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.