Just One Little Pig Can Hurt You

Pipelines have been with us for years, and most people are a bit blase about them.  I have heard, "Oh, that pipeline was put in 40 years ago, and it has never caused any problem."  However, pipelines deteriorate from the inside out and are not easily monitored.  (My town of Greece, NY, is replacing old pipes right now.) Old pipelines have been causing problems lately. Because they are underground, we don't think about them, but they are everywhere under our feet, our homes, our roads, our schools- everywhere, like a spider's web.

There is a new worry after a very scary incident in Texas.  On October 15th, in Grand Prairie, a "pig" was accidently discharged out of the end of a pipe being installed.  This device was being used to test pressure in the pipe.  The 150-pound pig went right through the wall of a home 500 away and landed in the owner's bedroom.  No one was hurt. But that was just luck.  It could have killed somebody.  According to the homeowner, the incident was not even reported to the Texas Railroad Commission until Wednesday (6 days after it happened) and only after a TV news reporter began asking questions.  The rule is that such incidents must be reported within two hours. The TRC is charged with regulating and overseeing the natural gas industry in Texas.

Want to know more about pigging?  Click here.  One explanation of the term "pig" is that it is short for Pipeline Inspection Gauge.  There are quite a few uses for these devices and other theories as to how they got their name.  But what is clear is they can be very dangerous.  With thousands of new pipelines going in for natural gas transport, the dangers are compounded by the sheer numbers and their close proximity to homes, schools, and other areas where people are.

Here is Texas Sharon's 2007 comment on the Railroad Commission. She's not a fan.

Wonder what a PIG looks like?  Here is a picture of one:

A PIG like this flew through the air and landed in a near-by house in Texas!

Here is a LINK to the article, "When Pigs Fly," provided by one of my favorite blogs, Un-Natural Gas.

Let Those Who Have Ears, Hear!

Read this description of what the people of Texas have experienced.

Marcellus Shale is next.

In the last few years in North Texas we have seen the BOOM of the BARNETT SHALE GAS FIELDS. We have all seen the TV ads by Tommy Lee Jones and Chesapeake Oil & T. Boone Pickens, telling us how great the benefits of Natural Gas are for the Texas economy.

What they haven’t told you about is the devastation the Barnett Shale has done and is doing to the Texas environment!!

If you don’t have a gas well yet, then take a drive in Wise, Tarrant, Johnson or Hill Counties in the rural areas--not Ft. Worth, they have regulated the drilling somewhat, but in the country. You might have seen the drilling rigs up for 6 to 8 weeks, but look at the completed wells! You will recognize them by what looks like storage tanks in the fields surrounded by a fence. Listen to the NOISE the compressors make. Notice the PONDS of Drilling Sludge. Those big tanker trucks you see, that are speeding and destroying your streets and roads, Notice they have big HWP permit numbers! HWP, “HAZARDOUS WASTE PERMITS”. The TV ads tell us we are SAFE, NOT TO WORRY!

Why do these trucks have these PERMITS?

Notice the PIPELINES being laid. Notice where fences have been cut, trees torn down, and the pipe above ground, (that can be tampered with by anyone who chooses to do so) and ask a property owner if they were threatened with eminent domain? Ask them how their peace and quiet has been disturbed and if they would sign a lease now with what they have learned? Ask the towns people of Dish, Texas, what they think about the pipelines!

Notice what seems to be Large Storage Tanks, sometimes as many as 10 sitting together. These are water reclamations farms or where they inject the Drilling Salt Water back into the ground from those trucks you see.

Notice the Compressor Stations and the Noise and visual effect it has on property owners close to them!

Ask the people of Grandview what happened to their water wells and their animals.

They tell us not to worry about what is called “NORM”(Normal Occurring Radioactive Material) being pumped out of these wells, that it won’t hurt us. Again notice the trucks hauling this waste with the HWP permits!

Go see a “LANDFARM or MUDFARM”, this is where they dump all the Toxic Sludge from the pits at the drilling sites. These farms require commercial permits; however, they can take 100 acres and divide it into 30 three-acre cells and get what is called a “MINOR PERMIT.” They say they don’t have to notify the adjacent landowners to issue a MINOR PERMIT! My home is 50 feet from a 100 acre landfarm across the road!

Ask a mineral owner who is in a gas pool, how long it took to receive their first royalty check. Was it within 120 days from the first on line sale? Are they being paid the correct amount according to the “RULES”?

Ask a SURFACE OWNER who doesn’t have the mineral rights, what happened to their property and what were their rights?

Check on what has happened to Property Values around these sites. Would you want to live next to one of them?

As a property owner and mineral owner, I have found out that the “TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION” REGULATES the PROPERTY OWNERS and NOT THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY!

4/26/09
Dick Ross
Itasca, Texas

Read the whole article here at Bluedaze Drilling Reform for Texas
www.txsharon.blogspot.com

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!