{"id":38644,"date":"2014-09-22T11:31:43","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T16:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=38644"},"modified":"2014-09-22T11:31:43","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T16:31:43","slug":"oil-gas-trouble-in-texas-ranchland-whose-road-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/09\/22\/oil-gas-trouble-in-texas-ranchland-whose-road-is-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Oil &#038; Gas Trouble In Texas Ranchland: Whose Road Is It?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_38646\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-38646\" alt=\"Joel Rodriguez is the County Commissioners Court Judge in LaSalle County\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/Joel-Rodriguez-is-the-County-Commissioners-Court-Judge-in-LaSalle-County-300x199.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/Joel-Rodriguez-is-the-County-Commissioners-Court-Judge-in-LaSalle-County-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/Joel-Rodriguez-is-the-County-Commissioners-Court-Judge-in-LaSalle-County-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/09\/Joel-Rodriguez-is-the-County-Commissioners-Court-Judge-in-LaSalle-County.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\"> <\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joel Rodriguez is the County Commissioners Court Judge in LaSalle County<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Railroad Commission of Texas\u00a0<a title=\"RRC hearing notice\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rrc.state.tx.us\/legal\/rules\/proposed-rules\/public-comment-hearing-set-for-proposed-amendments-to-370\/\">will meet Monday morning<\/a>\u00a0to consider an issue of huge importance to landowners across Texas. It has to do with how the state oversees energy companies that need\u00a0<a title=\"Eminent domain \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/eminent-domain\/\">access to private land<\/a>. At issue at the hearing will be pipelines for oil &amp; gas.<\/p>\n<p>But there are other land use issues emerging in the hot plays including the Eagle Ford shale of South Texas. One local dispute involves one particular county road, Hindes Road. It\u2019s in LaSalle County, which lies halfway between San Antonio and the Mexican border.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/168452533&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it rains, it has standing water and mud holes where you need four-wheel-drive,\u201d said Steven Mafrige, who lives on a nearby ranch.<\/p>\n<p>Ranchers have always shared the land with energy companies: They make money together. But this oil &amp; gas boom is like nothing ever seen here before. And maybe that\u2019s why this little road has become a source of conflict.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery rancher, landowner on Hindes Road has signed a petition,\u201d said Mafrige.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve signed a petition against the county taking over Hindes road. Because while the first few miles of the road are already county-owned, the road comes to a locked gate and the rest continues on private property.<\/p>\n<p>But why so much concern?<\/p>\n<p>The private road bisects land holding a growing number oil wells.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month at a district court hearing in the LaSalle County courthouse, attorneys for the Hindes family argued against the county taking over what they said was a private road belonging to the Hindeses.<\/p>\n<p>But LaSalle County\u2019s lawyers argued the county had a right to make the road public. Otherwise, the county said it\u2019d be like allowing landowners to act as toll bridge operators, charging all those trucks to get to the oil and gas that benefits the public.<\/p>\n<p>The county\u2019s lawyer, Chris Johns, told News 88.7 outside court he wasn\u2019t alleging that the Hindeses were actually doing that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019re still deciding and analyzing whether it\u2019s been a county road or a public road from a long time back,&#8221; said Johns.<\/p>\n<p>Also attending the hearing was Joel Rodriguez, the LaSalle County Commissioners Court Judge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing is your county changes. You see all this development? It\u2019s changing, access changes,\u201d said Rodriguez.<\/p>\n<p>Deciding who gets access is at the root of an increasing number of land disputes in Texas where drilling has surged.<\/p>\n<p>Eric Opiela is a lawyer whose family ranches in South Texas and is a member of the\u00a0<a title=\"Association website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.stpra.org\/\">South Texans&#8217; Property Rights Association<\/a>. He recently ran unsuccessfully for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If it\u2019s your property you have the right to control access as you see fit and charge for that access,&#8221; said Opiela.<\/p>\n<p>He said it\u2019s also about preserving a way of life where your land &#8230; is your land.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not that landowners want ever increasing amounts of money as some people try to characterize it. They want to make sure they can continue a way of life that they\u2019ve had in their families for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Railroad Commission of Texas\u00a0will meet Monday morning\u00a0to consider an issue of huge importance to landowners across Texas. It has to do with how the state oversees energy companies that need\u00a0access to private land. At issue at the hearing will be pipelines for oil &amp; gas. But there are other land use issues emerging in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[59],"tags":[214,21,50],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38644"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38648,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38644\/revisions\/38648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}