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.

Is The Texas Commission On Environmental Quality Issuing Permits For The Gas Drillers Taking Trinity River Water?

I had to get outside today, what with the return of blue sky and the surprising, unpredicted jump in temperature, ending our North Texas Fort Worth Deep Freeze. For now.

So, I went to Gateway Park. I had a secondary and a tertiary purpose in addition to my primary purpose, that being going on a walk.

I'll get to my tertiary purpose in a subsequent blogging. My secondary purpose for going to Gateway Park was I wanted to check on the current condition of the Barnett Shale Anonymous Natural Gas Driller's Trinity River water stealing damage to the Trinity River Levee and to see if any fresh water thieving was going on.

As you can see, it is still a muddy mess, but the water suckers have not returned.

I have a good reason this is fresh on my mind.

I was looking through the 2010-2011 Texas Almanac. Fascinating stuff in there. No real Texan should be without this Almanac.

In a section about the Texas water supply, there is a highlighted section under the title Water Regulation.

In the first paragraph it says, "In Texas, surface water belongs to the state and, except for limited amounts of water for household and on-farm livestock use, requires permits for use."

The third paragraph says, "The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is responsible for permitting and adjudicating surface-water rights and uses. It is the primary regulator of surface water and polices contamination and pollution of both surface and groundwater."

Okay, back to the Gas Drillers sucking water out of the Trinity River. I have asked, previously, if a permit is required. And if so, why is this permit not posted by where the water is being taken?

Apparently Texas law requires a permit if one takes Texas surface water. That water flowing down the Trinity River appears to me to be on the surface. Of course, I'm no expert on such matters.

I may be wrong, but I believe no permits are being required by the City of Fort Worth or the Texas Commission on Water Quality for Gas Drillers to lay down pipelines across public land and take water out of the Trinity.

I believe I've read, more than once, that the quality of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has been co-opted by having industry stooges on the Commission, thus creating a fox watching the hen house type scenario.

But, this morning I blogged about the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's new methodology enabling citizens to report suspected Natural Gas Pollution. Have the foxes been removed from this hen house? Or is the TCEQ's new found cooperativeness, with those who hope to clear the air, some sort of toothless ruse?

If the TCEQ is issuing permits to the Gas Drillers to take Trinity River water, in a perfectly legal and environmental appropriate manner, why has no one straightened me out on this? If I'm wrong and permits have been issued, I want to know.

If the TCEQ has issued permits for the Trinity River water to be taken, how much does the permit cost? How much water is allowed to be taken? If these permits exist, why are they not part of some easily accessed public record?

What I actually believe is happening is the Trinity River water is being stolen, illegally, as just one more aspect of the result you get when you have corrupt politicians in office, operating with Conflicts of Interest, giving carte blanche to the Gas Drillers to do whatever they want, for the most part, in Fort Worth.

Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief rakes in more than $600,000 a year from his vested interests in the gas companies drilling holes in his town. Does Moncrief have a rather strong motivation, as in more than 600,000 strong, to look the other way when a little water is stolen? This type thing is why there are strong Conflict of Interest laws, in Texas, currently ignored in the lawless protective bubble known as Fort Worth and surrounding environs.

Fort Worth has a long and storied history of providing a safe haven for crooks. Why, Fort Worth even names its downtown collection of parking lots after a famous crook who used to hang out in downtown Fort Worth, he being The Sundance Kid and those parking lots named Sundance Square.