KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — The Kaufman County Commissioners’ Court approved contract negotiations with a Dallas-based law firm to represent the county in a lawsuit against Seaway Crude Pipeline Company and its contractors for alleged damages to county roads.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — The Kaufman County Commissioners’ Court approved contract negotiations with a Dallas-based law firm to represent the county in a lawsuit against Seaway Crude Pipeline Company and its contractors for alleged damages to county roads.
In an unanimous vote on September 14, 2015, the commissioners authorized the Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office to negotiate a contract with Dallas-based Squire, Patton, and Boggs in the proposed lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages to county roads. The contract will be presented to the commissioners at a later date for final approval.
Seaway Pipeline, and its contractors, had a $250,000 bond to complete work on the Seaway loop, or twin, crude oil pipeline —a joint venture between Enterprise Products Parnters and Enbridge Inc.— through Kaufman County. The pipeline, which was completed in 2014, ran parallel to an existing 512-mile, 30-inch Seaway Pipeline from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Texas Gulf Coast.
The pipeline entered northern Kaufman County and crossed under State Highway (SH) 205 just south of Airpark East Airport near Farm-to-Market (FM) 548. From there, it continued south under Spur 557 and Interstate 20 where the pipeline entered the right-of-way of the existing pipeline — approximately a quarter of a mile east of County Road (CR) 305.
An approximate 3-mile section of the pipeline north of U.S. Highway 175 is also separated into two different right-of-ways but joins again just south of U.S. Highway 175. This section of the pipeline travels west of Kaufman, Texas, near the U.S. Highway 175 and the SH 243 intersection.
The pipeline runs through the southern portion of the county approximately 3 miles east of downtown Scurry, Texas, and 7 miles west of downtown Kemp, Texas. The pipelines exit the county near the intersection of CR 4072 and CR 4066.
Seaway is facing similar lawsuits in other counties, in Texas and Oklahoma, along the pipeline’s route including in Pontotoc County in Oklahoma where commissioners estimate pipeline construction damage their county roads to the tune of $845,000, according to News 12 KXII.
