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Follow TURFPipeline builder drops eminent domain claim
Pipeline builder avoids nature preserve, drops eminent domain claim
By Matthew Tresaugue, HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Updated 09:52 p.m., Wednesday, January 4, 2012
A Texas company has agreed to adjust its intended route of a natural gas pipeline to avoid an environmentally sensitive area about 20 miles south of Houston.
ETC NGL Transport LLC's proposed Justice pipeline was set to run through the 144-acre Clear Creek nature preserve, a favorite stop for migratory birds and a remnant of a disappearing habitat.
Vicki Anderson Granado, an ETC spokeswoman, said the company has reached an agreement to reroute the pipeline through a nearby golf course.
ETC had threatened to condemn a portion of the preserve, asserting the right of eminent domain as a "common carrier," or an open access transporter, under state law. Lawyers for the trust that owns the Clear Creek preserve argued in court filings that the company is not a common carrier because it cannot show that the proposed pipeline would transport a product to the public or for public hire.
"We are thrilled and appreciative that they were able to work that out and keep our tract intact," said Jennifer Lorenz, executive director of the Bayou Land Conservancy, a nonprofit group that manages the property for the trust.
The group opposed the project, saying the pipeline would cause irreparable harm to an invaluable piece of land, the only protected riparian habitat along Clear Creek. A federal judge set aside the land in 2005 to offset the environmental damage caused by two abandoned petrochemical facilities located nearby at Dixie Farm Road and Beamer.
ETC had proposed a 115-foot-wide easement through the preserve, which would require the clear-cutting of water oak, cedar elm and loblolly pine and others to construct the pipeline. The pipeline would cover 129 miles and deliver natural gas liquids to processing plants in Chambers County.