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Longhorn Partners Pipeline Ignores Temporary Restraining Order
Longhorn Partners Pipeline Ignores Temporary Restraining Order
by Stefan Wray
Iconmedia
Thursday, May 23, 2002
Longhorn Partners Pipeline ignored a temporary restraining order Thursday that ordered it to stop laying pipe in the ground beneath Flat Creek.
Flat Creek is in Texas Hill Country near the border of Hays and Blanco counties and is a tributary to the Perdernales River.
In Central Texas, government agencies have required Longhorn Partners Pipeline to place new pipe over environmentally sensitive areas. Flat Creek is considered a "hyper sensitive" area.
Longhorn has been working at Flat Creek for several months. On Wednesday, May 15, Longhorn's contractors, while drilling a hole under the creek bed, broke into fissures and underground water.
The underground drilling process requires the use of a substance called Bentonite. It acts as a lubricant and sort of a sealant. Bentonite is a highly absorbant clay. One manufacturer, Black Hills Bentonite, claims its bentonite product swells "up to 18 times its dry volume."
When the drilling intersected underground water, an unknown volume of Bentonite entered underground water and immediately began surfacing through a series of springs that feed directly into Flat Creek.
Last Thursday, the property owner, Child, Inc. and its director James Strickland, learned that the drilling operation had hit a fissure and that the water quality in the springs had changed significantly. Bentonite was clouding the water in Flat Creek.
Since that time, Strickland has been trying to stop further work until a full assessment of the damage to the springs could be determined. One piece of information Strickland sought from Longhorn's contractors were the drilling logs.
These logs will probably reveal the quantity of Bentonite used in the drilling. After being promised these logs for several days by Longhorn officials, Strickland had these documents subpoenaed.
And on the morning of May 23, a Blanco County judge issued a temporary restraining order that prevented Longhorn from placing the pipe in the ground.
After receiving the TRO, work on the pipeline stopped - for awhile. But then work started again and by mid-afternoon the last segments of pipe had been welded and the entire pipe was being lifted onto rollers.
Despite the TRO, Longhorn Partners Pipeline moved the pipe into the ground.
by Stefan Wray
Iconmedia
Thursday, May 23, 2002
Longhorn Partners Pipeline ignored a temporary restraining order Thursday that ordered it to stop laying pipe in the ground beneath Flat Creek.
Flat Creek is in Texas Hill Country near the border of Hays and Blanco counties and is a tributary to the Perdernales River.
In Central Texas, government agencies have required Longhorn Partners Pipeline to place new pipe over environmentally sensitive areas. Flat Creek is considered a "hyper sensitive" area.
Longhorn has been working at Flat Creek for several months. On Wednesday, May 15, Longhorn's contractors, while drilling a hole under the creek bed, broke into fissures and underground water.
The underground drilling process requires the use of a substance called Bentonite. It acts as a lubricant and sort of a sealant. Bentonite is a highly absorbant clay. One manufacturer, Black Hills Bentonite, claims its bentonite product swells "up to 18 times its dry volume."
When the drilling intersected underground water, an unknown volume of Bentonite entered underground water and immediately began surfacing through a series of springs that feed directly into Flat Creek.
Last Thursday, the property owner, Child, Inc. and its director James Strickland, learned that the drilling operation had hit a fissure and that the water quality in the springs had changed significantly. Bentonite was clouding the water in Flat Creek.
Since that time, Strickland has been trying to stop further work until a full assessment of the damage to the springs could be determined. One piece of information Strickland sought from Longhorn's contractors were the drilling logs.
These logs will probably reveal the quantity of Bentonite used in the drilling. After being promised these logs for several days by Longhorn officials, Strickland had these documents subpoenaed.
And on the morning of May 23, a Blanco County judge issued a temporary restraining order that prevented Longhorn from placing the pipe in the ground.
After receiving the TRO, work on the pipeline stopped - for awhile. But then work started again and by mid-afternoon the last segments of pipe had been welded and the entire pipe was being lifted onto rollers.
Despite the TRO, Longhorn Partners Pipeline moved the pipe into the ground.
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