Carter’s most outspoken pipeline opponent runs out of time

by Erin Rice

When driving down Fort Worth's Carter Avenue, you'll notice small "No Pipeline" placards dotting a number of yards. An otherwise indistinct street, Carter and its residents have become a symbol of the growing tension between the concerns of community and the interests of companies drilling in the Barnett Shale.

A longtime Carter Avenue resident, 72-year-old Jerry Horton has most candidly spoken against the location of the upcoming Hicks-Thomas natural gas pipeline, set to run under her and her neighbors' front yards. She’s made her way to various Fort Worth City Council and Gas Drilling Task Force public hearings and into various press accounts. Last Thursday, when we met at her home, she had to take a call from someone claiming to be from CNN. This came on the heels of a nationally-released Associated Press story.

Facing a condemnation hearing on Thursday, August 21, Horton, though lively in speech and dress claims, “I’m so tired, I could just die.” And one can hardly blame her for making such an exclamation. What seem to have been tireless efforts over the last several months have, in fact, been emotionally and physically exhausting since the process began.

Back in May, Texas Midstream Gas Services, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy, offered Jerry Horton $10 per linear foot to lay a natural gas pipeline across her 100-foot property. The contract asked for a 20-foot permanent easement from the sidewalk into her yard. In real estate terms, an easement allows another person or entity the right to use your land for a specified purpose. Some of the most common easements come in the form of utility companies who may lay certain cables or lines under or over one’s property. Texas Midstream is considered a public utility company.

Refusing to sign, Horton’s been offered a number of revised contracts. The price increased over time from about $1,000 to just under $13,000. The length of the easement has changed throughout contracts from 20 feet to 30 feet. The 30-foot mark, incidentally, goes all the way up and onto her porch. This means that anything in front of the porch, including her wheel chair ramp, could be torn down if deemed an impediment to Texas Midstream’s work. The easement also puts her 100-year-old oak trees in jeopardy, though the pipeline will be bored, as opposed to trenched, and will hopefully go deeper than the roots.

Were money the key issue for Horton, her efforts thus far would seem a success. But, as she explains, she doesn’t care about the money. Chief among her concerns for having a pipeline down Carter Avenue is safety. You won’t, however, hear her talk in fear of her own safety. Instead she’ll list off her various neighbors with children.

Horton is among many in Fort Worth concerned about leaking pipelines, citing as evidence gas explosions around DFW thus far this year. At the joint city council and task force meeting earlier this month, such issues (explosions, non-odorized gas, etc.) were addressed by a number of speakers. While the representative from the Texas Railroad Commission chalked most issues up to homeowner error (note: do not hit a pipeline with a backhoe), Bill Byrd, considered an expert in pipeline and hazardous materials safety, brushed off the dangers given the types of steel pipelines that would go into the ground.

But many in attendance, including Horton and her neighbors, didn’t feel much better. They’d still prefer that the pipeline not go under their yards, particularly given the other options available.

The pipeline that will (most likely) go down Carter Avenue connects two well sites: the existing Hickman well and the future Thomas well site (see map). According to the office of Mayor Pro Tem Kathleen Hicks, council member for District 8, she and Texas Midstream are still discussing potential alternate routes. One of those routes would move the future location of the Thomas well across I-30, which would run the connecting pipeline underneath the highway and a portion of Gateway Park (uninhabited) in District 4.

Residents on Carter are also wondering why additional options weren’t pursued. If the pipeline would just go up Scott Street, it wouldn’t run under nearly as many homes. However, on the corner of Scott and Beach is a Chase Bank building. Another option would be to go up the other side of Carter. While there aren’t considerably fewer homes on the northern side of the street, there is another of those bank-owned properties, a parking lot.

Whether coincidental or not, residents on this street are left feeling as though they’ve been targeted. According to Horton, "They [Chesapeake/Texas Midstream] chose Carter because they think we're too poor to fight back."

Could it be a tad paranoid to assume they are being victimized? Perhaps. But the experiences of Horton’s neighbors haven’t given them much reason to assume otherwise.

Kaye Ohayon, who lives a few doors down from Horton, believes she was fooled into signing her land away. When a man dropped by her home asking her to sign a surveying release, the release turned out to also be a contract allowing the pipeline. Another neighbor (who’d rather remain anonymous) is wondering why s/he, owning about 50 linear feet of property, is being offered significantly less than half what Horton was offered.

It’s all very tiring, indeed. Confusing, as well. With condemnation papers in her possession, and with the law and financial means not on her side, Horton has decided to negotiate. When we met with her on Thursday night, she was waiting for John Stevens of Texas Midstream to stop by. He never showed and never called, only answering her calls following several attempts. After promising that either he or his boss, Right-of-Way Coordinator Michael Hawkins, would reschedule for Monday, August 18, there was yet another no-show.

More coincidences? Maybe. But out of time, options, and a lawyer, Jerry Horton will have to represent herself when she faces the Chesapeake subsidiary this Thursday at the Tarrant County Bar Association building. The condemnation is expected to go through and one of the most outspoken opponents of the Carter Avenue pipeline could have hardly anything tangible to show for her efforts.

On a street where several front yards planted their modest signs of protest, there will almost assuredly run a pipeline.

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