Pipeline companies must file permit petitions, hold informational meetings, give advance notice, and avoid negotiating easements before the meeting.
1. A pipeline company doing business in this state shall file with the commission its verified petition asking for a permit to construct, maintain, and operate its pipeline or lines along, over, or across the public or private highways, grounds, waters, and streams of any kind of this state. Any pipeline company now owning or operating a pipeline in this state shall be issued a permit by the commission upon supplying the information as provided for in section 479.6. 2. A pipeline company doing business in this state and proposing to engage in underground storage of gas within this state shall file with the commission its verified petition asking for a permit to construct, maintain, and operate facilities for the underground storage of gas to include the construction, placement, maintenance, and operation of machinery, appliances, fixtures, wells, pipelines, and stations necessary for the construction, maintenance, and operation of the gas underground storage facilities. 3. a. A pipeline company shall hold informational meetings in each county in which real property or property rights will be affected at least thirty days prior to filing the petition for a new pipeline. A member of the commission or a person designated by the commission shall serve as the presiding officer at each meeting, shall present an agenda for the meeting which shall include a summary of the legal rights of the affected landowners, and shall distribute and review the statement of individual rights required under section 6B.2A. A formal record of the meeting shall not be required. b. The meeting shall be held at a location reasonably accessible to all persons, companies, or corporations which may be affected by the granting of the permit. 4. a. The pipeline company seeking the permit for a new pipeline shall give notice of the informational meeting to each person determined to be a landowner affected by the proposed project and each person in possession of or residing on the property. For the purposes of the informational meeting, “landowner” means a person listed on the tax assessment rolls as responsible for the payment of real estate taxes imposed on the property and “pipeline” means a line transporting a solid, liquid, or gaseous substance, except water, under pressure in excess of one hundred fifty pounds per square inch and extending a distance of not less than five miles or having a future anticipated extension of an overall distance of five miles. b. The notice shall set forth the name of the applicant; the applicant’s principal place of business; the general description and purpose of the proposed project; the general nature of the right-of-way desired; the possibility that the right-of-way may be acquired by condemnation if approved by the commission; a map showing the route of the proposed project; a description of the process used by the commission in making a decision on whether to approve a permit including the right to take property by eminent domain; that the landowner has a right to be present at such meeting and to file objections with the commission; and a designation of the time and place of the meeting. The notice shall be served by certified mail with return receipt requested not less than thirty days previous to the time set for the meeting, and shall be published once in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. The publication shall be considered notice to landowners whose residence is not known and to each person in possession of or residing on the property provided a good faith effort to notify can be demonstrated by the pipeline company. 5. A pipeline company seeking rights under this chapter shall not negotiate or purchase any easements or other interests in land in any county known to be affected by the proposed project prior to the informational meeting. [C31, §8338-d3; C35, §8338-f18; C39, §8338.26; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, §490.5; C77, 79, 81, §479.5] 88 Acts, ch 1074, §29; 95 Acts, ch 192, §7; 2000 Acts, ch 1179, §24, 30; 2014 Acts, ch 1026, §109; 2022 Acts, ch 1032, §77, 78; 2024 Acts, ch 1170, §369 Referred to in §6B.2A, 479.30