Before you buy a house it is easy to see if a pipeline is nearby. Just drive around and look for the line markers. By law they are required at every street and fence crossing.

Also, no one can build right on top of a line since no pipeline company will let them. Lines are usually inspected twice a week by a low flying aircraft, and if the pilot spots an 'intrusion' he calls the pipeline operator, who is sometimes still called a 'Dispatcher', and reports it. A line operator is then dispatched to inform the landowner that they are not allowed by the terms of their deed to build anything over the line. Driveways are sometimes exempt, but they cannot be made from concrete. Only asphalt or gravel.

But you can build very close... I have seen houses built with-in four feet of the line. Not the edge of the right-of-way but the line itself.

The lines were normally put into the ground many years ago when the land was way out in the country since getting a right-of-way through a town has always been tough and getting an easement from a farmer has always been easy. Urban sprawl has caused homes to be built as close to the lines as is legally possible.

I am glad I don't own a home near a line as I am sure they are going to be hard to sell until people forget about this disaster.