Apparently the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) has become jealous of all the attention I’ve been showing Ameren lately, and has decided to make a play for the number one spot on my list of most hated public utilities.

We live in a world of easements. [easement, noun: an interest in land owned by another that entitles its holder to a specific limited use or enjoyment] Public utilities justify the existence of easements because of the potential benefit to everyone. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, as they see it. That would be bad enough, but the reality is, even though by law an easement means co-ownership, or jointly held rights to a piece of land, the public utility has full ownership of *all* land, and it is up to them which land they allow you to use and which land they keep for themselves. So it is far from a 50-50 proposition. For if a utility has a use for a piece of your property, it will become an easement and under their exclusive control, regardless of your feelings on the matter. Does that sound like co-ownership to you?

Craig Berry is a nice enough fellow. He is a Right of Way Agent for MSD and he recently came to my house to “negotiate” an easement on a piece of my property. He actually used the word “negotiate,” and I can tell by the way he said it that he really believes that this is what he does. His job is to “negotiate” easements. I asked him if I don’t have the option of saying no, is it really a negotiation? He didn’t have an answer. That’s because his job is easement acquisition. Using his brain, and actually thinking about what his job means to the rights of individuals, is not a part of his job description.

I’ll keep you posted as this saga unfolds. The work is not even scheduled yet, but eventually MSD will be tearing up my back yard to put in a new sewer line, and I have absolutely no say in whether or not it happens. So my question is, why bother calling it an easement? Why pretend that the rights to my property are jointly held? Does that make it easier for the Craig Berry’s of the world to sleep at night? I’d prefer a little honesty. Just call it what it is: seizure of private property without regard to the rights of the property owner. I think that’s called theft.