LOTT, Texas — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is in Central Texas on back to back days to hear from the public on the massive natural gas pipeline that is being proposed.
The government agency had its first public input meeting in the Central Texas area in Lott on Sept. 17 where several dozen people attended to learn about the DeLa Express proposal and share their input.
One Central Texas landowner told 6 News that they have lots of concerns about the DeLa Express, especially since she already has several pipelines on her property.
"The worst thing about it is the fact that it's coming up closer to my house," said Patricia Sharp. "The other thing is the destruction of the land. It never gets put back correctly. With this particular pipeline, and the one before, it's wanting to come through a creek and cut down the trees."
Sharp said the land she lives on now has been in her family since the 1800s. To her, the compensation offered for a pipeline isn't worth the value and meaning behind her land.
"It's the land to me that's most important," Sharp added. "It's the freedom of owning the land, but you aren't free to own it. The eminent domain says that it's for the public that they're taking your land, but that's not true. It's for private companies. It's all about money, greed and power."
Sharp made sure her concerns were heard by exercising her right at the meeting, where she formally put her thoughts on the pipeline on record. The National Environmental Policy Act requires FERC to get public input about the plan and its potential environmental impact. This phase is called "scoping", according to their notice.
This is just one of the steps the developer of the DeLa Express has to work through to build 645 miles of pipeline to carry two billion cubic feet of natural gas per day from the Permian Basin of West Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
The developer of the DeLa Express project sent this statement to 6 News about the FERC meetings ongoing:
DeLa Express LLC (“DeLa Express”) is actively engaged in the ongoing Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) pre-filing review process for the DeLa Express Project (“Project”), which will serve to safely ship critical natural gas and liquids supply from the prolific Permian Basin of West Texas to high-demand consumer markets in and around Lake Charles, Louisiana.
While the public input or “scoping” meetings being held this month along the Project route are being hosted by FERC, DeLa Express is making our land and right-of-way teams available at the scoping meetings to provide another opportunity to furnish information and answer landowner questions.
In June, DeLa Express hosted 17 open house events at 15 separate locations along the Project route that were attended by more than 1,000 landowners and other stakeholders who were able to meet Project team members, ask questions and learn more about the Project. We greatly value the feedback we received at those events and have used it to inform updates to the Project.
DeLa Express looks forward to continuing this important dialogue, reviewing public comments and progressing towards submittal of a final permit application for the Project early next year.
The Texas Constitution guarantees if a pipeline company crosses your property, you're entitled to fair compensation, both for the land that they're taking and if they devalue the rest of your land. An eminent domain lawyer talked to 6 News about the rights and details of what impacted landowners should do.
If you are interested in providing input on the pipeline, you can find information here.