DM&E Railroad
Rapid City Journal, February 13, 2008
The South Dakota Senate has approved a measure intended to speed up state hearings on the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's application to acquire land by condemnation for its $6 billion expansion project.
An opponent said the bill could hurt landowners who believe DM&E is not treating them fairly, but the Senate sent the measure to the House on a 20-13 vote.
The bill's main sponsor, Sen. Tom Hansen, R-Huron, said DM&E applied more than a year ago for state approval to use eminent domain to acquire land for a right of way from people who are unwilling to sell. Opponents have used delaying tactics to prevent a state hearing, he said.
"The time has come to let the process move forward," Hansen said.
"Their concern was not to stop the railroad. Their concern was to get a decent price for what the railroad was taking," Lintz said.
DM&E wants to rebuild 600 miles of existing track across South Dakota and Minnesota and add 260 miles of new track around the southern end of the Black Hills to reach coal fields in Wyoming. The Powder river Basin project would haul low-sulfur coal eastward to power plants.
The state Transportation Commission has sought to hold a hearing on DM&E's application for authority to use eminent domain, but that hearing has been delayed after some hearing examiners were removed by both sides. Another delay was caused by a court order that required the commission to pass new rules for handling such cases.
-This article describes the issues in the DM&E Railroad acquisition process.
Here, we have not only a national railway but also a railway owned by a foreign railroad company.
The issues of equal protection, state's rights, interstate commerce and the state's interest in protecting individual rights of its owners all provide a conflict, which has created torturous litigation and a hostile community in a question over what controls the state has on a transportation process within a state.
