Lack of progress on shallow pipeline frustrates Scott County farmer

Duston Stone owns farmland just outside of Scott City. His property also includes the dirt underneath the farmland, save for where a trio of pipelines diagonally bisects it underground.

Enterprise Products Partners LP, a Houston-based energy company, owns two of the pipelines. Calgary, Alberta, energy company Enbridge Inc. owns the third. All three pipelines carry natural gas.

Both Enterprise and Enbridge have easements for the pipelines. Stone said he let both companies know the pipelines are too shallow on some portions of his property. There are only around 18 inches of dirt above the pipeline, and his farming equipment reaches 16 inches underground.

The property, located around Roth Drive just south of Scott City, has been in Stone’s family for generations. The family has had an agreement in place to host pipelines underneath their land since 1942. Stone said there is a good chance the pipelines could be hit through his regular farming practices, so he is working with the energy companies to come up with solutions and prevent potential catastrophe. If the pipeline is struck by farming equipment, he said it could cause damage that might lead to an explosion.

He has been in touch with company representatives for more than a year, he said, in an effort to reach a solution. So far, he has heard no concrete plan.

“There’s been no progress made,” Stone said. “Enterprise is trying to get some sort of plan in place from what I’ve been told, and Enbridge reached out last week and said they also want to get a plan put in place. But, as far as any actual work getting done or anything in writing … I’ve seen nothing.”

Art Haskins, a manager of stakeholder engagement for Enbridge, said the company knows where there is shallow cover over pipelines and communicates their findings to landowners.

“We identify it, communicate with them as landowners, and then we work with them for either not farming that area … or we look at some remediation process for either reburying the pipeline deeper or providing more cover so it can be safely farmed,” Haskins said.

He said the company is in touch with Stone and working toward a solution.

“There is no safety concern given the current situation. We just want to make sure there isn’t any nicks or bumps or scraping of the coating or anything like that in the farming process,” Haskins said. “We will continue to work with them so we can remediate it in whichever way works out for the both of us," he explained.

According to an email from Enterprise to Stone, the pipeline was not deemed an area of concern based on normal farming practices. The email said he should contact Enterprise before driving heavy equipment over the pipeline or making notable changes to the ground cover.

“We are now in the process of coordinating with the City and Mr. Stone to establish a schedule for conducting the work with a priority on making sure it does not interfere with the farming season,” Rick Rainey, Enterprise’s vice president of public relations, said in an email to the Southeast Missourian. “The process will involve the contractor adding fill dirt over the portion of the pipeline in question, making sure to follow existing contours in grading.”

The pipeline in question is on the western portion of Stone’s property. Enterprise conducted a depth of cover survey on the eastern side of Roth Drive in January 2024 and contended the pipeline there is buried at a safe depth.

Enterprise’s pipelines are constantly monitored from the company’s control center in Houston, Rainey said. An electronic surveillance system gathers data such as pipeline pressure, flow rates and the status of pumping equipment and valves.

Visual inspections, both aerial and terrestrial, are conducted on a regular basis to check the company’s right-of-ways.

Rainey said the company would continue to keep Stone and Scott City officials aware of progress being made regarding the pipeline.

“The city is going to support anything with getting this covered, and we’re going to stand behind whatever we need to do to make sure its done right and to protect our residents and our city and the surrounding people,” Scott City administrator Dustin Whitworth said during a visit to Stone’s farm to inspect pipeline maintenance in February.

Stone said lowering the pipeline, adding more dirt on top of it or coming to a non-farming agreement would all be acceptable solutions, though the latter could prove detrimental to his operation since there is no easy way to avoid farming the area the pipelines run under. Making matters worse, the soil is highly erodible. Most of the dirt added on top of the pipeline to cover it in the past has slid off.

Despite inquiring about the pipeline for more than a year, and with this year’s farming cycle in full swing, Stone said nothing has yet come to fruition.

He said he’s heard reports of shallow pipelines in other areas in the region, such as toward Kelso. In some places, he said the pipeline is even showing above ground.

“They talk about fixing it, but nothing ever gets fixed,” Stone said. “I call them probably twice a week to ask if they’ve come up with a plan yet. Still no plan.”