Hand County planning and zoning leans toward 2‑mile setback for hazardous liquid pipelines

Members of the Hand County Planning and Zoning Board spent most of their meeting revisiting a proposed amendment to the county zoning ordinance that would regulate hazardous liquid pipelines and establish setback distances from dwellings and other sensitive sites.

The discussion focused on whether the draft should retain a separate category called “high consequence area” (a term used by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, PHMSA) or instead set a single, county‑wide minimum setback. Board members and staff said they are leaning toward a plainly stated 2‑mile minimum setback measured from the center line of a proposed hazardous liquid pipeline to the nearest point of a residence, school, church or municipal boundary, and removing the separate “high consequence” wording from the county draft.

Why it matters: a larger setback would change where pipeline companies can place new lines in mostly rural parts of Hand County and could affect private wells, confined livestock operations and municipal areas such as the City of Miller. Board members also said the county needs a clear, defensible rationale for any setback in case a company challenges…