Wolverine Pipe Line Company received the administrative approval that is a prerequisite to it acquiring necessary property rights and constructing its project.
On June 17, 2015, Wolverine Pipe Line Company filed an Application with the Michigan Public Service Commission or MPSC. The MPSC is a state administrative agency that regulates and provides approval to the construction of new utility project, among other things including establishing rates. Here is a link to the original application. It seeks to construct a 16 inch pipeline to transport 90,000 barrels of petroleum products per day. The route of the pipeline is illustrated on aerial photographs found on pages 17-29.
MPSC staff and Wolverine reached a settlement that was approved by the full MPSC on January 19, 2016. Wolverine intends, where possible, to use easement rights that it already owns and are related to an existing pipeline that the new pipeline would parallel for the most part. That settlement includes a number of points relating to property owners that are already subjected to easements. Paragraph 5(F), requires Wolverine to take “additional reasonable measure to improve the safety factor where the pipeline will pass in close proximity (25 feet or less) to a dwelling” by relocating the route or burying it deeper. Paragraph 5(G) requires Wolverine to act in “good faith to amend and define the width of any currently undefined easement.” Many older easements encumber the entire property without specifying an area where the pipeline can be. Finally, Paragraph 5(H) requires Wolverine to minimize the impact on farming by limiting the amount of time used in construction. The Order Approving Settlement Agreement can be found here.
The current Wolverine project demonstrates why property owners should be very cautious about granting easements and why just compensation requires valuing the newly acquired rights based on the assumption that they will be used to the fullest extent allowed by law. Property owners granting easements for a single pipeline being built decades ago probably did not think about the impacts of the broad easement language on their successors in title. A published article I wrote discussing these issues can be found here.
I am currently working to form a group of client impacted by the Wolverine Pipe Line project. If you have been contacted by Wolverine or any other pipeline company, please do not hesitate to contact me.