It is rarely used here, but officials from the Bristol County Water Authority will use the power of eminent domain to secure an easement crucial to the future of the authority’s planned $37 million pipeline, which when built will connect Bristol County with the Pawtucket water supply.

BCWA officials have been planning the new pipeline for several years, and for more than a year have been working on securing land along its path from Pawtucket Avenue in East Providence all the way north to the Pawtucket border.

Though BCWA executive director Pamela Marchand said much of the work to date has gone smoothly, BCWA officials “had problems” communicating with the ownership of Village Green Apartments, just off Pawtucket Avenue.

“We never got anywhere with it,” she said, adding that while officials were in contact with the owners’ attorneys, multiple attempts to communicate with the owners themselves were ignored.

“So in order to move forward” the BCWA started the eminent domain process, she said.

BCWA officials plan to run part of the transmission line under Village Green property, and will follow closely a pre-existing sewer easement on the property. Since the sewer and water lines cannot be in tight proximity, the eminent domain filing will result in a widened easement big enough to install the water infrastructure.

The use of eminent domain requires two filings — one with the City of East Providence, and an appearance in Rhode Island Superior Court.

Those two steps must be taken relatively close together. But with the state court system closed for the foreseeable future, BCWA officials so far have not filed paperwork at East Providence City Hall. Ms. Marchand said that will happen once the court system goes back online.

Apart from the Village Green easement, Ms. Marchand said only a few others were needed, as the pipeline will run under state roads for much of its route. One, behind the Citizens Bank call center in East Providence, went very well, she said:

“They were very understanding and they did not require a payment” for the use of the land under the bank property, she said of Citizens officials.

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