A landowners group on Monday sued the state over a new law related to compensation for the use of cavities in underground rock formations, calling it “a taking of the inalienable rights of North Dakota landowners.”
The Legislature this spring passed Senate Bill 2344, which sought to clarify issues surrounding “pore space.” The space — cavities in rock or soil — can be used to inject saltwater from oil and gas production or for enhanced oil recovery, a process that involves pumping carbon dioxide into old oilfields to extract more crude.
Under the law, which takes effect Thursday, some landowners cannot be compensated for their pore space when it is used for saltwater disposal or enhanced oil recovery, unless they have an existing contract, according to the lawsuit. Furthermore, landowners adjacent to a disposal well cannot make a claim that saltwater has migrated into their pore space.
The Northwest Landowners Association in its lawsuit filed Monday says the law “strips landowners of their right to possess and use the pore space within their lands and allows the State of North Dakota to directly redistribute that right to others without the consent of or compensation to the landowners.”
The association filed the suit in Bottineau County in the Northeast Judicial District, naming the state, Industrial Commission, Board of University and School Lands, the governor and the attorney general as defendants. The group is asking the court to overturn the law, claiming it violates the federal and state constitutions on due process and equal protection grounds, among others.
“The sad part of this for me is that I don’t believe any of this was necessary,” association board chairman Troy Coons said Monday. “This was an egregious and bald-faced taking that did not have to happen in this fashion.”