re: Pipeline on farmland

Even if not FERC regulated, they still have to comply with NEPA, and typically the US Army Corps is the lead agency if impact any wetlands or waterbodies. The Corps will coordinate with USFWS and the State Historic Preservation Officer before issuing a permit.

If they haven’t asked for survey access yet, then they are still in the routing stages of the project trying to determine who to cross. Talk to your neighbors regularly because they may move to the other side of your fence if it’s possible and then you are still dealing with construction but not getting anything.

A few other things, they can always make minor adjustments to avoid hitting things or to avoid bisecting a field, and they shouldn’t need anything more than a 50 foot permanent right-of-way for maintenance. Anything more than that needed for construction should be temporary workspace. If you can, specify that if the use changes the ROW must be renegotiated, and that if it sits idle for a certain amount of time it’s is considered abandoned and then specify whether they can abandon in place or if they need to remove it.