Getting Wet Against My Will Courtesy Of Gas Drillers & The Trinity River

In the picture I am standing under the pipe tunnel I showed you a couple days ago. The pipe tunnel transports water, over the Trinity Trail, that is being sucked from the Trinity River by Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers.

When I saw this operation a couple days ago it was still being assembled. Last night the operation was in operating mode.

Above you see the water sucking pump's thick straws sticking into the Trinity River. The Trinity River is running real low, surprisingly low, after running high as recently as last Saturday.

Above you are looking at the point of this particular blogging. Water leaking across the Trinity Trail from the pipes sucking water from the Trinity River.

I do not recollect seeing any billboards admonishing the gas drillers to check for leaks, like the multiple billboards suggesting that citizens fix their leaky toilets.

What totally annoyed me about the Trinity River leak on to the Trinity Trail was the fact that, as I biked over it, my bike tires flipped spray from the leak directly on to me.

I choose not to join J.D. Granger in his Trinity River Inner Tube Expeditions. I do not want Trinity River water on me. I did not appreciate having Trinity River water spraying on me last night.

With the Tarrant Regional Water District so concerned about wasting water from the Trinity River, I can't help but wonder how they monitor the water being sucked from the river by the gas drillers? I suspect there is zero monitoring going on.

But, the TRWD Toilet Police are ever vigilant.

Fort Trinity Trail Again, Plus Video

About noon I slowly coasted to my nearest gas station and pumped half a gallon into my nearly dry van. And then for the 3rd Sunday in a row I burned up half that half gallon driving to Gateway Park to bike the Trinity Trail to the Stockyards zone.

It was not windy today. That was nice. I had a huge surprise this time on the Trinity Trail. I have never seen so many bikers on this trail as I saw today. And it was the hot part of the day. I'm talking dozens. Usually I see none. I even saw non-homeless people walking the trail. When I finished my ride I even had a couple drive up to me and ask how to get to the Trinity Trail. That's definitely never happened before. I showed them how to go the scenic route. Or the shortcut. They took the shortcut.

Of course, self-deluded person that I am, attribute this sudden increase in bikers to being caused by my having blogged about it, in addition to being so earnestly trying to get Fort Worthers off their collective butts and work on getting Fort Worth off the Top 20 of those Most Obese Cities Lists. I feel I am making progress. Slow, but steady.

Here are a pair of videos showing what it's like to bike on the Trinity Trail. In the first video we start about a mile north of downtown, heading south towards downtown. We cross under the Main Street Bridge, that I've mentioned before. And then we cross another bridge to get to the other side of the Trinity River. The second video continues from that point.



The second video goes through the busiest part of the Trinty Trail, that being the part that runs from downtown through Trinity Park.