Resources for the Game: Fort Worth’s PHMSA TAG and Its Impact

Libby Willis, President

Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods

For the Pipeline Safety Trust Conference

New Orleans

November 5, 2010

Fort Worth is a great townin North Central Texas – “Where the West

Begins” (Dallas is “Where the East Peters Out”)

• Most livable• 17th largest city in

America – 770,000 residents

• Big city advantages – small town feel

Fort Worth is:

The rodeo at the Fat Stock Show and Bull Riding at Billy Bob’s

Phenomenon of the Barnett Shale

• Fort Worth’s location atop the Barnett Shale – now economically viable and technologically possible for operators to drill – offers opportunities and challenges

• 12,000 + wells drilled in the Barnett Shale; 2,000 + drilled in Fort Worth (Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram)

The Wild West and the Great Gas Rush, 2000 & beyond:

All we thought about was “the gasin them there rocks”

Central pipelines issue in Fort Worth: density of pipelines in urban context

• Runaway drilling development has outstripped commonsense planning for density of pipelines

• Instead of a thoughtful masterplan for drilling, we have had no planning; the struggle is now to get a handle on the horse out of the barn

• Growing media attention on gas drilling emissions issues in the Barnett Shale begins to demand answers in the form of better planning, placement, controls, management

• 100-year-old Texas state laws regulating drilling were meant for Joe’s pasture, not Jim’s urban front yard

Little planning leaves impact on neighborhoods

• Before and after: an operator bought the house on the left and demolished it for a pipeline location

-- Coalition of neighborhood organizations established in 1985 to be the voice of neighborhood concerns at City Hall

-- Today has the participation of more than 95 neighborhood associations which represent over 300,000 Fort Worth citizens

-- Raising awareness about gas drilling concerns as they affect neighborhoods – advocate for significant changes to the City’s regulatory ordinance; received PHMSA grant

Overarching issues

• How can we insure pipeline safety in an urban setting which is becoming more and more densely populated?

• How can we integrate planning and development and drilling?

• Need to address environmental issues and drilling – air quality and emissions from drilling; impact of drilling on water quality

PHMSA grant to the League of Neighborhoods

• Produce an expert “State of Gas Pipelines in Fort Worth” Report to:

• Assess pipeline technical, policy & practice issues AND public information needs about pipeline safety in Fort Worth

FWLNA’s project

• Identify: • where the pipelines are; • how many there are; • evaluate routing practice and policy; • what the safety issues are; • public education issues; • How to improve the City’s ordinance regulating pipelines;• Identify other gas drilling/environmental issues which should be

addressed by the local ordinance• Assess how state regulatory requirements are being met in For

Worth;• Assess how pipeline planning can be institutionalized in City’s gas

drilling procedures

Public Outreach with the Fort Worth PHMSA grant

• Disseminate the report information in public meetings targeted to City Council districts – focus on public, elected officials, operators

• Aggressive PR campaign advertising the meetings and report results through radio, television, internet, other media

• Establish annual review and update of the “State of Gas Pipelines” report

Raising awareness about pipelines can lead to:

• Improved pipeline performance and safety in:

• Damage prevention

• Land use and better planning

• Public education – touching all Fort Worth citizens through the 280 neighborhood associations citywide

• Emergency response

• Greater community awareness and participation in pipeline placement and safety issues

Our Project Goals

• Establish annual pipeline review by professionals: “The state of our pipelines is . . . .”

• Raise awareness about pipeline issues and safety

• Encourage central planning for pipeline routing

More evidence of the need for planning for pipelines locally

• City confirms resident’s complaint that pipeline is keeping stormwater from drainig at her residence – equipment and animals under water for weeks

• City confirms that placement of pipelines in and near City parks has decreased amount of available flood storage available for Corps of Engineers project

• State transportation agency (TXDOT) confirms future expansion of Interstate 35 will be near present drill site – issue of coordination among local and state agencies

And more

• City, TXDOT,and pipeline company considering placement of pipeline under or near major downtown thoroughfare where interstate highway was moved to make way for revitalization of south end of downtown – national model case now faces new impact

• Hyrdro test of pipeline on East side sends water 30 feet into the air for extended periods

• Summer 2010 – Johnson County pipeline explosion caused by 3rd party damage – alleged that GIS was used to locate pipeline – 1 killed, several injured

• And then . . . .

The case of the flying pig

The State of Gas Pipelinesin Fort Worth

Produced by the Pipeline Safety Trust and Accufacts, Inc.for the League

Release, October 21, 2010

Maps

Gathering pipelines in Tarrant County, Texas

Recommendations

• The Texas State Legislature Could• 4. Make clear that in urban areas pipeline

routing using road rights‐of‐way under TxDOT control is an approved us as long as it is done in a way that does not conflict with highway safety or future planned

• expansion of highways.

Planning tools

Data

• In 2009 the RRC database shows that• there were 290 incidents of excavation• damage to pipelines in Fort Worth, with• 78 of those happening after the• excavator failed to use the One Call• system. Excavation by the City of Fort• Worth accounted for around 40 of the• 290 incidents, although improperly• marked pipelines caused more than a• third of the incidents involving the City.

The Study has:

• Drawn great attention locally, statewide, and nationally – Wall Street Journal, state & local media

• Raised awareness about pipeline issues• Made the League a serious community

contributor on pipeline issues• Begun to increase the quality of local

public decisionmaking on pipeline issues and planning for pipelines

Importance of the PHMSA grant

• Neither funds nor a program to involve the public in pipeline issues came from anyone except the federal level – critical piece for us

• PHMSA has been very easy to work with and very responsive, a real plus for a citizens organization

Want to see the whole report?

• Go to:

• www.fwlna.org and click on “Pipeline study”