USN Pipeline Suits Settled

By Walter F. Roche

Three longstanding lawsuits centered on a pipeline from Midway to the Noliuchucky River have been settled but details are being kept confidential despite the involvement of two public agencies.
Notice of one of the settlements was filed this week in Chancery Court in Nashville. That litigation challenged the legality of a permit issued by the Tennessee Department of Transportation to allow the construction of the pipeline along the rights-of-way of two state highways.
A docket entry in the case dated today states,"Agreed Final Order and Joint Stipulation of Dismissal."
Elizabeth Murphy, the Nashville attorney representing landowners who filed the suit said a settlement had been reached but all details were being kept confidential as part of the settlement agreement.
The agreement also ends litigation in Greene County which had charged US Nitrogen and other parties with trespass when they installed the pipeline. The suit also charges the pipeline trespasses on property owned by Don Bible and Jack Renner.'
In a statement issued in response to questions about the settlement, Bible said the agreement barred him from discussing details.
Bible said in a statement that the three lawsuits "have never been about the money, although a substantial amount was involved in the settlement and now paid by the defendants."
"The lawsuits have been about deception and trespassing on private property at gun point," he said adding that arrangement that led to the litigation occurred when some public officials were led to believe one thing when an entirely different plan was being secretly implemented."
The defendants in the litigation included the Industrial Development Board of Greeneville and Greene County, TDOT and US Nitrogen. IDB officials could not be reached today for comment.
The settlement comes as US Nitrogen has applied to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for the renewal of one of the permits that allows the company to pump up to a million gallons of water a day from the Nolichucky. The water is drawn through the disputed pipeline.
A return line along the same route returns unused water to the river. The water is used in the manufacture of ammonium nitrate. That chemical is then used by US Nitrogen's parent, Austin Powder, in the production of explosives. Recently US Nitrogen also disl=cclsoed plans to produce yet another chemical on the same site.
Renner and Bible have charged that US Nitrogen installed the pipeline on portions of their property and that any right-of-way was no longer in existence due to gradual widening of the roadways. The installation took place with the assistance of armed guards.
Bible has also charged that the pipeline deal was made possible by an agreement by US Nitrogen to purchase property from J.W. Douthat, the now deceased former member of the IDB. Though he abstained on one pipeline vote, Douthat later voted in favor of a measure allowing the deal to go forward.
US Nitrogen did purchase two properties from a Douthat company for a total of nearly $1 million. It later sold off one of those parcels at a substantial loss. It had paid Douthat Properties $851,251 for the 78.7 acre property and later sold it for $550,000