A Conway County landowner filed a challenge to the proposed Diamond Pipeline project, arguing the company behind the project should not have the power of eminent domain.
Attorneys for Clayton Rogers, who owns property in Conway County, claim in a lawsuit filed last week that Diamond Pipeline LLC, whose parent company is Plains All American Pipeline of Houston, has said that it can condemn private property to obtain easements if Rogers doesn’t allow the company to use his land.
Rogers is represented by attorneys Ben Caruth of Morrilton and Erik Danielson of Fayetteville.
The company expects to begin construction on the $900 million pipeline later this year. The 440-mile pipeline would transport crude oil from Cushing, Oklahoma, to Memphis.
Caruth and Danielson allege that the line would be of no public use to anyone in Arkansas and that the company would be using the pipeline for private economic development.
The attorneys are asking the court to find that the project is not for a public use, as required by law for invoking eminent domain, that Diamond Pipeline is not a “common carrier” and that the line would be used only for private enrichment.
The company has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
This isn’t the first challenge to the Diamond Pipeline project. In January, a group of landowners in Johnson County, some of whom are also represented by Danielson, filed a similar lawsuit against the company. That case is pending.
