“Co-locating” the pipeline along existing rights of way is always the company’s first choice. Also, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission prefers companies to co-locate their pipelines within or adjacent to existing rights of way where possible. But oftentimes co-location is just not feasible for a variety of reasons:
- Existing rights of way may not go in the direction the pipeline needs to go.
- Following existing rights-of-way might require additional easements because the width of the existing right-of-way may not be wide enough to for another pipeline.
- The terrain might be unsuitable for a pipeline or the environmental conditions may have changed from the time the original right-of-way was established.