Complaints of angry landowners over Cheniere Energy’s failure to complete land restoration following construction of its 200-mile Midship pipeline in Oklahoma led a federal agency to order a prompt completion and have it done within at least 60 days.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday took the action after angry farmers and other landowners had voiced complaints about restoration work that had not been carried out since the pipeline’s completion in March 2020.
“This order directs Midship Pipeline Company, LLC to take immediate action to remedy unresolved restoration issues on certain landowner tracts…”stated the FERC in its decision.
The order applies to at least 50 separate tracts of land where the owner had complained about ponding caused by the pipeline work, debris left on the land, erosion, and the lack of revegetation work.
“Midship has failed to sufficiently resolve several specific restoration issues on agricultural lands throughout the project area,” stated the FERC order. The agency said Midship attempted to correct some of the issues but inspectors found they “remain unresolved.”
“There are additional unresolved issues first identified in December 2020 that also require Midship’s immediate attention,” continued the order.
FERC gave the company 10 days of the order to file a schedule to “promptly resolve the outstanding restoration issues.” The agency stated Midship has 60 days the complete the required restoration.
“The Commission expects Midship to address the restoration issues identified in this order in an expeditious manner. Failure to do so could mean that Midship is out of compliance with its Certificate order.”
Farmers and others had voiced complaints last year about Cheniere Energy’s construction on their land. As E & E News reported last week, their complaints led to the issue going before the Commission during its meeting on Friday.
It’s not the first time the complaints prompted the agency to take action over the pipeline.
After issuing Midship a certificate in August 2018 authorizing construction, work began in early 2019. On July 3, 2019, commission staff ordered a one month stop work order “due to concerns regarding Midship’s environmental compliance.”
Construction was allowed to resume when the commission gave approval on July 31, 2019 “after determining that Midship had satisfied the directives set forth in the stop work order.”
The installation of the line was completed in March 2020. The restoration work was halted in December 2020 due to winter conditions and Midship had informed FERC that the crews would remobilize in the Spring “to resolve any remaining or outstanding restoration issues.”
Click here to download FERC decision
