C02 producer Kinder Morgan filed a lawsuit Oct. 20 against the Montezuma County commissioners for requiring uncommon permit conditions to build a private power line.
This summer, 21 landowners in the Cow Canyon area west of Pleasant View were informed of a Kinder Morgan plan to install 10 miles of above-ground electric lines through their properties along County Roads BB, CC and 10.
Many of the affected landowners are commercial farmers, who stated at public meetings that the power lines would disrupt their operations, including interfering with center-pivot irrigation systems.
Farmers are urging that the lines either be buried or relocated across a rugged BLM canyon away from their farms.
During a Sept. 22 commissioners meeting, Kinder Morgan representatives refused, stating that burying the lines would double the cost, and that going across BLM canyonlands, while more direct, would required a lengthy permit process.
The energy giant leases vast CO2 reserves under private land from federal, state and private owners. Under Colorado and U.S. laws, the company has access rights, including over private land, to drill, produce and pipe the gas, which is used to extract oil from depleted wells in Texas.
The controversial electric lines will power three new cluster stations as part of a major production expansion by the company in the Pleasant View farming community.
In a show of support for landowners, the commission approved special-use and high-impact permits, but said the green light is conditional on all land-use agreements being signed between Kinder Morgan private property owners.
Surface-use agreements compensate landowners for property disrupted by oil-and-gas wells production. Negotiations mitigate for damaged roads, fences and crop loss.
At the time of the permit hearing, none of the landowners had signed the agreements, but as of Oct. 20, eight had agreed on access.
Kinder Morgan cried foul on the county’s unconventional permit conditions. While the company plans to negotiate the agreements in good faith, it argues in the lawsuit that signed agreements are not legally required for the company to access the private property to extract the gas.
“The condition imposed by the board disregards Kinder Morgan’s vested property rights, exceeds the board’s jurisdiction and constitutes an abuse of discretion,” the lawsuit states. “Kinder Morgan has a legal right of reasonable access to, and use of, the surface estate for purposes of development regardless of whether the current surface owner ultimately consents.”
Kinder Morgan is asking district court to rule the permit approval conditions be remanded back to the commissioners for reconsideration.
“Kinder Morgan’s legal obligation to obtain surface use agreements is limited to a good faith effort to obtain such agreements,” the lawsuit states.
During the Oct. 27 commissioners meeting Val Brock, Kinder Morgan’s CO2 vice president, briefly mentioned the lawsuit, then launched a PowerPoint presentation on the expansion project.
However, the energy development impacts on private land lingered on the minds of the commissioners.
“It gives us heartburn that private land is taking the lion’s share of damage,” said commissioner Steve Chappell. “In a rush to get production up, private land is seen as quicker than (development) on public lands.”
Brock said some new wells are on BLM land, but that private land happened to be over the most robust portion of the CO2 field.
Eight of the new wells are on BLM land, while 14 are planned for private land, including additional pipelines, compressor stations, cluster facilities that gather gas and power facilities.
Brock said the Kinder Morgan will have spent $1 billion developing the McElmo Dome CO2 field when complete.
Brock also confirmed that Kinder Morgan wants to build its own power plant, a rumor that has been circulating in Cortez.
“We have not secured the land yet, but it is something we’re interested in – generating our own power,” he said.
The private power plant is expected to be built west of Pleasant View would be run by natural gas from nearby pipelines.
jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com