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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Ind. Courts - "Suit challenges U.S. Steel power lines along lake"

Joe Carlson of the NWI Times had an interesting story Monday about efforts to rid the Lake Michigan lakeshore of U.S Steel's transmission lines. Some quotes:

In efforts to redevelop the region's lakeshore so the public can enjoy it, many officials and business leaders find a common barrier -- the string of massive power lines along the shoreline.

Hammond city leaders have been working through the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority to get the power lines buried so beachgoers and condo developers can use the land.

The authority is funding a $1.2 million study of ways to improve the shoreline, including a review of the costs of removing -- or at least hiding -- U.S. Steel's transmission lines, which run through the area known on planning maps as the Marquette Greenway. * * *

But one local casino argues it has found a different answer buried in the fine print of a 1954 easement held within company archives.

Majestic Star Casino today sits on land once owned by the Universal Atlas Cement Co., which in 1939 gave the steel company, then known as Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp., the right to build the power lines across its property, a lawsuit filed in Hammond federal court says.

The lawsuit filed by Majestic against U.S. Steel includes a copy of an original 1954 renewal of the power line easement that says the steelmaker must remove the lines at its own expense if the company does not use the lines for five consecutive years.

"U.S. Steel has not used the equipment for at least five consecutive years," Majestic's suit says. The casino is represented by Indianapolis law firm Ice Miller LLP.

Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr., who was not aware of the lawsuit until asked about it Thursday, said the power lines have not been energized in many years.

The ILB has acquired copies of the complaint filed April 24, 2008 in the case of The Majestic Star Casino, LLC v. U.S. Steel (including a copy of the 1954 easement between Universal Atlas Cement and U.S. Steel), and U.S. Steel's answer, entered 6/16/08.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on July 15, 2008 01:12 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts