Beach Street Pipeline Stealing Trinity River Water On Public Parkland

Months ago when I hiked to the Tandy Hill's zone Chesapeake Energy operation I was surprised to see 3 big pipelines running through a culvert, under the freeway, to the Trinity River, to suck water for the drilling operation.

Seeing this perplexed me. How does one get permits and permission to do such a thing? Water is a precious commodity here in drought-stricken North Texas.

Then I remembered why Mike Moncrief was installed as mayor of Fort Worth. He's an oil man. With vested interests in all the drilling companies poking holes in Fort Worth to get at the Barnett Shale natural gas. In other parts of the world this is what is known as a conflict of interest. In other parts of the world it can get you jail time. Anyone heard of the Teapot Dome Scandal?

I parked on the north end of the Beach Street Bridge across the Trinity River, stopping to take some littler pictures. And then I saw something even more interesting. A pipeline was running under the Beach Street Bridge. I followed that for a bit, then realized it was not heading to the river. So, I went the other direction, towards Gateway Park.

In the above picture you see the pipeline going under the pedestrian bridge that connects Gateway Park with the Trinity River Trails.

The pipeline comes out the other side of the pedestrian bridge, then heads down a steep, roughly made "temporary" road, made to facilitate moving what is at the end of the pipeline.

At the Trinity River's edge sits a big diesel pump. At the time I saw it it was not pumping, but it reeked of diesel.

A skirt of some water-stopping material formed a barrier around the pump, I assume to try and keep spilled diesel out of the river. How does a private business get the permission to do something like this on public land? What would happen if a private citizen, for some random reason, built a road on public land, to put a diesel pump near the river, to run a pipeline so he could get water for free?

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?