Joy Weyer, clerk, and Richard Sorgert, resident, appeared before the Wadena County Board on May 4 on behalf of Thomastown Township to ask the county to help them get Minnesota Pipeline Company to survey all the easements it has in Thomastown Township so that residents can understand how much of their land the pipeline company controls.

The county board, at its May 4 session, chose to not take any action other than to set up a committee to study how serious the problem was throughout the state.

Currently, according to Weyer and Sorgert, a vaguely worded 1954 blanket easement allows Minnesota Pipeline Company the right to add additional pipes anywhere they choose on the landowners’ land.

Landowners, they said, don’t know where they would be allowed to place new buildings, grow crops, and use their land in other ways, because of the vagueness of the easement language.

After extensive discussion, County Attorney Kyra Ladd advised Weyer and Sorgert that the county has no claim against the pipeline company, and takes no official position on the situation. Chair Bill Stearns agreed, and it was the consensus of the board to set up a committee to discuss the matter. Ladd will find out what other jurisdictions are doing about the vague language.

The pipeline stretches 304 miles through Minnesota, from the city of Clearbrook in Clearwater County, to the Flint Hills Resources refinery in Rosemont, in Dakota County. Along the way, it passes through Hubbard, Wadena, Todd, Morrison, Stearns, Meeker, Wright, McLeod, Carver, Sibley, Scott and Dakota counties.

While a number of farmers, residents, and environmentalists tried to prevent Koch Industries (the parent company of Minnesota Pipe Line Company, which owns the pipeline) from building their most recent project, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission granted a permit for it in April 2007. The newest pipeline, the third one in the pipeline’s right of way, was completed in September 2008. Testing and restoration continued through December 2008.

In other business, the county board:

o APPROVED the date of June 1, 2010, for a fee public hearing to consider adding several new fees and increasing other fees at the county’s transfer station.

o LEARNED from Wadena Solid Waste Administrator Mike Hanan that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has found two wells contaminated with vinyl chloride in the vicinity of the demolition landfill. The MPCA, the city of Wadena, and Wadena County will cooperate to dig test pits and take other actions designed to determine the source of the contamination during the next few months.

o APPROVED the advertising of a new part-time permanent position at the transfer station.

The next meeting of the Wadena County Board will be at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 20, at the courthouse.