Residents, business owners and experts urge Conroe council to back lawsuit blocking Blackfin compressor station

Residents, business and a retained pipeline expert urged the Conroe City Council on Aug. 13 to support legal action to stop a planned Blackfin Pipeline LLC compressor station that would sit beside Interstate 45 near Bartlett Home Furnishings and back up against residential neighborhoods.

They said the station’s proposed layout — four turbine compressors serving a 48‑inch pipeline — would be unusually close to homes, a business nursery inside the Bartlett store and two new Conroe ISD schools. The council scheduled consideration of a resolution supporting a temporary restraining order and other injunctive relief in Bartlett Properties LLC v. Blackfin Pipeline LLC for its next meeting; no vote occurred Aug. 13.

Public comments focused on safety, noise and air emissions. “Compressor stations are industrial facilities with real risk to public health and safety,” said Howard Leap, president of the Crichton Ridge Homeowners Association, during the public comment period. Multiple speakers said they received little or no information from Blackfin and described difficulty getting answers from the company or state regulators.

Justice Corley, a Grand Central Park resident who said the proposed site is “really close” to his home, told council members he and neighbors “love the outdoors” and were alarmed by company claims that the station would have frequent blowdowns. “This compressor station is supposed to have 144…off gases a year. That’s every 2½ days,” Corley said, adding he had personally heard loud test operations near his house.

Seth Rubinson, an attorney representing Bartlett Properties in the litigation, told council members the company's plans already include above‑ground mainline valves and a block‑valve launcher and receiver near the Bartlett property. He asked the council to back the property owner’s lawsuit and said the station’s proximity to populated areas is “unheard of in the industry.”

Doyle Sanders, a retained pipeline engineer who presented technical analysis at the meeting, said Blackfin’s project includes a rare 48‑inch intrastate pipeline with four compressor sites spaced across the route. He described design and operational hazards for a large‑diameter, high‑pressure line and said typical compressor stations of this size are sited in rural locations. Sanders told the council the Conroe site appears compressed to a roughly 6.9‑acre footprint and that industry standard mitigation — distance, remote siting and third‑party design review — had not been met.

City staff described what reviews have occurred: building and civil site‑plan reviews limited to stormwater, MS4 and floodplain concerns, not mechanical or operational permits for compressors. “When it was brought to us, it was sort of civil site plan only — only to review the SWIP, the MS4, which is stormwater, as well as the floodplain administration,” said Norman McGuire, who answered council questions on staff reviews. He said environmental operating permits and compressor‑specific authorizations are regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Railroad Commission, not by the city.

Council members and staff said they had only recently been alerted to the compressor station layout and promised to explore legal and administrative options. Councilwoman Porter and others said they were “outraged” that the city council and community had not been informed earlier in the pre‑development process. Several members pledged to “spare no expense” to support the Bartlett property owner’s injunction efforts and to seek rescission of local permits, additional legal review and coordination with county and state representatives.

Rubinson said the temporary restraining order hearing in Montgomery County District Court is scheduled for Aug. 29; the council placed a resolution supporting the restraining order on the agenda for the next council meeting. Bartlett family representatives and counsel said the lawsuit relies in part on restrictive covenants they allege were violated by the proposed facility.

Ending

Blackfin Pipeline representatives were not present at the Aug. 13 meeting; council members and staff said they had repeatedly sought answers and received little or no response from company contacts. Council members said they would consult with the county, state representatives and legal counsel and seek options — both administrative and legal — to contest the site. A vote on the council’s resolution supporting the Bartlett plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief was scheduled for the council’s next meeting.