Help Protect an Ohio Family Farm

Union County farmers, Don Bailey and his son Patrick, need help protecting an agricultural easement that was donated to the Ohio Department of Agriculture by their ancestor. Columbia Gas has notified them of its intention to construct a high pressure gas line across the middle of the family farm, thereby defeating the purpose of the agricultural easement.

The 230-acre Bailey/Renner farm has been continuously owned and operated by the same family for over 150 years. The current residents, Don and Patrick and their families, are the sixth generation to live on and farm this historic property. In addition to being conservation-minded farmers, the Baileys are both decorated combat veterans of their generation’s respective wars in Viet Nam and Iraq.

Arno Renner, Don’s uncle and the grandson of the first owner of the farm, Johann Rausch, saw himself as a guardian of the family legacy that the land represented. To protect the land that he farmed for more than 60 years, he formed the Arno Renner Trust and donated an agricultural easement for the 230-acre farm to the State of Ohio’s Agricultural Easement Donation Program administered by the Ohio Department of Agriculture. In return, the State of Ohio pledged a guarantee to forever protect the donated agricultural easement.

The agricultural legacy of the farm is now in jeopardy due to Columbia Gas’s plans to construct a gas pipeline. Even though the agricultural easement clearly prohibits the installation of utilities that will not serve the farm and also prohibits the disruption of soils, the Ohio Department of Agriculture is refusing to defend the agricultural easement as it promised. This refusal to challenge Columbia Gas is a drastic change from the position taken by the Ohio Department of Agriculture in the past. In 2005, the state of Ohio opposed the City of Marysville’s threat to use eminent domain to install a large sewer line across the farm. The State worked with the City to find an alternate route that achieved the project’s goals and protected the preserved farm by keeping the sewer line in the existing public road right-of-way. The state supported the protected status of the farm again in 2008, when it opposed a private developer’s attempt, supported by Union County, to install a water line across the farm. At that time, the Ohio Attorney General wrote in a legal opinion that the proposed placement of the water main was “counter to the preservation of the Bailey property as farmland.” The developer and the County were able to find an alternate route that achieved the project’s goals while protecting the preserved farm by keeping the water main in the existing public road right-of-way.

In the fall of 2019, Columbia Gas began investigating three possible routes for a new natural gas transmission main to service new industry in southern Union County, which had become the fastest growing in the state. Intent on maximizing corporate profits, Columbia Gas quickly chose the route that would avoid other more expensive parcels and would extend a mile in length right through the middle of the preserved property. The Baileys knew the language of the agricultural easement clearly prohibited such a project, and they were confident that the State of Ohio would follow the earlier precedents to protect the farm. But without explanation, the State has turned its back on them.

Now Columbia Gas has filed a “notice of intent to appropriate” to begin the legal process to seize a swath through the protected land through eminent domain, and the State seems satisfied to quietly let it happen. In stark contrast to the past, the Baileys now stand alone against one of Ohio’s most powerful corporations. If the Baileys don’t put up a vigorous legal defense, Columbia Gas will simply take what they want through eminent domain, without regard for the State’s original promise written into the agricultural easement that the land would be protected forever. If this were to happen, it would set a dangerous new precedent that would weaken the protections of preserved properties everywhere, particularly regarding agricultural easements held by the Ohio Department of Agriculture, and make them attractive targets for every future development project across the entire state.

The raised funds will be used only for the legal defense of the protected property and 100% of any funds not needed for that purpose will be donated to non-profit Ohio land trust organizations to provide for the legal defense of other protected farms in the future. If you can’t contribute financially, you can still get into the fight by contacting your State representatives and demanding that the State of Ohio keep its promises.

Several articles in news media outlets chronicle portions of this story where the State of Ohio failed to fulfill its obligations and follow the rule of law.

[Link to Ohio Farm and Dairy Article]- https://www.farmanddairy.com/news/pipeline-project-pits-union-co-family-against-state/637857.html

[Link to Ohio Country Journal Article] - https://ocj.com/2020/10/is-the-future-of-ohio-farmland-preservation-at-stake-in-union-county/

[Link to Ohio Country Journal Podcast 10/5/20] - https://ocj.com/2020/10/ohios-country-journal-ohio-ag-net-podcast-ep-174-ohioans-helping-iowans/

[Link to Ohio Farmer Article] - https://www.farmprogress.com/land-management/pipeline-predicament