Eminent Domain: In Texas, Landowners Face Continued Uncertainty
“This is part one of a three-part series devoted to looking at efforts to overhaul eminent domain in Texas and what may come next for landowners, pipeline companies, and the oil and gas industry. Read Part Two here.
At Margaret O’Keefe’s farm, outside of Beaumont in East Texas, they grow high quality Bermuda grass. The fields are flat, vibrant light green and dotted with crawfish burrows. They’re surrounded by woods of a darker, richer green.
The land has deep significance to the family. O’Keefe inherited it from her mother who divided it among her eight children.
“She used to call it ‘Enchanted Valley,’” O’Keefe reminisced on a muggy summer afternoon while driving through her fields. “Sometimes it rains here and it won’t rain anywhere else. And sometimes it rains outside of here and rain never touches here.””
Buchele, Mose. State Impact 15 July 2013.