Buying land that has a natural gas line on it?

[duffer]

I mentioned the 200' blast radius again and said we would likely be building within that, his response was rather canned but tended to lean towards the extremely slim statistics of an event vs a mandate.

You might ask them to do an on sight inspection of the line where you plan to have a building inside of 200' radius. Just in case the line needs replacing. It is from the 50's afterall.

 

[ericm979]

A while back a PG&E gas line next to a suburban development here in NorCal exploded, killing a number of people. PG&E is known for not maintaining their equipment and thus killing people. If I was going to buy land with a gas line (or high tension power lines) on it I'd want some proof that they have inspected and maintained it properly. Being able to afford more land is useless if you're dead.

 

[tallyho8]

We have a 25' right of way for a gas line across our property about 3000' from the closest structure and back in the woods. I have never heard of anyone having any problems with this gas line and never worried about it.

We also have a 200' right of way across our property for high powerlines that are about 2500' from the closest structure and back in the woods. This one is just a little bit of concern because 20 years back they were able to run sewer lines down that property also without getting our permission because there was already a right of way there. They have not been any type of problem but it is frustrating that we have no sewerage in our area, only septic tanks, which are thankfully cheaper than having sewerage, but those lines run to a subdivision miles down the road that has sewerage now.

They said that we could connect up to those sewer lines if we wanted but having to pay for 2500' of sewer line to connect up would cost a fortune and we are quite happy having a septic tank.

Since our property runs all the way to the Mississippi River where we have riparian rights, we also have a right of way for the River Road which runs next to the levee and another right of way for the levee. Most homeowners' properties stop at the River Road.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Tennessee Gas has a 50' right of way through the northern part of our county which passes through the property of many homes in the area. 5 years ago, they tore up the landscape for several months to place a second 12" pipe. To add insult to injury, the gas company allowed the county to build a multi use trail on their right of way. Property owners are now upset by all the bikes, ATV's, snowmobiles and hikers passing through their property on the trail at all hours of the day & night.

In addition to the other good suggestions in this thread, I would check to see exactly what your gas company can and can't do on their easement.

 

[tfuller]

Tennessee Gas has a 50' right of way through the northern part of our county which passes through the property of many homes in the area. 5 years ago, they tore up the landscape for several months to place a second 12" pipe. To add insult to injury, the gas company allowed the county to build a multi use trail on their right of way. Property owners are now upset by all the bikes, ATV's, snowmobiles and hikers passing through their property on the trail at all hours of the day & night.

In addition to the other good suggestions in this thread, I would check to see exactly what your gas company can and can't do on their easement.

That's crazy that they can build a trail like that on your property. Here I could build a fence thru the right of way I just have to give the utility the key or expect that the lock will be cut if they need to get in.

 

[Torvy]

I have 2 gas easements and an electrical easement. The utility has no right to do anything on the property not directly related to transmission. I cannot prevent them from maintaining the easement or the lines. The two gas easements were just cut in the last month or so. Once I am out there full-time they will not need to as I will keep them cut myself. It will all be fenced. In the short term, I use the easements to quickly move around my property.

 

[Oaktree]

Tennessee Gas has a 50' right of way through the northern part of our county which passes through the property of many homes in the area. 5 years ago, they tore up the landscape for several months to place a second 12" pipe. To add insult to injury, the gas company allowed the county to build a multi use trail on their right of way. Property owners are now upset by all the bikes, ATV's, snowmobiles and hikers passing through their property on the trail at all hours of the day & night.

In addition to the other good suggestions in this thread, I would check to see exactly what your gas company can and can't do on their easement.

There's gotta be more to this story that we don't know. Any RoWs that I'm aware of simply give passage/access subject to conditions in the contract/deed. It's still your land.
That having been said, some of these RoWs DO contain provisions...a neighbor of mine purchased an abandoned RR RoW a few years ago. The deed states that he must allow "recreational" use of this property.

 

[Gee Ray]

As stated earlier the safety of gas lines is very good. The few examples that you find are going to be very low compared to the 3 million miles of NG, 2.6 million miles of gasoline lines. There are thousands of wells drilled all over the country on thousands of farms that are connected to the collection pipes. The pipe lines are not a big concern.

The views that are given about reading the easements or right of ways are spot on. Know your rights and the things you are allowing to occur on the easement. Have more then one lawyer read the agreements. Even if you are a lawyer allow a lawyer that is a specialist read your agreements before purchasing the land.

 

[scootr]

I have a small 10' electrical easement on one side of the property and a water pipeline (10'dia) adjacent to my property. Both get some pretty regular activity. I keep the weeds abated under the powerlines but they do request access for pole treating and testing. It's a nuisence and the poles and wires do scar the view. I would draw the line on fuel lines. Google says there have been nearly 700 explosions in the last 20 yrs of such lines in the US causing deaths and destruction.

260 deaths from 680 natural gas pipeline explosions in US - Kaieteur News

In 20 years… Kaieteur News – According to statistics from the United States Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), from 2002 to 2021, there were 680 serious natural gas pipeline explosions, resulting in 260 deaths. It was also stated that...

www.kaieteurnewsonline.com

I'm impressed with how many people here have gaslines under their property - I imagine a gasline map would look like a giant spider web over the nation
The article above does mention that one of the causes of these explosions are the older aging iron pipelines installed 60 or more years ago. These lines tend to fail due to the natural rusting of the iron pipe used. Personally I'm skiddish about buying into this.

 

[BackRoad]

I've got a 10" NG line buried 6' deep bisecting my property...built in the 70's, it actually worked to our benefit since the clearing done for it, further reduced what I had to clear to reclaim land.

Couple of years ago, I used a trencher to bury a cable feed down about 18 inches, which crossed their gas line.

They flagged the line and confirmed the depth, and required one of their engineers to be on site while trenching within 25' either side of their line. It was a non-event.

I did have to pay for the Farm Tap and the 400' of buried gas line to feed my new house...tried to get some consideration, but it didn't materialize.

They also have an ATV that putts along the line about every 4 months with a gas sniffer looking for leaks.

Other than that it is benign, except for the 'yotes that occasionally run it.