A Big Mess Of 6 Pumps Getting Ready To Steal Trinity River Water In Fort Worth

I dropped in on the Beach Street/Trinity Levee/Gateway Park Barnett Shale Gas Drilling water stealing operation late this afternoon.

I was once more surprised by what I saw. And a new sign. Sitting above a jumble of pipelines, the sign says "Unauthorized Motorized Vehicles Prohibited Violators Will Be Prosecuted." In the lower right hand corner of the sign it says "Texas Water Code 49.217."

Just 2 days ago, on Monday, I took pictures of motorized vehicles in the location of this sign.

Now, I previously said I'd learned that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality must issue a permit for any surface water to be taken in Texas.

Then I was told that the Tarrant Regional Water District manages the Trinity River in Tarrant County, selling the water to the drillers. At a steep discount, I suspect.

In the picture on the right you're looking at the pipelines leading from the above sign to the site of the pumps, where I was in for a surprise.

So, here's what I think is going on. Both this Tarrant Regional Water District and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have been corrupted with the installation of gas industry foxes watching the hen house of this corrupted zone of Texas I am living in.

I don't think permits are being issued. I don't think there is any oversight. I don't think there is any rule enforcement.

This type lawless environmental terrorism is what you get when the agencies that are supposed to safeguard the public's assets, like a river, are co-opted.

It's a variation of what President Eisenhower warned about in his farewell address, but, instead of a vast military industrial complex to be wary of, in Fort Worth we have a vast political/gas industry complex to be wary of.

Well, more than be wary, we are past the point of being wary doing any good, because an industry has already been allowed to control political power in Fort Worth by installing corrupt politicians and others in positions of power who do their bidding and run roughshod over Fort Worth's citizen's right to be safe and secure in their homes.

Count the number of pipes. There are 6 of them. The reason there are 6 is there are now 6 pumps sitting at the edge of the Trinity River, sitting on top of a very sloppily laid out "oil leak" catcher slab of some sort of impermeable material, that has holes in it.

See those white bags on the left, sitting on the wheels. Guess what those are? Give up? Look at the next picture.

Bags of oil absorbent. "100% Natural Product" it says on the bags. "Cleans up spills that can cause accidents. Soaks up oil, grease, water, coolant & more."

I think they may have already had to use some of this absorbent, because the area reeked of oil.

There are other problems with the spill containment method, which the picture below shows.

Yes, there are tears in the impermeable mat that the pumps sit on, which turns them permeable. As in they'd leak. The pump's setup looks very sloppily assembled. The entire operation looked sloppy. Chunks of lumber were used to try and level up the pumps, which made more tears in the oil barrier.

A view of the "protective" mat and the pumps sitting at the edge of the Trinity River. How quickly can they get these pumps out of there if the river rises rapidly, which it is known to do?

This is going to be so noisy when those 6 pumps get pumping. I'll try and get video. There appeared to be a lot of pipe assembling that still needed to take place before pumping can begin. I don't know how they are going to fix the damaged protective barrier mat.

Oh, I know. They won't. Because this is an unregulated industry operating under the lawless protective bubble that covers the Fort Worth zone that causes the laws that govern the rest of America to not apply. Little things like a mayor with a criminal level of Conflicts of Interest, taking more than $600,000 a year from the drillers sticking holes in the town who's interests he is supposed to look out for, rather than looking out for his own interests and those of the gas drillers who have the man on the take.