It’s been a decades long legal battle over natural gas rights in Reno, Kingman and Pratt Counties, and the latest could be written later next month. A commission appointed to decide how much a Nebraska gas company must pay for taking property from land owners will hold its first compensation hearing next month.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot issued a formal notice Wednesday that the hearing will take place April 15 in the federal courthouse in Wichita.
The public hearing is the latest proceeding in the legal fight stemming from gas seeping from the Cunningham Storage Field in Kansas. Nebraska-based Northern Natural Gas is condemning more than 9,100 acres including a portion of southern Reno County.
Property owners won a key legal victory earlier this month when Belot ruled Northern must pay “just compensation” for any storage gas and native gas under the Kansas acreage.
*The Associated Press Contributed To This Story