Published: September 24, 2008 12:40 pm            

Constituents want representation

Dear Editor,

Open letter to Texas State Representative and candidate Betty Brown: “What are the lives of 60 families in your district worth?”

Dear Representative (and candidate) Brown:

I was unable to attend the recent candidate forum in Athens with you and your opponent for the Texas House of Representatives District 4, Victor Morales.

Had I been there, I would have brought to your attention a very important issue affecting numerous families in Henderson County: a company intends to lay a high pressure natural gas pipeline near the homes of approximately 60 families in Henderson County , intentionally avoiding a more remote route because it is more “costly.”

To help you respond, I would have given you some background. Energy Transfer Partners, LP in Dallas is planning to route the high pressure natural gas Texas Independence Pipeline from the Ft. Worth Barnett Shale discovery through Henderson , Anderson and Cherokee Counties to its destination point in Rusk County .

The pipeline company, as a common carrier of natural gas, is considered a public utility and, therefore, has the authority to exercise eminent domain and condemn the land along the pipeline route because it is in the “public interest.”

The pipeline company has already sent me and 60 families residing along County Road 4610 (the proposed route through Henderson County ) letters of intention to survey, along with the Texas Landowners’ Bill of Rights, which local governments or public utility companies are required to distribute before condemning land.

The problem is not the fact that the pipeline company intends to condemn the land.

I have read the U.S. Constitution, along with the Texas Landowners’ Bill of Rights, and understand that we will be justly compensated for the land. The real problem is that the pipeline company is choosing this particular route and placing families’ lives at substantial risk over an alternate, unpopulated route because it does not want to take on the extra costs of engaging the Army Corps of Engineers, which has placed certain restrictions on the land in the path of the alternative route.

Coincidentally, the land along the alternative route is owned by the son of a former Texas Governor. You are in politics. I am sure you can figure that one out.

The company even has another less populated option further south of the restricted land to route the pipeline.

Yet, the company continues to pursue the route near these 60 families in Henderson County , compromising the public’s safety and interest for the sake of avoiding additional costs. Hence, my question: “What is the cost of 60 families’ lives?”

A quick internet search of “high pressure natural gas pipeline explosions” yields pages of deadly incidents, including one within the last decade in Kaufman County , which is also in your district. Common sense also tells you a lot about the dangers.

Since Energy Transfer Partners’ executives have given $10,000 to the Texas Attorney General’s latest campaign in 2006 (the same Attorney General who wrote the “Texas Landowners’ Bill of Rights” by the way) and $40,000 to the Railroad Commissioner’s 2008 re-election campaign, I do not anticipate that these two will stand up for the families in Henderson County, but I sure hope you will.

Please, representative and candidate Brown, stand up for your constituents and work with the Texas Railroad Commission and the pipeline company to seek a solution that will not put the lives of your constituents, or any Texans, in unnecessary danger.

Sincerely,

Ann Gary

Constituent, District 4

        

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