Natural Gas Pipeline Will Not Go In County Right-Of-Way

By Gordon HopkinsAfter approving a permit allowing a natural gas pipeline to occupy a portion of Jefferson County right-of-way, county commissioners learned the pipeline will not be buried in the right-of-way after all, for which commissioners noted they are profoundly grateful. Tallgrass Energy has begun work in Jefferson County on laying the approximately 20 miles of 36-inch pipe that will make up the Rockies Express natural gas pipeline that will span from Wyoming to Ohio, traversing much of Nebraska, including through the northern part of Jefferson County. Once complete, the pipeline is expected to carry up to 800,000 dekatherms (one million Btu) a day.Tallgrass had been forced to consider a reroute of the pipeline due to the objections of a single landowner. So Tallgrass applied for a permit for an alternate route that included a portion of the right-of-way of 575 Avenue. Representatives of Tallgrass also pointed out that Nebraska statute did not give the county the option of denying the permit.According to Nebraska Revised Statute 57-1102, “Any such person, company, corporation, or association, in the laying, relaying, operation, and maintenance of any such pipeline within the State of Nebraska, shall have the right to enter upon and cross, with such pipeline, any public road or highway, under such reasonable regulations and restrictions as may be prescribed by the Department of Transportation, if it is a state or federal highway, or by the county board of each county, as to all other public roads and highways within such county, and shall also have the right to lay, relay, operate, and maintain such pipeline in and along any public road or highway.” Commisisoners reluctnanly approved the permit. Commissioner Mark Schoenrock said at a meeting on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, “I would like it to be made a matter of the record that I am not in favor of this, but if there is a Nebraska statute, then the board doesn’t have any choice but to go ahead and approve this.”Since then, however, the landowner relented and allowed the pipeline company to use the property.Commission President Gale Pohlmann confirmed at a meeting on Tuesday, May 7, “They have come to an agreement with the landowner so they can go in and use his quarter.”

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