North Texas agencies near deal to pump in water from Oklahoma

By MAX B. BAKER - Fort Worth Star Telegram - Oct. 22, 2008
FORT WORTH — In a sweeping cooperative agreement to provide water to North Texas’ growing population, the Tarrant Regional Water District, the city of Dallas and the North Texas Municipal Water District say they will work together to pipe water out of Oklahoma, a massive project that could cost several billion dollars.

Under the agreement, the Tarrant district will be the lead agency in negotiating with Oklahoma officials and in fighting any legal challenges.

The district approved the agreement Tuesday, and the Dallas City Council is scheduled to consider it today. The North Texas district approved it last month.

"I think it is a very positive step toward coordinating a regional water supply approach in North Texas," said Hal Sparks, vice president of the Tarrant district board.

By working together, the three agencies would also be able to share water stored in their own reservoirs to prevent shortages in the area, said Jim Oliver, general manager of the Tarrant district.

It is the first step to a regional water supply that would make the Metroplex "almost drought-proof," Oliver said.

So far, the estimated cost of the pipeline is about $3 billion, he said.

Details of how the cost may be shared by the agencies have yet to be determined, officials said.

Cost sharing

Last year, the Tarrant district, searching for water for its exploding population, developed a plan to pump hundreds of millions of gallons from Oklahoma creeks and streams into its reservoirs.

Called a "robust project," it would provide enough water to serve the 4.3 million people who are expected to live in the district’s service area by 2060.The district now provides water to about 1.6 million people.

The Tarrant district wants to capture water from the Kiamichi River, Cache Creek and Beaver Creek basins before it enters the Red River and takes on too much salt. The first pipeline would pump water about 60 miles, from near Lawton, Okla., to Lake Bridgeport.

About the same time it filed permits for the water, the Tarrant district filed a lawsuit contending that a 2001 Oklahoma moratorium on out-of-state water sales violates federal law concerning interstate commerce.

Oklahoma contends that it can enforce the moratorium until a study of its water supply is completed. The lawsuit is pending before a federal appeals court in Denver.

The Tarrant district has spent about $2.4 million in developing its Oklahoma water plans, about half of it going for the legal challenge, said Wayne Owen, the district’s planning director.

He said Dallas and the North Texas Municipal Water District have agreed to retroactively share in those costs.

"The water we are all going to try and get into the Metroplex is going to be coming from farther and farther away," said Denis Qualls, senior engineer for the Dallas water department. "To partner in that and share the costs is a prudent thing."

How much each agency would contribute could depend on the amount of water used, Qualls said.

So far, the agreement only mentions the Kiamichi River basin near McAlester.

"We will be looking at this as it progresses into how much, when and how," he said.

Irving deal

The agreement could prove problematic for Irving, which reached a deal in August with the southeast Oklahoma town of Hugo to buy millions of gallons a year.

Under the contract, Irving would pump the water from Hugo Lake into North Texas, initially paying about $1.7 million a year.

Hugo, using money provided by Irving, filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Oklahoma’s ban on out-of-state water sales.

Tarrant district officials have painted Irving as looking out for its own interests to the detriment of everyone else.

Under the three-party agreement, Owen said, the water districts and Dallas may use the available capacity in many local reservoirs, making it harder for Irving to store water.

Irving Mayor Herbert Gears said that the city has spent millions developing its plans for Oklahoma water and that he doesn’t think the new agreement will affect them.

"In the end, we will all be partners in bringing water to North Texas," he said. "We’ll need pipelines, water treatment plants and reservoirs. And we’ll all have to win some court cases."

Read more in the Fort Worth Star Telegram

State's decision on gas blast questioned

By BRETT SHIPP - WFAA-TV - NEWS 8 Investigates - Part III Oct. 22, 2007
The safety of many North Texans was called into question last week during a News 8 investigation into a deadly natural gas explosion in Wylie last year.

As a result, the state agency that oversees pipeline safety in Texas is under increasing scrutiny for allowing 100,000 potentially deadly pipe fittings to remain in the ground.

One year after a natural gas explosion killed Benny and Martha Cryer of Wylie, the Texas Railroad Commission is taking some action to ensure that some of the potentially deadly couplings are removed.

Now there is new evidence that the Texas Railroad Commissioners may have suddenly backed off a proposal last spring to force Atmos to remove the dangerous couplings.

In Ramsey, Minnesota, three people were killed and one injured on December 28, 2004, which was when a natural gas pipe pulled out of its coupling, leaked gas and sparked an explosion. It was the same style of coupling that federal regulators and industry experts had warned for two decades posed a deadly potential for pullout.

The Minnesota Office of Pipeline Safety conducted an exhaustive and detailed investigation including a forensic examination of the failed coupling and determined the pipe "pull-out occurred" because of "thermal contraction of the soil."

The response was swift. The fittings were deemed dangerous and state pipeline officials ordered nearly 30,000 of them immediately pulled from the ground, which cost the gas company nearly $40 million.

Fast forward to October 16, 2006 in Wylie. Benny and Martha Cryer were killed when an Atmos pipe pulled out of its compression coupling, leaked gas and caused an explosion.

The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the pipeline industry, conducted the investigation.

Its preliminary finding stated that a line that separated from a compression coupling "possibly due to shifting of soil" and "natural ground movement."

Just as was the case in Minnesota, a recommendation was drafted, which was dated April 25, 2007, from Safety Director Mary McDaniel directing gas companies in Texas to establish a "replacement program to phase out" the questionable couplings.

However, that memo was never sent.

Another memo, also dated April 25 from Mary McDaniel, was greatly modified. The demand for a "coupling phase out" was gone and replaced with a request for information regarding the "installation, maintenance and leak history" of the compression couplings.

McDaniel denied a "phase out" was ever considered.

So, the potentially deadly couplings, an estimated 100,000 of them, remain in the soil while the Railroad Commission conducts a survey.

At a recent meeting in Austin, Commissioner Elizabeth A. Jones congratulated McDaniel for her fine work.

"You all are doing such a great job in getting so deep into this study," she said. "I really appreciate it."

Then amid mounting questions from News 8, Commissioners ordered gas companies to "repair or replace" the dangerous couplings if they are leaking or discovered during routine excavations.

Instead of ordering the couplings removed as in Minnesota, Railroad Commissioners have opted to study them and revisit the issue in January.

"We are taking every effort we can to make sure that we can provide to people in this state the safest natural gas transporting system in the country," said Commission Chairman Michael L. Williams when asked if he thought it would be possible someone could die before the compression coupling leaks are discovered.

"This order would not have saved Benny and Martha Cryer's lives," said Bruce Scrafford, an Austin attorney who represents the Cryer family in a lawsuit against Atmos Energy.

He called the Railroad Commission directive meaningless, mainly because federal safety regulations already say "each segment of pipeline that becomes unsafe must be replaced or removed from service."

Scrafford said Railroad Commissioners are, in effect, doing nothing.

"The Railroad Commission has not done anything to follow up, to make sure that they take those couplings out of the ground in applications where they are not appropriate and where they are unsafe and where more people are going to die if they don't do something to fix this problem," he said.

So, why isn't Atmos aggressively removing the 100,000 non-restraint couplings still in their system? That question was recently posed to an Atmos engineer in a videotaped deposition.

"I don't know," said the engineer when asked if he thought there was any other reason besides cost that Atmos would not replace the fittings.

Atmos Energy's official position is another utility disrupted their gas pipes causing the Wylie explosion. Atmos officials also said that they are complying with the Railroad Commission's directive and insist their pipeline system is safe.

Atmos officials also once assured Wylie residents who reported smelling gas hat everything was fine.

"In some cases, there was no leak found," said Rand Lavon, an Atmos spokesperson. "In other cases, it might have been something inside the home like a hot water heater."

But everything in that Wylie neighborhood was not fine. A compression coupling with s deadly reputation failed, killing Benny and Martha Cryer. It was a style of coupling too dangerous for Minnesota, but not the state of Texas.

In response to News 8 reports, Atmos officials have released a statement. They said safety and reliability are their highest priorities and that they welcome any discussion about safety and maintaining their natural gas system.

More importantly, they ask anyone who may smell gas to contact Atmos.

And for those who live in an older home and have a meter that looks unattended to, contact Atmos and tell them you want your system checked for bad couplings.

PART III

PART II

PART I

Flooded areas start to assess damage

Associated Press - Tuesday, July 10, 2007
DALLAS - Officials were assessing damage from intense weekend flooding Monday, while the heaviest storms subsided across Texas.

The storms that have caused widespread flooding and at least 16 deaths across the state appeared to be scattering, and the flooding danger in most areas was reduced significantly barring heavy storms, said National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Martello.

He said the low pressure systems fueling rain for the past month across Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas have moved off.

Smith County officials in East Texas made a disaster declaration Sunday night, asking for state and federal aid to repair an estimated $200,000 in flooding damage. That number could go up after county officials get more estimates of damages to roads and homes, Smith County assistant engineer Doug Nicholson said. After the rain subsided Sunday morning, there were nine impassable roads and 35 roads with flood damage, he said.

"We woke up on Sunday morning with a bunch of roads ripped open," he said.

Meanwhile Monday, the Travis County medical examiner confirmed the identity of a body pulled from Lake Travis as 20-year-old Bradley McMellon, of Leander. McMellon and Paul Slinkard, also 20, disappeared after their sport utility vehicle became submerged in rushing floodwaters in Burnet County.

Rescuers in Burnet County were still searching for Slinkard.

In North Texas, the search for a 26-year-old man missing since his raft capsized on the rain-swollen Trinity River near Fort Worth continued Monday, said Kent Worley, spokesman for the Fort Worth Fire Department.

Teams had shifted their search from a rescue mission to a recovery, Worley said. A police helicopter scanned downstream for the missing rafter while police searched in boats.

Worley described the man and a 23-year-old companion, who swam upstream to safety, as inexperienced rafters who "made a major mistake" by venturing on the swollen river. Neither man wore a life jacket.
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