Where is the Arkansas tanker-truck unloading station?
Diamond flaws are common, perfect diamonds are extremely rare. The Diamond Pipeline has a fatal flaw. The one thing giving Diamond the power to take private land and threaten our health, its common carrier status, was lost. This is a self-inflicted lethal blow. Let’s dig in.
Diamond is a not a common carrier
The Diamond Pipeline, a joint 50/50 venture between Valero Energy and Plains All American, is a private line for the Valero Memphis Refinery. No one else benefits. There is one entry point, the Cushing, Okla., Plains All American Terminal and one exit point, the Memphis, Tenn., Valero Refinery. A 200,000-barrels per day pipeline is needed to run the 195,000-bpd refinery. Diamond does not have capacity for other shippers.
New evidence against Diamond
The negative economic impact of the line, the hazards of leaky pipes and seismic activity, and the lack of a tanker-truck unloading facility and a terminal, will stop Diamond. Diamond in 2014 seemed unstoppable. Now, landowners can petition county courts to void easements granted under duress and request compensation for damages.
Smoke and mirrors
Diamond created an illusion: the pipeline would be safe, for public use, and have a positive economic impact. “The Diamond Pipeline will benefit Arkansas residents in several ways. The pipeline will generate approximately $11 million per year in property tax revenue for communities along the pipeline route,” Diamond said. Is the life of the pipeline 10, 20, or 100 years? According to Diamond, property taxes would be $110 million, $220 million, or $1.1 billion!
Property taxes are based on the useful life of the pipeline, depreciation, expenses, revenues, and allocations to three states and counties. APSC provides yearly Ad Valorem Assessments for oil pipelines. An estimate of $1-million per year, for 20-years, shared by Arkansas counties traversed, would not cover the cost of spills during the first 20 years.
Diamond’s stealth strategy
Pretending to be a common carrier with the power of eminent domain, Diamond selected a route on private land to avoid environmental reviews, acquired land easements without disclosing the route, secured river crossing permits, chose low-cost pipes, and got river navigation permits.
Going after individual landowners with bulldozers and lawyers, without an approved route, was a violation of private property rights. The 1940’s Arkansas statute, used against the people of Arkansas, will give Diamond a deadly bite.
Was common carrier status claimed to get approval?
Yes, the 2016 application filed before the Arkansas Public Service Commission, Docket 16-038-U, Document 1, on page 3, says, “the pipeline will include a truck unloading facility located in Van Buren County, Arkansas, for receipt and transport of oil produced in Arkansas or elsewhere by multiple potential users of the proposed pipeline under common transportation rates to be filed and posted with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).”
How is crude oil delivered by trucks to pipelines?
Semi-trailer tanker trucks with capacity to transport 200 barrels deliver crude from oil fields to pipelines. A tanker-truck unloading facility is large station located near a pipeline. At these sites, crude oil is unloaded from trucks to storage tanks. Pipeline operators inject crude at high pressure into the pipeline. These facilities require roads to provide truck access from highways.
How is crude received from pipelines?
Terminal facilities are needed at the end of a common carrier pipeline to store crude and connect to other pipelines or semi-trailer truck loading facilities. Diamond ends at the Valero Refinery and does not have a terminal.
Was common carrier status challenged by landowners?
Yes, several landowners were taken to court. Diamond lawyers claimed the pipeline would have a truck unloading facility. The claim seemed reasonable at the time. Now, the snake is out of the bag.
How can Diamond complete the project?
Diamond must provide information on property taxes, the Van Buren County, Arkansas, truck unloading facility, and the Memphis terminal.
Real property and property taxes
The issues herein are about real state and county property taxes. Who will be the first courageous lawyer to take a stand?
Dr. Luis Contreras
PAA knew about the corroded pipe in El Refugio, CA
The massive spill was not an accident
Private property is sacred. Not to be taken by private companies for profits. Here is a recent story on the Gentry Wildlife Safari. The initial offer $37,000 for 9 acres, ended up costing $965,000 for the entire park.
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For years, McMath said, SWEPCO “had pretty well gotten whatever they wanted” in North Arkansas. Thanks to grass-roots opposition by landowners who feared SWEPCO’s Shipe Road-Kings River project would ruin Ozark views, the power company withdrew its proposal for the project from consideration by the Arkansas Public Service Commission in December 2014. McMath said he believes the days of SWEPCO getting its way without question may be over. “I think the power company is on notice now that they can’t just run roughshod over folks like they used to,” McMath said.
In the second trial, McMath introduced into evidence claims of harm to the rest of the Safari Park property from the power line project.
McMath said there were three parcels at issue: the narrow 9-acre, the half-mile-long sliver of property taken for the power line in the northernmost portion of the park; the 109-acre “quadrant four” in which the 9 acres were located; and the park as a whole, which covers about 300 acres.
“The harm done to the remaining portion of the property, aside from that which was taken, was critical to showing the true impact of the taking on the whole property,” McMath said. “It’s called severance damage.”
McMath said the acreage that SWEPCO condemned and eventually built its line across was “critical” to the park because it was on a portion of land set aside for those species that are the most vulnerable to human contact, including wild Asian donkeys, sables and Pere David deer. He said the project required moving those animals because of the heavy construction, traffic, and noise, including clearing the right of way and bringing in what McMath said were “large, hammering derricks” to sink the footings for the transmission towers.
“The right of way is not just stringing up lines,” he said. “This is a 345-megavolt transmission line … [The right of way is] 150 feet across from one side to the other, and these pylons are over 150 feet high. Some of them are over 200 feet.”
SWEPCO originally offered the Wilmoth family a settlement of $37,000 for the 9 acres taken for the project.
https://www.arktimes.com/arkansas/gentry-animal-park-wins-almost-1-million-in-case-against-swepco/Content?oid=4175296
The pipeline is all about money to pay PAA and Valero MLP investors; it has nothing to do with Energy Independence, the price of gasoline, or anything else.
Arkansas will not get $11 million in property taxes from hosting the pipeline … the false promise does not say how many years Diamond plans to depreciate the line. As mentioned in the op-ed, the total property taxes for all the Arkansas counties traversed would be at most $1 million per year, for around 20 years. Diamond will not pay for crude spills or any damages, the people in these communities will pay with their health and properties.
1. Are perpetual, unrestricted, assignable easements, signed under duress with threats to condemn private property, legal documents?
2. Is falsely claiming to have the power of Eminent Domain and taking landowners to condemnation court, criminal behavior?
3. How can landowners void the easements used by Diamond and get paid for damages?