Reporter Gary Cooper from KXAN Austin was at our Blanco Town Hall Meeting on March 28 and we got a blurb on the news later that evening. He interviewed several people, and a landowner in the proposed pipeline’s path “made the cut.”
Please note that Kinder Morgan’s official statement is not true, at least according to the experts.
“This route is a good one, and we selected it for several reasons…
Part of the official email response from Kinder Morgan to KXAN reporter Gary Cooper
Minimal impact to environmentally sensitive areas, fewer landowner impacts, and multiple interconnections with other pipelines.”
According to Town Hall speaker Chuck Lesniak, Pipeline Safety Expert, there are two alternate routes that
- cross areas that are not as environmentally sensitive as the Hill Country
- with much lower population levels
- and impact fewer landowners.
Each of these routes are only a few miles longer than this proposed route through Blanco County, and should actually be less expensive to build.
Please continue to contact local and state officials to let them know how you feel about this pipeline.
It would be appropriate to further explore the other route options that Mr. Lesniak has identified as having lower impact to both the environment and landowners. What is needed to make this happen as part of the review process?
We are looking into that, Rebecca.
John Watson, an attorney who worked with the City of Austin in their opposition to the Longhorn Pipeline, is looking for some sort of loophole to compel KM to do an environmental assessment.
We are asking citizens to let their elected officials know they are against the pipeline coming through the Hill Country.
We’re trying to get local officials to adopt a resolution against PHP. A resolution isn’t legally binding, but it presents a unified front. At least one governing body that had adopted a resolution, is now looking at the possibility of suing Kinder Morgan.
We hope to make things as difficult as possible for KM, until the laws are on OUR side.