A Bergen-area resident recently organized a community meeting at the Sundre Legion to discuss concerns about TransCanada's proposed Sundre Crossover Pipeline.
Lance Greer owns a property located smack in the middle of the proposed pipeline's path. He told the Round Up he is concerned about being unable to develop his land and also expressed dissatisfaction regarding compensation.
"My main concern is from the very start I told them we have other plans for our property," he said on Friday, June 2 ahead of the informal meeting attended by about a dozen people.
"I think the pipeline will deflate the value and limit what I had in mind for my quarter."
For about 200 years, his section of land was wetland that in the 1970s was ditched out and dried, he said.
"So we've made an application to Alberta Environment to put it back into its original state, and now this pipeline would hinder that in order to put it back into a wetland like it always was."
For a similar reason, Greer said Mountain View County managed to negotiate an alternate route that bypassed the municipality's land.
"They (TransCanada) went around the county's land, but they didn't go around ours."
Additionally, he said the compensation offered by the company is a "pittance" compared with the potential devaluation of his property.
"It's a 42-inch line," he said, calling it a major project.
If there were for sale two identical pieces of land, except one had a pipeline and one did not, the vast majority of potential buyers would without question or hesitation choose the property without a pipeline, he said.
"The company says they don't devalue the land."
But there have been case studies emerging from the U.S. that have clearly shown pipelines can and do have a negative impact on a private property's value. Canada's laws regarding private property do not compare with the U.S., where some landowners have received compensation in the millions of dollars after appealing against much lower offers that were in the tens of thousands of dollars, he said.
TransCanada spokesperson Shawn Howard told the Round Up by email last week that the company's "experience indicates that property values are typically not affected by pipeline easements in the types of property along our proposed pipeline route."
"Because our offers were at or above market value for the land required, we have reached agreements with 90 per cent of the landowners along the proposed Sundre Crossover Pipeline project route."
TransCanada has operated in the Sundre area for more than 60 years, and the company recognizes that building energy infrastructure and facilities takes a great deal of effort and cooperation, he said.
"For this reason, we work closely with landowners to reach voluntary and reasonable agreements that are respectful and consistent, taking into consideration factors including potential crop losses incurred during construction, land use and access requirements, any specific agricultural and development operations or other special circumstances."
The proposed project calls for a 21-kilometre stretch of a natural gas pipeline that will deliver volumes from two existing pipelines. The plan is essentially to connect the Edson main line located northeast of Sundre and to deliver that gas onto the western Alberta main line system just south of the municipality.
Sundre's council heard last month from TransCanada representatives that plans for the project got underway about a year ago, starting with initial environmental studies as well as conversations with different stakeholders and landowners along the proposed route, including the Sundre Petroleum Operators Group.
"We are currently completing the environmental and socio-economic assessment, exploring contracting opportunities, and determining pipe stockpile and hydro testing sites. Timelines for the project continue to be aligned with what we communicated to council earlier," said Howard.
