avoid further damage to habitat by construction activities, Chastain said previously.