Hays County, Kyle sue Kinder Morgan

The plan for a natural gas pipeline through Hays County has “kicked over a hornet’s nest,” Kyle Mayor Travis Mitchell said at Monday morning press conference announcing that the city of Kyle, along with Hays County and some landowners, have filed suit against Kinder Morgan and the Railroad Commission (RRC) of Texas.

It is the first legal challenge to the RRC’s process of allowing pipelines to be built without any public involvement or oversight. 

The suit claims that the current process of granting permission for pipelines — which requires checking a single box on an application permit form — is unconstitutional and an “uncontrolled grant of special privileges.” The action calls for a “temporary and permanent injunction against Permian LLC and KMTP prohibiting them from exercising their power of eminent domain” until the RRC “has adopted legally sufficient standards.”

Some of the more than 1,000 landowners the pipeline would affect began hearing from Kinder Morgan in October of last year, Mitchell and other speakers noted, though the company did not first contact any governmental authorities (nor was it required to).

The pipeline’s 423-mile route takes it within a mile of the treasure that is Jacob’s Well, and twice crosses the Blanco River. The issue has brought together residents from across the political and socioeconomic spectrum with concerns that also include environmental and economic issues — neither of which figure into RRC decisions.

“This suit is about one thing: giving landowners a voice in the process,” Mitchell said. “We put a great amount of thought into our options. We understand just how important the oil and gas industry is to the State of Texas, and we don’t want to do anything to undermine their contribution to our economy.

“Kinder Morgan has 420 miles of power to take people’s land — and they are not held accountable by anyone,” he continued. “We are asking the Railroad Commission to establish a process that is fair and transparent and allows the community to have a say and to consider environmental and economic” issues. “We have got to do better.”

“As important as the oil and gas industry is to Texas, they are the only private industry in the state with the power to take someone’s land without a governmental hearing process,” Hays County Pct. 4 Commissioner Walt Smith said. “These companies currently enjoy a privilege that is only granted to governmental entities. They should be held to the same standards of accountability and oversight. It’s as simple as that.”

Smith said that the issue has united a commissioners court that is usually diverse in its opinions, and that Kinder Morgan’s route cuts through all four of the county’s precincts. He noted that Hays County was the first to pass a resolution opposing the pipeline’s route. “It isn’t a decision that comes lightly. We support private property owners and truly find it unnerving that the long, arduous and intricate process we take as elected officials and a governmental body to use the power of eminent domain not only one we take seriously — it’s one we treasure to try to not take if at all possible... This suit is an attempt to have them answer to someone in Hays County.” 

Lana Nance, who along with her husband Scott own land in the Heritage Ranch area of Kyle, said the proposed taking of their land for the pipeline interferes with their plans for their children and grandchildren. They joined the suit, she said in a prepared statement, because, “We realized we had no recourse, no real way of compelling Kinder Morgan to listen to our concerns and change the route of their pipeline. The state lets them take our land with zero accountability.”

State Rep Erin Zwiener, who has a handful of bills filed in the Texas Legislature that were inspired by the Permian Highway Pipeline (the official name of the Kinder Morgan project) said it is the “most glaring and recent example” of a failure by the RRC to address supervision of such undertakings. “The route of this pipeline starkly demonstrates the current lack of regulatory oversight. Currently, private companies can claim all the benefits of infrastructure built to ship Texas resources overseas and shift all the costs to landowners and local communities.” She attended Monday’s press conference, she said, “to support our local governments and our mutual constituents as they are forced to take forceful action to try and level the playing field.”

While she said she and her colleagues support the oil and gas industry and the need for new infrastructure, “It is the unilateral, unchecked and abusive process for routing of that infrastructure that we feel we must change.”

The suit was filed Monday in Travis County District Court, a venue that is required because the Railroad Commission is a state agency. It is being paid for by the local nonprofit Texas Real Estate Advocacy and TREAD Coalition. 

Clark Richards, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said they have asked for the injunction to be issued as quickly as possible.

In addition to Kyle and Hays County, resolutions opposing the pipeline have been passed by the cities of San Marcos, Buda, Wimberley, Woodcreek and Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, the Hays CISD, Fredericksburg and Harper ISDs, the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District the Hill Country Underground Water District and the Fredericksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau.