Texas Midstream sues Grand Prairie over compressor station

Texas Midstream Gas Services, which is Chesapeake Energy Marketing's pipeline subsidiary, sued the city of Grand Prairie Tuesday over a city ordinance that imposes zoning standards on pipeline compressor stations. The case could have broad implications for Fort Worth and other cities that are trying to write ordinances dealing with the impact of natural gas drilling.

The Grand Prairie ordinance, passed in July,  requires an 8-foot security fence and has rules about setbacks and architectural standards. It also requires pipeline companies to get a special use permit before getting any other permits for a pipeline. Texas Midstream has not applied for the special use permit, and Grand Prairie officials have held up giving Texas Midstream permits to clear land and build driveways for a compressor station.

Lawyers for Texas Midstream say that those actions are causing the company irreparable harm, and want a judge to slap an injunction on the city. Federal law prevents cities from regulating most aspects of gas pipelines, including their location and safety aspects.

The suit also says that Grand Prairie's can't impose its zoning ordinance on the compressor station. Doing that "impermissibly usurps" state and federal law and violates the U.S. Constitution's interstate commerce clause.

The suit will likely be fodder for discussion in Fort Worth, Arlington and other cities. Fort Worth has been working for about six months on new rules for gas drilling -- including using the zoning ordinance to determine where some types of compressors can be located.

Arlington just turned down a permit Wednesday for a gas drilling site in an area set aside for high-end development.

Chesapeake Spokeswoman Jerri Robbins said via e-mail:

"After more than 14 months of good-faith negotiations to find a resolution, gas pipeline company, Texas Midstream Gas Services (“TMGS”) has filed a lawsuit against the City of Grand Prairie in the district court of Dallas County, asking the court to allow TMGS to build a compressor station on its own property so that it may comply with natural gas gathering and shipping contractual obligations.

TMGS purchased 44 acres in an agriculturally zoned district off of

Matthew Road, south

of I-20 in

Grand Prairie

for a compressor station. The City of

Grand Prairie

is attempting to enforce recently-enacted unlawful and unconstitutional zoning and municipal regulations that threaten to disrupt the lawful construction of a natural gas pipeline and compressor station and irreparably damage TMGS's legitimate business activities.

The City of

Grand Prairie

has recently enacted regulations that would force TMGS to file for a Special Use Permit (“SUP”). TMGS is granted the right of eminent domain through the Texas Legislature and is generally not bound by zoning ordinances of

Grand Prairie

. The City has refused to issue routine “grubbing and clearing”, driveway and floodplain permits in an attempt to force TMGS to apply for a SUP in contradiction to Federal and State law.

The City’s refusal to allow TMGS the lawful use of its property will jeopardize the shipment of up to 60 million cubic feet of gas per day to market, which could gather approximately 10,000 resident’s minerals, including the City’s.

TMGS believes

Grand Prairie

is attempting to circumvent the regulatory powers reserved to the Secretary of Transportation and the Railroad Commission of Texas (“TRRC”). 

Grand Prairie

does not have the right to require a SUP as municipalities may not enforce or regulate the location of pipeline facilities in which compressor stations are categorized. The TRRC is the exclusive State authority certified to regulate pipeline safety in

Texas

. In addition to granting the Commission the power to regulate pipeline facility safety,

Texas

law expressly denies such a right to municipalities. Accordingly, 

Grand Prairie

is expressly prohibited from adopting or enforcing an ordinance that establishes a safety standard or practice relating to pipeline transportation or pipeline facilities in controvention of the RRC’s power. TEX. UTIL. CODE §121.202."

Background

TMGS, is recognized as a gas utility through the laws of the State of

Texas

, and has the right to select the placement of its pipeline facilities (49 CFR § 192.3 Definitions), which includes a compressor station. A municipality may not adopt or enforce an ordinance that regulates pipeline safety. The Office of Pipeline Safety in the U.S. Department of Transportation administers the federal regulation of pipeline safety, and the Texas Railroad Commission enforces these regulations on a state level. The Railroad Commission has exclusive control over the safety of intrastate “pipeline facilities” in

Texas

.

In response to follow-up questions, Robbins wrote:

"They are trying to prohibit it on that property, which is owned by TMGS. TMGS has worked diligently for 14 months to accommodate all of the city's requests. Site preparation was actually underway before the city passed this ordinance.

The issue is, municipalities may not enforce or regulate the location of pipeline facilities in which compressor stations are categorized, because it's out of their jurisdiction. A municipality may not adopt or enforce an ordinance that regulates pipeline safety. The Office of Pipeline Safety in the U.S. Department of Transportation administers the federal regulation of pipeline safety, and the Railroad Commission  of

Texas

enforces these regulations on a state level. The Railroad Commission has exclusive control over the safety of intrastate pipeline facilities in

Texas

.

TMGS is more than willing to work with cities concerning architectural standards, and has done so in many areas of the Metroplex.

Read the suit here: Grand_Prairie_suit.pdf

And here are clips about Fort Worth's compressor station rules

Download drilling_task_force_agrees_on_compressor_noise_rules.htm

and Arlington's permit denial:

http://www.star-telegram.com/arlington_news/story/947259.html

-- Mike Lee

Comments

[Louis McBee]

"Federal law prevents cities from regulating most aspects of gas pipelines, including their location and safety aspects." SORRY, BUT YOU COULD NOT BE MORE WRONG ABOUT WHO CONTROLS PIPELINES WITHIN THE BOUNDARIES OF A "HOME RULE" CITY! Especially when we are talking about only gathering lines and NOT gas lines that do not cross state boundries.
However, glad to see that the issue is finally in the judicial system along with Flower Mound. I do wish that we would/could do some really good research before we start reporting this crap!

[JTM]

Grand Prairie city officials know the destruction to quality of life that can be done by these compressors stations and are doing the right thing to at least put more scrutiny on these station's owners. Compressor stations, besides being an eye sore, produce permanent, constant, 24/7 noise loud enought to be heard up to two miles away. Google "compressor station complaints" if you have any doubts about how disruptive these compressor stations are and you will clearly see how they can kill your quality of life.

[Cal]

This show that the natural gas companies are only after the mighty dollar and care very little about the people they hurt in the process. I urge everyone to boycott Chesapeake.

[Louis]

I'm glad this is finally in an arena where legal opinions will actually mean something. For month we have been discussing and hearing legal "opinion" about what is legal (or illegal) for municipalities to do with regard to pipelines within their city limits, and in some cases, within their extraterritorial jurisdiction(s). Understanding that all of these legal opinions !
The authority of a "home rule" city to decide on the location (not safety) of pipelines can the found in the Texas Constitution, but we never seem to get this information from the ST reporters. Instead we only hear about what the pipeline companies right are, and some ignorant ramblings about RRC rules and regulations. Why not investigae what OUR rights are instead of constantly pushing the gas drilliers/pipeline interests?
I think we all know the answer to that one!
Louis McBee
Fort Worth 76112

[Jerry Lobdill]

So they're committed to being good neighbors to all residents, eh?

Did you see the full page Chesapeake ad in today's (10/05/08) Startlegram? Pure propaganda! Theme: Gas gathering pipelines are necessary and safe, because they are of modern construction and regularly maintained, cleaned, and inspected. Not only that, but if a leak should occur, the gas will safely rise and dissipate, making odorant unnecessary!

A sidebar boasts, "Pipelines have safely carried natural gas to our communities for more than a century." Really?

The cleaning is said to remove moisture in the gas. The pipelines are said to feature "extensive control measures" that measure "any drop in pressure". Because of this and regular inspections and a "heavy pipe design" it is not necessary to add an odorant. If a leak occurs the fact that methane is lighter than air means that there would not be an explosion or fire unless the gas leaked into a confined space. Since methane is "40% lighter than air it safely rises and dissipates into the atmosphere, similar to a balloon release."

Does this make you feel better?

If all this is true then why were there nine significant incidents in the Barnett Shale in the last 4 years? What causes the fires and explosions reported and shown in pictures if not natural gas? Why did the Forest Hill Fire Department evacuate 500 homes in the 2006 incident there? All this happened with the kind of construction, regulation, maintenance, and inspection Chesapeake speaks of in today's ad.

And what about all this touted cleaning, maintenance and inspection? There is no legal requirement for that. Gas gathering lines are unregulated, not that regulation apparently is foolproof anyway. And what happens when the fat-cat drillers monetize their gas well and gathering line assets and move on to the next big play? Then the bottom feeding operators take over and all that cleaning, maintenance, and inspection goes away.

And let's not forget to expose the fallacy of the lighter than air ploy. Yes, a balloon full of methane would rise in air. But that does not mean that lethal explosive mixtures do not exist in a pipeline rupture or leak. If that were so then none of these pipeline explosions and fires we hear about and see pictures of would have occurred. Yes, a distribution line with 4-6 ounces of gas pressure would need to leak into a confined space to produce a spectacular explosion like the New London School explosion or the ones in McKinney recently, but a 16 inch gathering line with 200 psi pressure will produce such explosions in open air, and make fires that burn for hours if not days, obliterating everything within 100-200 yards more or less.

And here's the final bit of propaganda--

"Together we all win. We are committed to being good neighbors to all residents. Our goal is to be as unobtrusive as possible while delivering clean-burning natural gas to power our nation and fuel our local economy."

What a load of horse manure! Do good neighbors force you to live with a ticking time bomb a few feet away from your home on your property? Do they seize your property by eminent domain? And who cares what the product is? Clean-burning by what measure? Compared to coal, yes, but not clean by any stretch of the truth. And don't play the patriotism card. Chesapeake is not here because Aubrey McClendon is patriotic (which, arguably he isn't)! And ask Kilgore about how oil and gas fueled its local economy. It's a temporary infusion of money at best, followed by decades of impoverishment due to pollution and bad reputation.

In sum, the ad is just another pack of lies and distortions crafted by a PR agent.