VOTING AGAINST THE WESTERN GAS WELLHEAD PLACEMENT:

The issue of the Western Gas wellhead placement in the midst of the Katy area was brought up in the summer of 1991 right after I was first elected.  The Katy school board had no control over the placement of the well heads in the midst of the Katy area.  Probably just as a courtesy, a representative of Western Gas came to the Board to ask for our endorsement.  That meeting is described under Katy ISD/Western Gas on this web site.

I was the only one who had talked to the residents of the area who were opposed to the placement.  They did not want the methane filled salt dome well heads so close to their homes or to have to live over a methane filled salt dome.

The Katy City Council and the Fort Bend Commissioner's Court voted against supporting the placement of this wellhead in the Katy Area.  The Katy ISD School Board, however, voted six to one to support its placement.  I was the lone opposing vote.

Shortly after its placement, one of the well heads blew out and killed a worker. Not much was said about that!

Tompkins High School, many years later, was built on the Morris Cummins Tract not far enough away, in my opinion, from this well head.  Although the Western Gas representative suggested, when I asked him, that a berm should be built if a school were ever built on that tract, none was.  Only Joe Adams was still around who had been on the Board at the time the salt dome was filled with methane gas.

About twenty years later property was purchased next to Tompkins High School for the purpose of erecting the second KISD stadium. I'm guessing but do not know that someone finally remembered the problems inherent with that parcel, and that's why they sold it to a developer and moved the stadium site back to its present location. No reason for the change in plans has ever been given to the public.

One has to wonder if the people who now live on that tract or others nearby even have a clue what is nearby.