City struggles to keep gas system updated, leaks repaired

Aging utility lines, ever-increasing demands from the state government and a customer base of fewer than 450 have combined to put the city of Cotulla’s gas system in a continual battle for compliance and upkeep.

Although the cities of Pearsall and Dilley have put a possible sale of their municipal gas systems to a referendum and been told by voters to keep the utility, Cotulla has yet to ask its residents whether it should hand over control to an independent for-profit company.

The city was slapped with a $20,000 fine in September by the Texas Railroad Commission for an apparent failure to repair slow leaks in its old gas pipes and for failing to keep a staff of fully qualified crew members to work on the system.

Negotiations between the city and the commission resulted in a reduction of the fine to $14,000 last month on the condition that Cotulla correct the flaws immediately.

According to both City Administrator David Wright and Utilities Director Chevo Garcia last week, the city has paid its fine and has taken steps costing more than $32,000 to repair worn-out lines that had been leaking.

Listed as Grade 2 leaks, the ruptures in the city pipes had been discovered in 2023 and monitored continually, as per state requirements, Garcia said.

The city administrator said on Friday that he believes the state continues to put pressure on small cities that can ill afford to replace several components of their utility systems at short notice.

“Obviously, it went on too long,” Wright said of the leak monitoring, “so we got a fine for it.”

Slow leaks had been found in a number of city gas lines, some in the areas of Matamoros and Poole streets, although both Wright and Garcia said the public was never at risk from what they described as small quantities of gas escaping from the lines.

“The problem we have been facing is that these leaks haven’t been occurring at connections or at valves or anything like that,” Garcia said. “These pipes are old, and they have corroded.”

Had the leaks posed a hazard to public health and safety, they would have been listed at Grade 1, requiring immediate repair, Wright said.

The Texas Railroad Commission requires that every municipality replace a percentage of its aged steel gas lines every year with a newer design of plastic-based pipe. The city of Cotulla has complied with the requirement annually, removing at least eight percent of its total linear footage of steel gas pipes and purchasing new lengths of poly pipe.

“We have been doing what the state keeps requiring, but at the same time we have had to address these leaks in the old pipes,” Garcia said. “With a limited number of people qualified to do this kind of work, it’s easy to see how the task is greater.”

Although Garcia has earned all of the state-required certifications to work on a city gas system, few if any of his seven-man crew have met the standard. The city pays for training courses that accord state certification in all areas of utility service and has made the course available to its employees each year, along with salary incentives.

“We have had guys take the course, free of charge to them of course, and as soon as they are certified, they leave,” Wright said. “We lose them to the energy industry that they believe will pay more.”

Wright added that be believes the state agency has little consideration for the challenges faced by a small municipality.

“We have about twenty more gas system customers coming online in the past few months, and that’s a good thing,” the city administrator said. “It enables us to earn more revenue. The lines, the connections, were already there. But the bigger issue is how much the state is leaning on small towns.

“I don’t believe the Texas Railroad Commission is geared up for handling small cities,” Wright added. “More and more, it seems they’re dealing with the big energy companies, and that’s what they have their sights on.

“Imposing a fine on a small city can be crippling, when the city is working hard to comply with the state requirements every year, but the amount of the fine is nothing compared to what big corporations are dealing with,” Wright said. “The resources to maintain our gas lines have not been there. We are struggling to find funds to repair them. That’s why the conversation about selling the gas system keeps coming up, but I would caution anyone on that, as turning the gas utility over to a for-profit company means the people of Cotulla are at the mercy of that company’s prices.

“Yes, some of our lines are old, and we have had leaks from corrosion, but is the system so bad that it can harm the community? No, it’s not,” the city administrator said. “I believe we can operate the gas system efficiently. The state requires us to replace so many percent of our old lines each year, but it’s going to get more stringent. Are we under pressure to give up and sell out? Maybe we are, but I don’t think we should do that to the people of Cotulla.”

“We have to keep qualified people,” Garcia said of the recent loss of those certified to work in utilities. “Losing them puts us in danger of a violation. I have checked all the valves, done all the tests on the line to meet state requirements, but there are difficulties in repairing those leaks. It’s on us to do the work in the field.”