Couple fight to shield trees from damage by oil pipeline

Keith and Anna Glanzer of Elko planted each of their trees with love, part of their dream to turn a hillside in front of their Scott County farm green with evergreens.

Their two grown kids and their friends helped dig the holes, plant the trees, and water them as the spruces put down roots on the 65-acre farm.

Now, hundreds of the young spruces stand in dark splendor against the snow at the couple's farm. But these and older, taller spruces that line the front of their farm could soon be uprooted as a refinery-led project cuts through 14 Minnesota counties to bury a new pipeline.

The $300 million MinnCan pipeline project runs 304 miles through Minnesota from Clearbrook to Rosemount. The system begins in Alberta, Canada, where rich deposits of heavy-crude oil are mined in the tar sands area, and ends in the south metro. The 24-inch pipe will carry 420,000 gallons of crude oil each day, expanding the current system to meet a growing consumer appetite for petroleum products.

The Glanzers say that transplanting their 550 trees, which are worth upwards of $100,000, might kill many. They want to save them not just for their beauty as they line the entrance to the farm, nor just for the shelter the family's trees provide for bluebirds, bunnies and other wildlife. The Glanzers see the trees as symbolic of the pastoral lifestyle that they worked so hard to achieve. And for them, the trees have sentimental value that's priceless.

"It's our children's heritage," Anna Glanzer said.

For now, they've won a reprieve. Tiny red flags, on either side of a big stand of pines, mark where a subcontractor has deemed there will be no work.

The Glanzers say they're praying that the pipeline, set for construction this summer, will not cross through their property. Under the state's eminent domain laws, energy companies can take land to use for pipelines, as long as homeowners are compensated.

The Glanzers are among property owners upset over the MinnCan project, run by Minnesota Pipeline Co. That's a venture of Twin Cities refiners Flint Hills Resources, Marathon Pipe Line LLC and TROF Inc. Flint Hills is a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc.

For 30 years, the Glanzers have raised crops and horses on this rolling farmland. These days, they're seeking help from elected officials. Yet even Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who replied to a letter the family wrote, said he could not help because eminent domain was involved.

"You feel empathy when you read about this happening to people, but now it's happened to us," Anna Glanzer said. "It can happen to you."

Since work halted Feb. 8, after the Glanzers complained, they hired an arborist who mapped and measured the trees, and determined their health and value. Keith Glanzer said the pipeline company has not made them an offer.

Most landowners reach deals

Dunn said the MinnCan project, begun in 2006, has reached agreements with 87 percent of the owners of 1,100 affected parcels in Minnesota.

"Thirteen percent have not reached agreements and eminent domain could be involved," she said, "but conversations are continuing even now with those people."

The Glanzers want MinnCann to remove and replant the trees. The trouble is, they can't ever again plant trees on the 50-foot wide pipeline easement.

The couple needed to get an appraisal as the project moved forward. But they were angered, they said, to learn that the state won't reimburse them for the arborist's $5,000 bill for an appraisal because energy companies are involved. Such appraisals are covered in other kinds of eminent domain proceedings involving municipalities, for example, but not those involving pipelines, the Glanzers said.

The Glanzers agree with that cause.

"The law has to be changed so at least people who get appraisals can be reimbursed and paid the value of the trees before they are taken," Keith Glanzer said.

It's a final slap, he said, "when you have to pay for appraisals to protect yourself."

This is the first of an occasional look at how the pipeline will affect residents of Dakota and Scott counties. If it affects you, please contact Joy Powell.