Pipeline Projects and Eminent Domain in Texas

How pipeline projects affect property

A pipeline company typically seeks a permanent easement, commonly around fifty feet wide, with a temporary construction easement alongside it for the duration of the work. Title stays with you. Use does not, at least not on the strip.

Common carrier status

A pipeline may condemn only if it qualifies as a common carrier. In Texas Rice Land Partners v Denbury Green Pipeline (2012) the Texas Supreme Court held that checking a box on a permit application to the Railroad Commission does not establish that status. There must be a reasonable probability that the line will at some point after construction serve the public by transporting product for one or more customers who will retain ownership of it.

Acquisition or easement

Most pipeline projects take an easement rather than title. The compensation analysis is the same before and after comparison, but what you lose is defined by the easement document rather than by a deed. That makes the terms of that document part of the price.

Property impact

• Access. Where the strip crosses gates, roads and internal routes.
• Land use. What you may build, plant or store on the strip afterwards.
• Future development. Building envelopes and subdivision potential foreclosed by the corridor.
• Agricultural operations. Irrigation severed, turn rows moved, drainage altered.
• Property value. What a buyer pays for a tract with a marked pipeline across it.

Easement terms to examine

• Width of the permanent easement and the construction workspace
• Depth of cover, particularly under cultivated ground
• Route across the tract, and whether it can follow a boundary
• Number and location of crossings for equipment and stock
• Repair of fences, roads, terraces, drainage and pasture
• Restrictions on building, planting and storage afterwards
• Whether additional lines may be added under the same easement
• Timing around growing seasons, calving and hunting leases
• Indemnity, insurance and responsibility for future leaks or repairs