The Courier of Montgomery County reports that contributing to the more than 483,000 miles of lines that run through Texas, Montgomery County is experiencing a rise in pipeline construction.
According to the Texas Railroad Commission, the majority of the pipelines are buried and transport natural gas, oil, natural gas liquids, refined products similar to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
Especially after last year’s controversy over the Blackfin Pipeline, Judge Keough said tracking each project is important. Most pipeline projects, however, have minimal impact on residents.
Officials with Blackfin faced backlash from residents and business owners back in October and scrapped a plan to build a compressor station off of I-45 near Grand Central Park a day prior before the Conroe City Council was to talk about rescinding permits issued for the station.
As far as any current projects that have a compressor station, Keough said he is not aware of any in Montgomery County. He said he would not give his support to “the construction of compressor stations near residential neighborhoods or high-density commercial areas due to safety concerns, noise impacts and overall quality-of-life-issues.”
Pipelines, however, according to the Texas Pipeline Association are the “safest, most reliable, efficient and economic means” of transporting crude oil, natural gas and refined petroleum products.
Regarding safety and reliability, nowadays, Texas mandates a pipeline integrity management program that has its requirement that pipelines be inspected physically and visually.
A 193-mile pipeline designed to transport 3.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day is maintained by Blackfin Pipeline.
Mustang Express Pipeline transports 2.5 million cubic feet per day along a 240 mile pipeline.
Bahia Pipeline has an intitial capacity of 600,000 barrels a day of natural gas liquids along a 550 mile pipeline.
Trident Intrastate Pipeline has a 2 billion cubic feet per day capacity along a 216 mile pipeline.
