TOPIC: BIG Problem!

So I've got a big problem on my hands, I don't suppose anyone of you guys have any experience with it. I found out that a pipeline company wants my land to put a gas pipeline in it and they're willing to use eminent domain to get it. I've been planting ginseng in the woods for years now and not only will the construction of this pipe destroy much of what I've planted it requires a permanent open space. The the property becomes unusable for wild sim. So not only does it destroy what I planted, but it prevents me from ever planting again. On top of which this permanently open causeway will lead to the most most financially depressed area in the swillyiest town within a hundred miles. So what they do leave behind will quickly get pilfered by vagrants using the pipeline ROW as a road. It's incredibly angering and depressing since this was an investment for my future and I put a lot of work into it for years.

Just wondering if anyone has had to deal with anything similar and if so what you did and what was the outcome.

Ittiz, important first question to this problem do you actually own the land. Question # 2 do you own the mineral rights?
Latt

#1: Yes I do own land
#2: I don't know, how would I find that out?

Ittiz, Latt is spot on. When my grandfather purchased the \"terrace\" where my family and I live, he didn't purchase those rights. Years later my dad had to come back and purchase them. I don't know if it varies from state to state. Sorry to hear that for you. Your situation is terrible. I do know for sure, if the county claims eminent domaine \"for the greater good of the people\" they have to pay full market price. Including everything on the land. A company pulled that in West Palm Beach to build condos. All the residents were forced to leave. Good luck man, I hope everything works in your favor. America, home of the free?????

Ittiz: I definitely say that stinks. They will pay you well for it though. The larger diameter the pipe and amount that flows through it means the more they have to pay per foot (yes foot) of lineal land they lay the pipe on. A small 8\" gathering line in my area (where the Utica shale play is booming) which is only a line from one well, to go to a transmission line on down the road, pays about $40/lineal foot. They account for crop, timber, and damages seperately and you don't pay tax on them parts of the cash. Only a small percentage is taxable if you insist they word it and seperate it into damages and losses more than just purchase/lease. You also will have a little room for negotiating even though it is imminant domain. Hopefully they will pay you enough to get another piece of land but that is a lot of lost time on the seng but if you have records of seed purchases I would say that's your proof of lost crop as well as the timber.
As an example I have 1000' of lineal length on my property (in the Utica shale play) and only for a gathering line to one well they were gonna pay me $35,000 and only half that distance is wooded. They rerouted the line but not because I was asking too much because I was accepting what they offered without trying for more. These hills are steep and can slip so they really have to be careful where they lay the pipe so I assume that's why I was spared. No imminant domain on gathering lines in Ohio.
Not like I side with pulling immenant domain as thats a dictatorship move in my opinion but it should pay enough for another sweet chunk of wooded land.

Ittiz: Also, you don't need to own the minerals for a pipeline to be put on your land. That is a surface project and whomever owns the surface land is who is getting paid.

If you wan't to see if you do own the minerals it will show on your deed. It won't show what you do own but it will show exclusions. For example when I bought my land it showed that the number 8 pittsburg coal seam was owned by a coal company. It said nothing about gas/oil or other carbon sources so that means I own them and everything except that number 8 coal all the way down to the center of the earth.

Hope this helps.

From what you guys are saying it sounds like I own the mineral rights on my land. Not that it much matters since there isn't much to have rights to unless I want to quarry rock. I'm sure some of you have looked at pics I posted previously of my property and it's quite rocky. This will be a supply line to a city about 20 miles from me, not a feeder pipe.

My state has regulations against eminent domain as well in certain circumstances however from what I've heard these companies follow certain procedures so they can use the federal government to take your land in order to avoid local regulations. So it seems some of you have dealt with this sort of issue before and pretty much there was't much you could do?

Ittiz: You sure are right on the big corps and govt working hand in hand. Doubt the transmission line will get stopped by any means being it is going to feed gas to a whole city. I still feel you will get rewarded well. Still stinks though.

I don't know if I'd think my minerals were of no value. That's what people thought about all but coal in my area and now anyone owning 100+ acres is millionaire. They are finding gas and oil reserves all over the country with new technology to locate and harvest it. After they exploit one area they will be looking for other areas. That is unless you are in the state of new york or other new england area states that may ban the practice. There is just not enough rigs to drill what they know has gas and oil now. If you do sell out after they tear up your land I recommend holding the minerals and not letting them go with the surface land.

Well people in the area are hopeful they can stop it. I don't know anyone in town who wants the pipe. Though low oil prices and other projects, which are ahead this one, may kill it.

Unless there is some unknown formations or some mostly worthless material suddenly gains value I don't see anything worth much around here. Based on geology maps of my area and the minerals found in my well water (drilled well to about 1000'). My land mostly contains a kind of granite with Fluorite and Garnet mixed in. There are no hydrocarbon (gas, coal, ect...) deposits of any significance in my area. I mean if there were deposits of something that was just inaccessible that would be one thing, but there's nothing. Nothing that anyone is aware of anyway.

Big Corps will serve their own interests before anyone else's, that's how they got big in the first place.

Unfourtinately for you Ittiz, that means they are going to attempt to get their pipeline on your land for as cheaply as they can.

Other's here have given good advice to you above. I would only add what I've already written, as well as this: If it were me, I would get my documents together, write out what payment i want, ask for 75- 100% more than what is being offered, and then employ an attorney to get it. the attorney gets paid out of the extra you get, and you get more as well. you should be able to get more since you already have a crop in place on what the big company thinks of as simple woodland.

Please keep us posted on how this goes, and post photos, please, of what the company's pipeline work does to the land. you know, like before and after.

Oh yeah, I would find the movie \"Gasland\" and watch it. here's the ink for that movie. it's shocking.

video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A...m%3Asa&&tt=b