Another Arlington Park Trail Closed By A Pipe

For a couple weeks now, when I return from mountain biking at River Legacy Park I've noticed a Sidewalk Closed sign, with crime scene tape stretched between sawhorses, at the bridge over Village Creek and the Village Creek Paved Trail on Green Oaks Boulevard.

This sidewalk is actually part of the paved trail that connects the Village Creek Historical Natural Area with the paved trails in River Legacy Park.

I was curious as to why the the trail is closed at that particular point. So today I took my bike to Village Creek and learned what is causing the problem.

In the first picture you are looking north at the Sidewalk Closed sign on the other side of the problem that brought about the Sidewalk Closed sign I'd been noticing for a couple weeks. As soon as I saw this other sign, I saw the problem. A big pipe crosses the trail.

At first I thought the pipeline must be sucking water out of Village Creek. I was wrong. The pipeline crosses the creek and continues on, I suspect to a natural gas drilling site a short distance away.

So? Where is the water coming from for this pipeline? The tangle of pipes heading towards the source were not heading towards the Trinity River. Instead they seemed to be heading into Interlochen. Could they be sucking water out of the Interlochen canals?

The pipelines made quite a mess as they went across private property. When you enter this section of the Village Creek trail there is a sign telling you that the trail is a public easement through private property. You are warned to stay on the trail and off the private property.

So, how do the gas drillers get to go across private property and lay out a mess of pipelines? I could see trucks had driven over the lawns after our recent rains, because they left ruts in the lawn. I'm sure the property owners are happy about that.

This makes at least 2 of Arlington's city parks with trails blocked by pipelines. In River Legacy Park the obstruction is a pipeline ditch that shortens the paved trail by almost a mile.

It surprises me that there aren't little acts of sabotage directed at things like this Village Creek pipeline. Was there any public notification? Does permission get asked of property owners? Or do the drillers just litter the landscape with pipelines wherever they want? If there is no public notification, with this trail just arbitrarily closed, would a citizen be within their rights to clean up the mess by taking a chainsaw to it?