Musicians Simon, Nelson call for an end to pipeline
The Texas Hill Country is a gift from Mother Nature. Sprawling over 986 square miles in the heart of the state, it is a wonder of rolling grasslands, pastures of pecan, mesquite, desert willow and oak. Fields of bluebonnet, the state flower, line the highways. The region is a pristine, biodiverse ecological gem, one of the most treasured landscapes of the American Southwest. But the pride and lifeblood of this unique part of the world are the granite and karst features, the thousands of underground streams and aquifers that hold groundwater and course like veins.
Recently, however, a threat to this precious water has caused alarm, outrage and despair. Driving along the highway one can see mile after mile after mile of ditches being dug in preparation for the
Permian Highway Pipeline, a 430-mile, 42-inch tunnel that would usher 2 billion cubic feet of fracked gas through the Texas Hill Country.
Pipelines and spills go hand in hand, and already there have been multiple accidents; the most significant was in April of this year when workers punctured a karst feature and spilled 36,000 gallons of drilling fluid, contaminating the wells and drinking water of nearby homeowners. The owner of the pipeline, Kinder Morgan, a Texas energy giant and Fortune 500 company, downplayed the damage and temporarily suspended operations in April — temporarily. In late July, almost 100 gallons of drilling fluid bubbled up at a construction site near the Pedernales River, and landowners in the region fear that they, too, will soon have drilling fluid pouring from their taps.
What is infuriating is that Kinder Morgan never publicly announced the spills to the unprepared citizens.
Texans admire forthrightness in politicians and CEOs, but the shortcut to profit seems to have sacrificed that virtue for Kinder Morgan. Communities and businesses having no opportunity to engage in dialogue with the company now would be forced to live next to the Permian Highway Pipeline. Kinder Morgan’s
motto is: Integrity, accountability, safety and excellence. One of their avowed goals is “working to protect people and the environment.” Kinder Morgan has failed to live up to that motto, and it is the right time for the Texas Railroad Commission and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to step in, heed the objections of Hill Country residents and act accordingly to stop the pipeline. We are joined in this call by thousands of Texans whose voices have gone unheard as Kinder Morgan has built its pipeline through our community.
Must we wait until the water is poisoned, the grasslands are gone, the local wildlife extinct and communities ruined before common sense and the love of our land prevail? When will we stop swapping the environment for a profit? To quote a native Hill Country boy, the 36th president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson:
“All my life I have drawn sustenance from the rivers and from the hills of my native state. I want no less for all the children of America what I was privileged to have as a boy.”