VCE Weekly Update

LIVING ON THE PIPELINE

GUEST COLUMN by Glenn Archambault and Terri Magruder, Phoenix, Oregon

OWNING OUR DREAM FARM -- May 18, 1993

As Glenn was walking on our new farm on our first day of ownership, survey flags and painted fence posts made a trail to our new neighbor Henry's ranch. He explained to Glenn that a large natural gas pipeline was coming, a big federal project. It involved 86 miles and 1400 acres of public and private land, through mountains, rivers, streams and our small farm.

Pacific Gas and Electric (P G & E), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), state and local government, and the people who sold us the farm knew about this big pipeline project, and the pending application for a Certificate of Convenience and Necessity giving the pipeline company the Power of Eminent Domain and the legal ability to condemn the property.

Although the sellers had been informed of the "pending pipeline project" in writing, they did not disclose that information to us. The shock of being threatened and our property violated by a for-profit private utility company backed by federal guns and trespassing powers was overwhelming. We found ourselves surrounded by a government system of intimidation and property taking with no compensation. The pipeline property is located along the entire north boundary of our farm (approx. 1500 feet). We have not received compensation for the taking of our property and our safety concerns have been ignored.

So on this day in 1993 started a war to learn about this pipeline project and to get our money back. The more we learned about the pipeline industry the more we feared the project located next to our home.

BEFORE THE PIPELINE WAS BUILT -- 1993-1995

From the day we took possession of the property, helicopters buzzed over and survey teams of every type trespassed across our little valley. Every day (including holidays) someone from the project wanted to test, measure, inspect , question, talk to , or threaten us. There were continuous meetings to attend and letters from the pipeline company to answer. An endless demand for our attention, they got paid, we did not.

We could not leave our farm. Someone always needed to be there to watch out for the animals and property and our belongings. One day we left for a trip to the river, when we returned home our 200 sheep were in our "former" front yard and gardens. The trespassing pipeline employees were not good about closing gates. That was a good day! Bad days? Being informed that your house, barns and belongings would be examined and video taped by a pipeline official, along with a well test. This was to protect the pipeline company from lawsuits. With the massive construction, road building and dynamite blasts, private property damage would occur. A really bad day? That's May 1995. On this day "Right of Immediate Possession" was granted by a judge that allows the government and the pipeline company to take your private property without a trial. No terms, no money paid to you and the right to use violence against you should you protest or resist.

PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION -- SUMMER 1995

The pipeline was coming! Construction had started 86 miles away and would end in our farm valley. The day arrived for the crews to cut the fences and clear the land of everything. Glenn walked down the road to the fence being cut down, he saw cows running and heard sheep crying for their lambs. The guardian sheep dogs were demanding that the hostile strangers leave, NOW! The construction workers warned us not to resist. The government had officers down the road. Glenn could see the unmarked cars. We knew that terrible feeling of losing.

The construction started that day with a flood! Someone had left the irrigation ditch running. From that day forward we observed and documented a poorly designed and constructed pipeline being laid into the ground. The construction was done by a contractor from Texas. Pipeline companies don't build pipelines, the lowest bidder does! Not the best, but the cheapest materials and equipment are used. The construction went from bad to worse. The lowest bidder was poorly informed about what Oregon is like. Our valley is clay soil full of rocks and running water. The whole site near our property was muddy or completely flooded with water several feet deep. In the hot summer sun and muddy water, the pipeline project became a huge mess.

P G & E, the gas transporter, recorded the minimal government standards on paper, but the pipeline was not constructed to those minimal standards. There were no on site inspections to monitor the construction and installation of the pipe. The construction became a brutal fight to get a paycheck for the average worker. No pipeline meant no pay.

We got to know the folks on the job, a lot of them were there for months. They told us interesting things. "That it (the pipe) would not last 5 years" said the guys boring under the county road. "These people are complete rookies" said the ditch foreman about the route chosen by pipeline company officials. The right-of-way agent had no previous experience siting a gas pipeline. F E R C was only involved with environmental issues. The Office of Pipeline Safety became involved only after the route was established and the pipeline installed. We learned quickly that the government and pipeline officials were incompetent. The construction workers were told what to do, no matter how dumb.

We contacted our county commissioners and planning department, our state and federal representatives, the Office of Pipeline Safety and FERC. We learned that the safety of the pipe and it's siting was not regulated on site, only on paper by the profit motivated pipeline company (average, 22% - 31% profit after taxes). In fact no one in charge inspected the route at the end of the project. If they had, they would have found mud, no grasses, no brush, no trees, lot's of rocks, worthless soil and outraged property owners living on the pipeline.

The pipe is located next to our home, barn and machine shed. We are always next to it and you don't forget about it. No one from the Office of Pipeline Safety, P G & E, or our local government check the pipeline or talk with us. Not once have we been asked "What's not safe"?

LIVING ON A MAJOR GAS PIPELINE POST CONSTRUCTION -- 1996-present

Would you live here? Currently there are few to no markers outlining the pipeline route. There is no recorded survey of the pipeline as it was laid into the ground. Approximately one year after the pipe was buried, the pipeline company returned to dig up the pipe. They were several feet away from the pipe and unable to locate it without the help of our videos showing the pipe being laid in a "lake" of water. The faulty route that snakes through our valley has multiple 90 degree turns and crosses under the county road 6 times in less than 3 miles. Without clear markers or survey information there is an increased risk of accidental pipe damage.

In the seven years we have lived with this pipeline, we have learned about the hundreds of mishaps and accidents with the pipelines. We became educated in the lack of "pipeline safety" as we learned about the government regulations and the pipeline officials who build and operate the gas pipelines.

People love the products that pipelines deliver and the wealth they generate, but most people fear major pipelines and do not want to live where we live, ON THE LINE!