A fight over a pipeline is never only about the pipeline. It鈥檚 about the environment, property rights, public safety and a community鈥檚 sense of itself. Just such a fight is now brewing in the Texas Hill Country, where company Kinder Morgan plans to lay a part of its 430-mile natural gas .
The Houston-based company says the time is right for the project. An unprecedented drilling boom in West Texas means there鈥檚 more oil and gas coming out of the ground than companies can ship to market. The pipeline would carry natural gas to the Gulf Coast, where it can be sold domestically or exported.
The quickest way there is through the Hill Country, including places like the Hershey Ranch in Gillespie County.
The ranch, a 1,500-acre spread of rolling hills and weathered terraced fields, is dotted with trees, ponds and structures dating from the 1800s. If the pipeline is built underneath it, would also control about a 100-foot-wide swath of land above the pipeline to maintain it.
鈥淚t will go right through the heart of the ranch,鈥� says owner .
Sansom is a well-known conservationist, who once headed up the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He鈥檚 especially upset about the pipeline because the Hershey Ranch is private conservation land, where no development is supposed to occur. But, he says, his neighbors with more traditional properties don鈥檛 want the pipeline either.
鈥淭here are few parts of our state that are as iconic as the Hill Country,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very clear that the people who live out here see this as an assault."
The idea that the Hill Country may be too 鈥渋conic鈥� for this pipeline is something you can expect to hear more of as the project gets underway. Opponents have already raised concerns over the potential environmental, aesthetic and public health impacts. Kinder Morgan says it鈥檚 willing to make small adjustments to the route to accommodate landowners. But the pipeline is coming.
鈥淚 had someone say the other day 鈥� 'Just move it 70 miles south and you鈥檒l have no problems,'鈥� says Allen Fore, vice president of public affairs at Kinder Morgan. 鈥淲ell, I assure you that someone owns property 70 miles south, and there are other concerns and issues that would present themselves on any significant reroute.鈥�
But pipeline opponents say they shouldn鈥檛 have to take the company鈥檚 word on that. They point out that in Texas there is no public process or oversight that happens before letters go out to property owners saying a pipeline鈥檚 coming.
If a landowner doesn鈥檛 want the pipeline, the company can use eminent domain to take the land anyway.
鈥淥ne of the first questions we always get from a property owner is: 鈥楬ow in the world can a private, for-profit pipeline company take my land?鈥欌�� says , a lawyer representing landowners, including Sansom, in their negotiations with Kinder Morgan.
He says all a company has to do to claim the right to take land is fill out a form and file it with the , the state鈥檚 strangely named oil and gas regulator
鈥淵ou and I could form an LLC tomorrow and we could start to submit a T-4 permit to the Railroad Commission saying that our LLC wants to build a private, for-profit pipeline company,鈥� Ellis says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 virtually no oversight there.鈥�
That's something Texas has been grappling with in the courts and at the Capitol for decades. During the last several legislative sessions, lawmakers representing property owners have , and the oil industry and others that use eminent domain have fought those efforts. In the end, nothing much changes.
鈥淚 just think that there鈥檚 a huge coalition of 鈥� entities that take properties, that coalesce to lobby the Legislature in a way where they do not want to change the framework,鈥� Ellis says.
When these debates rise up, the industry usually points out that the use of eminent domain is pretty rare.
Fore says the company is working with landowners to make them happy, and part of that is arriving at agreeable compensation for the land. He says the last thing the company wants are unhappy landowners.
鈥淓minent domain is an absolute last resort and that鈥檚 not just some talking point that we came up with; that's reality,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ecause an adversarial relationship with a landowner that you cannot reach agreement with is an adversarial relationship that is going to be with you for a very long time. And that鈥檚 just not good.鈥�
But in some cases, an adversarial relationship is what happens.
At the Hershey Ranch, Sansom says he wants a change in state law to create more oversight over pipeline companies. And, he says, with a new legislative session getting started not far away in Austin, the time is right.
鈥淚鈥檓 excited that it鈥檚 got people stirred up out here,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople in the Hill Country are not happy about this.鈥�
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