(The following article by Dustin Bleizeffer was posted on the Casper Star-Tribune website on January 2.)
CASPER, Wyo. — Donley Darnell and Rick Wehri are ranchers in the Thunder Basin National Grassland in northeast Wyoming, where the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad plans to lay new track to the Powder River Basin coal mines.
When the railroad project first started rolling about 10 years ago, they went to Cheyenne to point out what they believed were inequities in Wyoming’s eminent domain laws.
“When we went down there and talked to the legislators, the railroad said they didn’t plan to use eminent domain, and that put a whole quash on the debate. Now, here we are eight years later being threatened with it,” Wehri said.
He said he received a letter from DM&E with a post date of Oct. 4 requesting access to his ranch as soon as possible, and the company asked for a response by Oct. 18. The railroad offered a one-time $200 payment for access to the entire ranch without specifying where it intended to survey, according to Wehri.
“We said we wanted to know where they wanted to go, and they fired back a letter and told us we were being uncooperative and that they’d see us in court,” Wehri said.
Darnell said the good-faith pledge that corporations recite to legislators seems forgotten when encountering a landowner who doesn’t take what’s offered. He said that kind of one-sided negotiation happens because there’s no formal process determine whether a company is negotiating in good faith.
“If DM&E wanted to condemn your house for their headquarters, there’s nothing stopping them from doing it,” Darnell said. “Why should this business have the right to say their business is more important than mine?”
Wehri said the prospect of going through eminent domain under Wyoming’s current laws weighs heavily on several families in northeast Wyoming. He asked: Is it fair that a rancher’s land can be taken for what’s appraised at agricultural value when it’s going to be used for an industrial purpose?
“It’s not fair market value, because it’s not for sale,” he said.