Landowners, lawyers talk about projected pipeline
“Eminent domain attorneys William Goldman and Michael Braunstein met Wednesday with dozens of property owners to discuss their rights concerning the ET Rover Pipeline project.
The pipeline will transport pressurized natural gas in a 42-inch-diameter pipe. The pipeline’s proposed path stretches roughly 600 miles across Ohio and Michigan.
The Ohio portion includes large sections of Seneca and Wood Counties, as well as a small corner of northeast Hancock County. The area involves property around Fostoria, as well as Bloomdale.
While state and federal statutes allows survey crews onto the properties, Goldman and Braunstein said the pipeline company does not have the right to decide everything about the process.
“Ultimately, they have the right to be on your property and to survey,” Goldman said. “What we’ve been able to do is slow the process and make it reasonable.”
The lawyers said the Goldman & Braunstein firm will work with ET Rover attorneys to draft reasonable survey and easement agreements for property owners who become their clients.
The agreements protect the landowners, Braunstein said, for things such as allowing crossings over the pipeline, the growing of crops and undamaged or repaired drain tiles.
“We will stick with you all through the process, even after we’ve been paid and after the construction is done, and make sure that the pipeline company lives up to the obligations that they’ve undertaken in the easement,” Braunstein said.”
Montgomery, John. The Fostoria Focus 5 September 2014.