KATY RESIDENTS TO GIVE VIEWS ON NATURAL GAS PROJECT:

KATY RESIDENTS TO GIVE VIEWS ON NATURAL GAS PROJECT:

Katy Residents to Give Views on Natural Gas Project

By Karen Zurawski 

This Week

The Houston Chronicle

People won't have to travel to Austin to tell Texas Railroad Commission officials how they feel about a proposed gas storage facility south of Katy.

Peggy Gray, commission hearing examiner, will be at the Katy Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall, 6206 Sixth St., on Friday, Sept. 27, to conduct a public hearing on the request of Western Gas Resouces Storage Inc. to operate the Fulshear Field in Fort Bend County. 

Initially, a hearing had been planned only in Austin, but attorney Andrew D. DiFiore, who owns property in the area, filed on July 9, a motion to change the venue to a place in the Katy area.

The public hearing will continue in Austin Oct. 1 in commission offices.

People who want to comment, give testimony or evidence had to meet a state-imposed deadline of 5 p..m. Sept. 19 to file.  Commission spokesman Andy Ruth said people and companies filing this notice of interest totals 376.

Katy Mayor J. W. "Skip" Conner said, "I don't think we'll be there."  Company representatives gave a July 25 presentation before the Katy City Council.  Conner said the city attempted to bring all interested parties together, and is furnishing the use of the city-owned VFW facility at no charge for the hearing.  He said he didn't think there were plans to take a stand.

During the presentation before the City Council, company officials said the project encompass [sic] a 2,063-acre site.

The compression station, off Green Busch at an extension of Roesner, would contain nine compressors operating at 1,500 horsepower per unit. The station would occupy 12 acres within 82 acres, thus providing a buffer zone to surrounding property owners.  The buffer zone would range from 500 to 1,000 feet.  Gas would be pumped underground to a depth of approximately 7,000 feet where it would be stored by injection wells in a width of up to 65 feet, said David Sander, company senior land man.

Sander of the Colorado-based company said the station, when in operation, would produce perimeter noise levels of up to 55 decibels, and that efforts would be made to "do all we can to reduce" noise.  He identified the efforts as including construction with noise-abatement materials and vegetative barriers.  He said operation would range from all, some or none of the compressors working.

Pipelines would web out from the central site, for underground connections with companies that will use the stored natural gas.

Sander said two parallel 20-inch pipelines would run northwest from the site to the Exxon plant, a line would run under Green Busch to connect with two existing pipelines and a pipeline could run southeast 1 1/2 miles to connect to another line.

Tony Marques, company project manager, said one of the northwest pipelines would have operating pressure range from 500 to 900 pounds per square inch gauge as it moved gas from the pipeline to the storage facility to be compressed or moved to the high-pressure line.  Operating pressure of the second northwest pipeline, the high-pressure line, would range from 900 to 1,200 per square inch gauge.

Austin attorney Richard Lowerre represent property owners known as the Hillebrenner Protesters, landowners or residents with surface rights near the Hillebrenner Field.

He identified issues as safety, possible water contamination and decreasing property values.

Commission officials have outlined matters within and outside the call of the hearing.  Those outside include "lowered property values, future home financing compensation for homes, noise levels and air pollution."  Matters within the call include injection wells, wells and possible groundwater contamination, abandoned and improperly plugged wells, and safety considerations.

Lowerre said, "Obviously the greated [sic] concern is a lot of old wells in the area, potential pathways (for gas).  Some were plugged and some were improperly plugged and offer the potential for the under pressure gas to come back up, he said.  "The Railroad Commission admits it doesn't have records of over half the wells plugged in Texas."  Error mars those records, he said.

Company officials offered assurances that they would do all they could to obtain the correct information to identify and plug former wells.  Lowerre said this would be difficult to do, and would represent additional cost that he's unsure the company wants to take on.

Sander said approximately 35 former wells have been identified in the affected site and based on review of records telling what was done, some wells will be looked at closer and action taken if necessary.  He said the evaluation is ongoing.

"We won't go forward till we are confident that the integrity of the wells is sufficient," Sander said.  Marques added the company wants to make sure because, "We stand to lose a major investment."

Despite company assurances and commission restrictions, Lowerre said noise and traffic are concerns of residents, and protesters will attempt to include them as part of the commission consideration.

Ruth said, "If there is tremendous interest and the record is large, it will take time to review the technical evidence presented in the case."  The recommendation's presentation to the commission will depend on when the body can "work it in," he said.  "It could be several weeks to several months."

Lowerre said he doesn't think the protester's position will be  prejudiced by property owners who have given the company their approval to use their land.  He said he thinks their decisions were made before the landowners knew all the facts.