After securing significant positive results, TESPA announced the legal team has settled litigation against the Kinder Morgan PHP Pipeline. The following is an excerpt from the TESPA newsletter released on December 30, 2020.
Today, TESPA filed papers settling its lawsuit against Kinder Morgan, an action done jointly with its partner Wimberley Valley Watershed Alliance (WVWA). We decided to settle because we believed we had realized all the positive results we could obtain.
As a result of the resolution of the TESPA lawsuit against Kinder Morgan/Permian Highway Pipeline, a number of notable accomplishments were obtained. Successes along the way included:
- Kinder Morgan in August moved its route about two miles to avoid any Blanco River crossing, avoiding further construction issues and sparing members of the Tonkawa Homeowners Association from a crossing through their park near the Blanco River; and
- Kinder Morgan agreed that only dry boring was allowed along the line, limiting damage to porous limestone geology.
Additionally, TESPA supported and worked with its members that had been impacted by Kinder Morgan’s construction activities. In the future, TESPA will continue to support monitoring and groundwater modeling for the protection of karst topography.
Prior to the TESPA lawsuit against Kinder Morgan/Permian Highway Pipeline, an agreement advanced by Wimberley Valley Watershed Alliance (WVWA) included the assurance that only dry gas products—no liquid hydrocarbons—will be carried in the 42-inch line, a major achievement.
TESPA will continue to fight in court when it feels that its intervention can lead to positive outcomes such as occurred with Kinder Morgan. Let’s hope we find success with EP.
TESPA Board of Directors wishes you
peace, joy and happiness in the year ahead!Jim Blackburn, President
Peter Way, Vice-president
Robin Rather, Secretary
Patrick Cox, Ph.D. (executive director)
Bob Elkins
Brett Norwood
Ron Weiss