HomeLAW believes that private property should only be condemned as a last resort and when “public benefit” has been determined by jury trial; and never when the condemning party economically benefits from the compensation formulas allowed by state statutes.
What You Can Expect
• Property owners in Sheridan County were sued for eminent domain by the local school district over the terms of the purchase of their property. Acquisition by condemnation would have cost the school district less than a fair-market negotiation.
• Private homes were condemned by Laramie County for the appraised fair market and relocation amounts, rather than replacement costs, in order to build a new county library. Had the private properties been owned by a non-profit organization, replacement values would have been required by our statutes.
• After 5 years of study, the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities proposed a location for a future municipal water storage facility on private lands – without once notifying or working with the private landowner. The effort is currently suspended due to the outcry of private property owners.
• A Campbell County couple had their valuable creek-bottoms condemned by a major oil company in order to allow the cheapest method of discharge of coal-bed methane produced water, rather than piping the water to a treatment and storage facility. During the condemnation, the company unsuccessfully sought an injunction to bar the landowner from carrying his gun on his private property near oil field workers.
• A business owner was condemned by the City of Rock Springs on behalf of the Wyoming Department of Transportation in order to construct a new sidewalk along the highway. While compensated a minimal appraised value and relocation costs, the relocation time-frames were inadequate given the economic boom in Rock Springs and the compensation did not come near the actual replacement costs incurred by the property owner, not to mention the loss of business and now higher monthly insurance fees.
• A couple in Albany County was sued in a pre-condemnation lawsuit by a major interstate natural gas pipeline company over a $500.00 fee requested by the landowners for access to their hayfields to obtain preliminary survey data.
• A private property owner in Johnson County was condemned by an independent gas operator in order to place gathering pipelines and transmission lines in a manner that reduced corporate operation costs rather than staying within the established corridor one-half a mile away. After great litigation cost for the landowner to defend his private property rights, the company was sold, the successor operator dropped the eminent domain suit, and negotiations are underway to purchase the ranch.
• The federal Department of Energy has proposed major new energy corridors throughout the state of Wyoming that are 3500’ wide, eventually encompassing 424.24 acres out of every 640 acres (square mile). The federal webpage states that the effort is focused only on federal lands but in-between all federal lands in Wyoming lie private (or state) lands and a de facto decision is being made that will severely impact the future use of these private lands. The federal process allows no means to obtain constructive input from the affected private land owners.
• The Wyoming Infrastructure Authority is working to establish four new corridors for interstate electricity transmission lines without any recognition of impacted private lands or preliminary efforts to place the lines in ways to minimize impacts on private land. While power companies will negotiate the compensation for the impacted private lands, the ultimate powers of eminent domain often skew the good faith negotiations and the ultimate amounts of compensation.
Municipal Growth
Municipal population growth will be closely tied to the burst in economic activity. This growth is going to have to be accommodated by a change in use of lands in and around current town boundaries. In some cases, towns will spread out onto private lands currently zoned by surrounding county governments. In other cases, towns will have to change the use of private lands within their boundaries, and consequently cause a potential for a great reliance on eminent domain authorities. The Corporations Committee of the Wyoming State Legislature continues to debate legislative proposals to expand authorities of County governments to regulate activities on lands proposed for subdivision up to 640-acre parcels, up from the current limit of 35-acre parcels. While there are legitimate problems caused by the suburban sprawl of 35-acre ranchettes, LAW wants to ensure that private property rights are protected and not unnecessarily compromised in an attempt to expand the regulatory oversight of impacted local governments.
Federal Energy Corridors
The U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005 requires federal agencies to designate new right-of-way corridors on federal lands for electricity transmission and distribution facilities and oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines. The current federal proposal would create major corridors within Wyoming that are 3,500’ wide, which would require 424.24 acres out of 640 acres/square mile! Because 44% of Wyoming’s surface land is privately owned, these corridors cannot stay entirely on federal and state lands, and must also be constructed on private lands. View a map of proposed Wyoming corridors.
Electricity Transmission Corridors
The Wyoming Infrastructure Authority, created in June 2004 by the state legislature, was tasked to diversify and grow the state’s economy through the development of electric transmission infrastructure. The Authority is responsible for planning, financing, building, maintaining and operating interstate electric transmission and related facilities.
The WIA is actively pursuing four new interstate transmission lines across Wyoming which may or may not fall within the aforementioned federal energy corridors. As explained on their website, the objective of these new transmission lines is to promote, for the first time in Wyoming’s history, the export of electricity to out-of-state markets, rather than the raw products of coal and natural gas. This is an exciting evolution for the use and sale of Wyoming’s abundant natural resources that will ultimately produce electricity. However, members of LAW believe that the owners of the private property on which these transmission lines will be located should be included as partners in the planning as well as the financial benefits of these lines, particularly given they are serving out-of-state consumers and are protected by rate-based regulations.
Natural Gas Pipelines
The Wyoming Pipeline Authority is actively engaged in promoting the development of intrastate and interstate pipeline infrastructure necessary to enhance natural resource development within Wyoming and encourage the export of these natural resource supplies in the Rocky Mountain region to the nation. Its mission is to plan, finance, construct, develop, acquire, maintain, and operate a pipeline system or systems within or without the state of Wyoming to facilitate the production, transportation, distribution and delivery of natural resources produced in the state.
While this economic growth promises many jobs and economic revenue to the state, the use of private property to accommodate these interstate pipelines is essential. LAW believes that private property owners should be compensated not only for the initial damage to their land to lay the pipeline, but also for the on-going use of these lands for the life of the project. The pipeline companies do not purchase this land and the private property owners continue to pay the taxes. Any other entity would either have to buy the land for fair market value or would have to pay the private property owner an annual rental to use the land. While members of LAW do not want to discourage the development of a successful interstate pipeline infrastructure, we do believe private property owners should be more fairly included in the planning of these pipelines and in the compensation for the use of the land to accommodate these pipelines.
Railroads
The DM&E Railroad, based in South Dakota, has proposed a new railroad line from the Powder River Basin coal mines to mid-west locations. The route of the proposed line was established by the Federal Surface Transportation Board without any significant input from impacted private property owners, including the Wyoming citizens in Weston and Niobrara Counties who are now faced with a potential new rail line that splits their ranches in two.
Water Storage Development
The Wyoming Water Development Program was established in 1975 to promote the optimal development of the state's human, industrial, mineral, agricultural, water and recreational resources. In 1979 the Wyoming Water Development Commission (WWDC) was established to implement the water development program and to conduct water and related resource planning. Project planning and development is broken down into three levels. Project planning is covered in Levels I and II, and project construction is covered in Level III. Level I studies carry out necessary reconnaissance work, while Level II studies determine the projects' feasibility. Levels I and II are 100% state funded. Project ideas originate with the sponsoring entities and come to the WWDC through applications.
Private property owners, who own the land on which these potential sites could be located, are not officially notified -- and are often not even contacted -- until Level III studies begin, which is several years since the initiation of the study process. While LAW does not oppose the need to develop Wyoming’s water resources, we do believe that affected private property owners should be included in every step of the planning and development process as it affects private lands.
Oil and Gas Development
Oil and gas development is exploding across Wyoming. In 2002, Wyoming produced just 7.1% of the nation’s natural gas, yet it contains 55% of the proven gas reserves in the United States. Estimates by the Bureau of Land Management range from 76,000 - 110,000 new well permits across the state during the next 10 years – more than a doubling of the number of wells that have been completed in Wyoming since 1896! Much of this drilling activity for federal minerals will occur on private surface lands (split estate). While the 2005 Wyoming Surface Owner Accommodation Act (SOAA) is intended to ensure landowners have the legal ability to minimize damage to their surface lands and be compensated for the economic losses caused by the oil and gas operations, a loop-hole could allow powers of eminent domain to supersede the requirements of the SOAA – thereby avoiding the very requirements for good faith negotiations and just compensation for private property owners that were envisioned.
Well Water Discharge
Water produced from coalbed methane (CBM) wells is usually high in salt concentration and can be unsuitabale for irrigation. Due to high mineral content that is common in Wyoming soils, the total dissolved solids and salinity of CBM well water can be devastating to some surface lands, particularly if it is discharged directly on some lands that are otherwise used for irrigation. Discharge and environmental permits are required of oil and gas companies for the handling of this water, but there remains great concern among the landowners in this arid area about the long-term impacts of draining the aquifers and altering the surface on which this water is stored, before it eventually seeps back into the ground, particularly if the water is of poor quality. Landowners have limited legal ability to participate in the planning and terms for which this development will occur on their lands, and have no legal rights to receive compensation for the loss to land values caused by water from oil and gas discharges on their lands or activities on other upstream lands.
In addition, in a current legal decision, Wyoming District Court Judge Kautz granted a major oil company the right of eminent domain to discharge its cbm-produced waters onto downstream private lands, in the face of opposition by the private property owners. Compensation will be required solely for the lands over which the water will flow, but there is no mechanism, other than further lawsuits, to require payment for the potential long-term damage to the soils and the groundwater, much less the loss of value to the land and the ranch operations.
Wyoming Department of Transportation
The mission of the Wyoming Department of Transportation is to provide a safe, high quality and efficient transportation system. While LAW lauds this mission, we also support the need to notify affected property owners early in the process and ensure that any private lands that are taken for the construction or improvement of our road system are compensated with fair market replacement values, have a minimal impact on existing businesses and land uses, and are done in a way that does not cause undo future burden on the private property owner.
