A group of landowners is fighting back against a crude oil pipeline that is proposed to cut through their land. This week, some Marshall county residents hired Sioux Falls lawyer Scott Heidepriem to represent them in court against TransCanada. 

South Dakota farmland is some of the best in the country, and for many people, the land they own is their life. 

"In a lot of cases land goes back four or five generations up there and they treat it very seriously," Sioux Falls lawyer Scott Heidepriem said. 

Which is why when a Canadian company filed a lawsuit to get the easements needed to build a 200 mile oil pipeline through South Dakota, the landowners decided to fight back. 

"The first issue is we're going to test whether the taking of this land is legitimate," Heidepriem said. 

Lawyer Scott Heidepriem represents a half dozen landowners in northern South Dakota who are challenging TransCanada's right to go to court to take the land needed for the Keystone pipeline project. 

"What standard will this foreign corporation be held to? These are all important question," Heidepriem said. 

They are questions a lot of landowners in South Dakota are wondering. Heidepriem is officially representing a few Marshall county residents who live along the proposed pipeline route, but he says he's received calls from 58 landowners across the state who are wondering what kind of impact this pipeline will have on their property. 

"Obviously there are 58 people that have contacted us and are not comfortable with the way the easement is currently setting and what it looks like they'll have to give up," Heidepriem said. 

Besides questioning TransCanada's authority to get the easements, Heidepreim says they also question the amount of money the company wants to pay South Dakota landowners. 

"The main concern is that the landowners up and down this area of South Dakota want to make sure they are treated fairly," Heidepriem said. 

And being treated fairly for farm-land that has been around for generations is what landowners hope will come out of the up-coming court proceedings. 

"TransCanada's response in the media has been they are going to create three jobs, and in exchange they are going to run pipeline under a couple hundred miles of the richest farmland in South Dakota. And at some point there has to be a comparison of the upside and the downside in terms of public necessity," Heidepriem said. 

A necessity South Dakota landowners plan to question in court in the coming months.

Court papers also say landowners are questioning the fact that TransCanada is looking to get the easements they need for the land before they have approval from the federal government and South Dakota officials to build the pipeline.