Clint Residents Against Proposed Gas Pipeline

EL PASO, TX – Some Far East residents are concerned about a proposal to build a gas pipeline from a petroleum facility in the Montana Vista area to a facility near the border with Mexico.

Mexico-based PEMEX asked the County Commissioners court for permission to install a 10-inch petroleum line on 14 miles of county property.

Representatives with the company told commissioners the line would run parallel to the Rio Grande Pipeline from the Longhorn Tank Farm near the intersection of Montana and Zaragoza to the Mexican border.

The pipeline would run through Clint and other areas within the county. As a result, a handful of Clint residents presented the court a petition with 190 signatures opposing the plan. “We don’t want a 10-inch gas line next to it (Rio Grande Pipeline). If one blows, they both blow…and, if you’ve never seen a fire like that, they’re deadly,” said Don Marshall, who created the petition.

Commissioners said they did not have enough information regarding the project and unanimously voted against allowing PEMEX access to county land.

“The county is no longer a rural county… where they’re proposing the pipeline to go is already an urban area…the subdivision’s in there, the schools are in there, it doesn’t make sense at all,” said County Commissioner Miguel Teran.

County Commissioner Dan Haggerty tells ABC-7 the vote against the project does not necessarily mean it will not get off the ground in the future. “It’s just a matter of working through these kind of roadblocks,” he said.

A representative from PEMEX declined to talk with ABC-7.