Latest legal skirmish in a long battle between activists and the company building the pipeline, which is also behind Keystone XL

Landowners in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin have filed suit against the company building the controversial Bayou Bridge pipeline for trespassing and property damage, claiming that it did not obtain legal authority before running stretches of the nearly completed pipeline through their property.

It’s the latest legal skirmish in a long battle between Louisiana activists and Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), which is also behind the the more well-known Dakota Access pipeline, and one that advocates hope might shutter the nearly completed 160-mile stretch of pipe before it goes live.

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“I’m outraged that private individuals have trespassed on this land and have destroyed it – a private company who acts as though they are above the law,” said Katherine Aaslestad, one of three landowners named in the suit. “My objective is to be a steward of the land, to protect it from the devastation caused by pipeline development … and to encourage other landowners to stand up for their rights.”

According to landowners, the pipeline construction involved the cutting down of numerous trees and the accumulations of sediment left over from digging the trench where the pipeline runs.

The company was in the process of trying to use the controversial doctrine of eminent domain to “expropriate” the land, which allows the government to seize land for the public good. But according to the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the company never actually finished the legal process of having the land turned over before starting to build. Construction in the 38 acres owned by landowners in the suit occurred over this summer.

“The corporation didn’t even wait for permission from the court to construct the property. They didn’t even wait to get compensation [for], or written permission from all the co-owners,” said CCR attorney Bill Quigley. “They trespassed onto this property and constructed this pipeline without legal authority to do so,” he continued.

Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, which is fighting the pipeline, said ETP’s strategy was to make minimal, “feeble” attempts to find and contact land owners, because when they cannot be found, it initiates a much more favorable negotiation process with the state.

Their claims are scheduled to be heard by a state judge on Friday, who could theoretically order ETP to deconstruct stretches of pipeline built illegally, but advocates concede this is unlikely. ETP told the Guardian it does not comment on current or pending legal matters.

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Beyond just not waiting until the expropriation process was complete, the landowners are also arguing that it shouldn’t be granted in the first place. Theoretically, eminent domain only allows the government to seize land for “public use”, and the suit argues that a privately operated pipeline does not meet that criteria.

“It is the people of Louisiana,” said landowner Peter Aaslestad, “who will bear the hazards of the pipeline, while the considerable profits will go straight into the pockets of shareholders.”

Greatest among the hazards are, of course oil spills, to which ETP is no stranger. According to a Greenpeace report, between 2002 and 2017 ETP pipelines, and those owned by its partners and subsidiaries, experienced more than 500 separate breaches, or once every eleven days, and spilled 3.6m gallons of hazardous liquids – mostly crude oil. Thats an environmental hazard anywhere, but especially in the fast eroding swamp, marsh and bayou wetlands of southern Louisiana, which are especially vulnerable.

The pipeline has also drawn scorn for cutting through land considered sacred to the United Houma Nation, and for devastating navigability for craw fisherman who fish the region. Finally its eastern flank runs by a poor and predominantly black community sometimes colloquially known as “cancer alley” for incredibly high rates of sickness and disease which many attribute to a glut of nearby chemical plants, and where more possibilities for contamination are unwelcome.

The resistance to the pipeline has taken the form of direct action, lawsuits, political lobbying and even a floating arts camp known as L’eau est la vie, and has engaged a diverse hodgepodge of southern Louisianans.

However, the latest suit is quite different and broader in scope from the others, said Quigley.

The landowners in the suit are claiming the matter is actually a constitutional issue of the plaintiffs being denied their right to due process and right to property.

“Nobody has really raised the constitutional issues that have been raised in this case, nobody has really fought it,” said Quigley.

During Friday’s anticipated pretrial hearing the judge in the case can accept or deny the landowners’ suit outright, or push it to a full trial later this month.

• This piece was amended on 15 November 2018 to correct the name of the Dakota Access pipeline.