Are You Affected by the Aspen Midstream Gathering Lines Update

Aspen Midstream or AMP is expanding its system of gathering lines in Washington County and Burleson County. Landowner Condemnation Rights Attorney Philip Hund describes the project in this video, and he talks about what landowners should do if they’re affected. Call or text 800-266-4870 for an appointment. Appointments with Mr. Hundl can be in-person, by phone or online.

Aspen Midstream Project Map Referred to in the Video

Summary of the Aspen Midstream Gathering Lines Update Video

Hi, I’m Philip Hundl. I’m an attorney with a practice area focusing on representing landowners in various land-related litigation, primarily facing condemnation cases with either pipeline companies, power line companies or TxDOT. These condemnation cases can be attempting to acquire easements for pipeline or power lines or attempting to acquire fee simple for an expansion of a roadway.

With these videos, I’m trying to keep you up to date on different projects that we become aware of. One we’ve talked about in the past is Aspen Midstream or AMP. The different entity names include the AMP pipeline and the AMP Texas Pipeline, LLC. So today I’ll refer to them as AMP.

In the past we’ve had lots of experience with AMP. AMP is very active in the Fayette County, Washington County, and Austin County areas. There’s the Austin Chalk play is what it’s called. And they initially created their transmission line from the Eastern part of Washington County went through Austin County through Waller County down to what’s called the Katy processing facility. If I recall correctly that was a 30 inch line. So it was a large transmission line.

Right now and throughout Washington, Austin and Fayette County, primarily Washington County there are a lot of these gathering lines. We’ve assisted landowners with a lot of these gathering line projects throughout Washington County. As we all know about March of 2020, a lot of the activity in infrastructure development and pipeline development ceased or was put on hold or terminated or completely canceled. So we didn’t hear a whole lot about AMP.

Now AMP or Aspen Midstream is becoming a little bit more active on developing out their gathering line infrastructure in Washington County and in Burleson County. We’ve posted a map of the Aspen Midstream operations above. It’s been updated because they’ve been expanding and building out their infrastructure. What they’re working on building out is this Planned Rich Gathering Line Expansion in light blue on the map and the Planned Lean Gathering Expansion in light red.

Understand Your Rights as a Landowner Before You Give Them to a Pipeline Company Through an Easement Agreement

So if you’re one of these landowners affected you need to understand your rights and their obligations to you. Please understand that an easement agreement creates rights for the pipeline company. It is a document in which you, the landowner give rights to a grantee — in this case it would be AMP. AMP is seeking and easement from most landowners.

You have to understand what that easement agreement does and does not do. Oftentimes there are some miscommunications between the pipeline company represented by right-of-way acquisition agents and landowners. So it’s really important to know what the documents say that you will be executing and signing.

Before you agree to a pipeline and you grant a pipeline easement, it’s extremely important to know your rights. Meeting with an attorney is the best way to understand your rights and understand the terms in a pipeline easement agreement. Talk with an attorney who focuses on this type of practice, — a lawyer who represents landowners facing condemnation. Many of these pipeline companies will eventually use the procedure of condemnation and the power of eminent domain to acquire these easements.

There are other situations where the pipeline companies decide not to use the power of eminent domain and go through the condemnation proceeding. They just attempt to reach easement agreements voluntarily with landowners.

So you need to know the scenario that you’re under and what are they seeking to essentially buy from you if it’s voluntary. If it’s involuntary, the question is what are they intending to take from me? What are you willing to sell to them in the negotiations? What are they willing to pay for? That’s all part of the acquisition of pipeline easements by these pipeline companies.

If You’re Affected by the Aspen Midstream Gathering Lines Please Contact an Attorney

So if you’re contacted by a right-of-way or acquisition agent for AMP or Aspen Midstream, you should contact a knowledgeable attorney. In the past Aspen Midstream has used a right-of-way acquisition company called Defined Land Management. They’ve got quite a few right-of-way agents at that company. If you’re a landowner affected by this project you need to know your rights. The best way to do that is to contact an experienced landowner rights attorney who can explain the process and your rights. Good luck.

Call or text 800-266-4870 for an appointment with Mr. Hundl. Our appointments can be online, in-person or by phone. Our law firm, Wadler, Perches, Hundl & Kerlick has offices in locations across Matagorda, Wharton and Fort Bend Counties in Southeast Texas. We help clients all over Texas.

Related Links

• Are You Affected by the Oryx Midstream Pipeline Project
• Will Your Land be Affected by the AMP Gathering Lines
• What’s the AMP NGL Pipeline?
• Are You Impacted by the AMP Yellow Jacket Pipeline
• What’s the AMP Pipeline