Pipelines have positives
Letters to the Editor
I retired to Wimberley two years ago after working for over 50 years with interstate natural gas pipelines. I started in 1967 cleaning engines at a compressor station, then on a survey crew clearing a right-of-way. I later was a gas control analyst and IT Team Lead for pipelines in six states and the Gulf of Mexico, and for the last 15 years Senior SCADA Analyst for gas and NGL (natural gas liquids) pipelines. I also supervised leak detection for the NGL pipes.
As you probably suspect by now, I have an opinion about the pipeline controversy that was headlined in the 12/20/2018 View. While I have no association with Kinder Morgan and am not privy to the project details, I can make some educated guesses.
• Economics: The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. A 430 mile, $2 billion dollar pipeline from Waha to Katy will cost upwards of $4.5 million per mile. Rerouting it around the hill country would increase costs prohibitively and probably isn’t economically feasible.
• Environmental concern #1—impact on the water table. I’m not really competent to comment on this, but I would point out that several pipelines already cross the hill country, with no apparent problem. As for river crossings, those have been safely accomplished thousands of times all over the nation.
• Environmental concern #2—the clearing of oak trees for the right-of-way. (I notice that cedar/juniper trees aren’t a concern.) One rarely mentioned positive about ROWs is that they make excellent fire breaks and can provide good access to remote areas for firefighters. They are well-maintained by the companies so there is no accumulation of dead trees and dry underbrush. California could use a few more pipelines.
• Environmental concern #3: Yes, there might be some light and noise at the compressor stations, but there will probably be just six or seven very remote stations on a 42-inch pipeline over that distance. If you’re standing a quarter mile away from one you probably won’t even know it’s there.
• Safety: Pipeline companies take safety extremely seriously. The time and money they spend on safety and training is staggering. (Before someone brings up Pacific Gas and Electric’s possible role in the California fires this last summer, please note that it is the electric side of the utility under suspicion, not the pipeline side.) Pipeline control rooms are manned 24 x 7 and are constantly monitored by SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems.
We need to be wary of a NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude. Wishing projects like this onto your neighbors in other counties will do nothing to keep energy prices low and the environment clean, or insure that America remains energy independent. Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel, and the cheapest. We need more of it, not less, and pipelines are proven to be the safest way to deliver it.
Cliff Raymond