BOWLING GREEN — The Columbus-based company seeking to build a 22-mile natural-gas pipeline through parts of Lucas and Wood counties has filed two eminent-domain lawsuits against property owners along the project’s route.
North Coast Gas Transmission on March 31 sued Scott and Nancy Rogers of Neiderhouse Road, Perrysburg Township, and on Feb. 27 sued Paul Swartz of Wood Creek Road in Perrysburg. Both cases, in which the company is seeking right-of-way to build the Oregon Lateral pipeline, are pending in Wood County Common Pleas Court.
A North Coast Gas Transmission spokesman declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
Mr. Swartz said his family was surprised to be served now while an appeal for the pipeline is pending. Mr. Swartz said the compensation offered to his family, $19,660 according to a complaint, is “far below what other pipelines have received” and they've asked North Coast to look at alternate routes. The property is 1.832 acres, the complaint states.
Mr. Swartz said he grows wheat, corn, and soybeans on his farmland property and the pipeline would sever drainage tiles.
“You can’t farm the Great Black Swamp without drainage,” Mr. Swartz said.
The lawsuit against the Rogerses seeks a 24-month easement onto their 205-acre property for pipeline construction and states private efforts to negotiate compensation for the right-of-way have failed. North Coast lists its “good-faith” offer to the Rogerses as $7,250.
The pipeline is planned to run from Maumee through Perrysburg, Perrysburg Township, Rossford, Lake Township, Walbridge, and Northwood to its terminus at the Oregon Clean Energy Center, an $800 million gas-fired power plant under construction at 816 N. Lallendorf Rd., Oregon.
First Published April 4, 2015, 4:00 a.m.