Olympic has pledged to make sure the pipeline is safe before reopening it, including running special tests and inspections. It has yet to respond to the city's demands, but the company and the city are negotiating. Bellingham does have some advantages. For one thing, the city's franchise agreement with Olympic expired in 1994 and, because of an oversight, it hasn't been renewed. For another, the pipeline passes through city-owned land, including where the rupture occurred.
Pipelines have the right of eminent domain in Washington and most other states.
Private property owners may object, but a pipeline company can almost always go to court and win the right to go through their land. That right is less clear when pipelines go through government-owned land. In Montana, a tribal government used its governmental authority three years ago to tell the Yellowstone Pipe Line Co. to leave the Flathead Reservation, citing repeated leaks on reservation land. Since then, the pipeline company has used railroads to carry petroleum products part of the way from the refineries in Billings to customers in Eastern Washington. The company is trying to get permission for a new route through a national forest in Montana.