Okla. Farmers File Lawsuit To Force Midship Pipeline To Clean Up Land

Local farmers are taking on a federal agency and national pipeline company after trash started washing up on their farms.

This week, a consulting firm filed a lawsuit on behalf of 35 Oklahoma farmers and landowners.

Annette Schweitzer has several natural gas pipelines on her 400-acre farm in Canadian County near Calumet. However, she says the one Midship Pipeline put in back in 2019 is the only one showing signs above ground.

“You can tell exactly where the pipeline goes,” she said pointing at a dried-out part of her land. “It's not going to grow like it did because it's compacted.”

The land was destroyed by tons of construction debris allegedly buried by the company. Annette’s husband Mark walks the pipeline and says he still finds debris, six years later.

“They'll never get it all out of here there's no way, only way is to dig down past the pipeline and bring new dirt in,” he said.

Robert Squires is with Central Land Consulting (CLC), an advocate for farmers and landowners.

“The goal is to get their property fixed,” Squires said.

After years of monitoring Midship’s restoration efforts, Squires hopes a federal lawsuit will push the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require Midship to work with landowners to restore their properties.

“Every single property that we've gone out to there is more debris after Midship says it's cleaned up and it's not just a little piece here, a little there, I mean a lot of it is really pervasive,” Squires said. “That's something the farmers have to deal with every single day of their lives.”

Like Terry Luber in Kingfisher County. “It's just a losing battle,” Luber said.

Luber says something new always crops up like a trench and huge pieces of wood used during construction.

“This just needs to be exposed,” Luber said. “They've turned mine and many others into an illegal dumpsite.”

According to the lawsuit, the farmers are calling on FERC to require Midship to work with landowners to restore their properties within 90 days and if the commission fails to enforce that deadline, Midship’s certificate to operate will be vacated until the restoration work is complete.

The lawsuit goes on to read, “No more excuses. No more delays. The Commission has a clear duty under Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act and its own orders to ensure Midship restores these properties to their original condition and removes the construction debris improperly buried during installation.

In a statement, Midship Pipeline said, “Regarding the litigation in question, Midship has no comment.”