Council Approves Pursuing Eminent Domain for Pipeline Land
“The first phase of the Mary Rhodes Pipeline extension project cost $127 million. But when City Council got an update on the second phase last year, they weren’t happy to hear about the $172 million price tag. Officials revised the cost down by about 20 million last week.
Water Director Gus Gonzalez says the reason for the hiked price is because of Eagle Ford Shale. They have built pipelines in the same area to transport oil and paid very high prices for the land they built on.
The city says those land owners are now asking for the same price for a pipeline that carries not oil, but water. The city can’t pay those high prices and says if landowners won’t negotiate more reasonable prices they will be forced to get the land another way.
“If we’re not able to do that than we do reserve the right to employ eminent domain,” said Assistant City Manager Oscar Martinez.
“The city staff and city council is doing everything we can to aggressively bring this water supply to Corpus Christi, and we’re gonna do that what ever it takes,” said Martinez.”
Flores, Caroline. KZTV10 22 January 2013.