Above, Coppell homeowners found a barren landscape along Beltline Road after Atmos Energy cut down trees to protect a high-pressure gas line. Photos courtesy of Lydia Goulas.

Oct. 15, 2015

It was July this year that one of my neighbors in Coppell asked me what happened to those dozens and dozens of large trees on Beltline Road behind our homes. I shared his shock and surprise. I asked my friends behind whose homes those trees used to provide an excellent green barrier blocking the traffic and pollution on Beltline Road and noise from the railway track 'What had happened?'

The trees were a safety net guarding the kids who might be endangered by the passing trains or cars. Additionally, these large native Texan trees had tremendous ecological value, absorbing the emissions from the traffic and adding aesthetic value for the entire area. Effectively, they were the green border of the city of Coppell, marking it distinctly from the city of Irving on the other side of the Beltline Road. Some of my other friends who were trying to sell their homes after this disaster reported that they have lost around $50,000 for their property values. 

After a few searches on the Internet, I discovered that Atmos Energy had cut these trees to protect a high-pressure gas pipeline. I shared these details with my neighbors and we all decided to approach the city of Coppell for further explanation. On Oct. 2, the Coppell City Manager’s office called us for a meeting in which a few Atmos representatives also attended in addition to the city staff and the residents who were directly impacted from the destruction of the trees. The meeting lasted for more than an hour in which Atmos and the city staff repeatedly mentioned that Atmos has the “right of way” to cut these trees. 

Trees along Beltline in Coppell once provided a green barrier.

The residents were further surprised to learn that Oncor, which maintains the wires and equipment that deliver power to homes and businesses, is going to cut more trees from another area for similar reasons but was thinking of replacing some of the trees. This ignited some of the residents who prepared the following response to Atmos:

"We understand your rights fairly well but we would like to request about your responsibilities as a corporate citizen of our increasingly endangered planet. In our humble opinion, your duties begin at ensuring the safety of the area from where you operate, not end. May we please request your environmental and social responsibilities and compensations for the destruction that you will cause by cutting those trees? We are surprised to find out that apparently the Coppell City Tree Ordinance requires new developers to plant new trees to compensate the killing of existing trees but the energy companies are under no such obligation. Do multi-billion dollar corporates like you have any internal Corporate Social Responsibility-based norms that we can invoke in this sad and helpless state that we poor homeowners are?"

However, Atmos shrugged off these requests and refused to provide social or environmental compensation to the residents who were directly impacted by this destruction. Upon further search on the internet, we discovered that Atmos has caused similar destructions in Flower Mound, Waco and Denton. Apparently, it is the aerial survey of their pipelines that needs the trees to be removed and not the roots of the trees that are the cause for this destruction as was initially mentioned to us.

Further research into the matter revealed to us that the Coppell City Ordinance was revised recently. On Oct. 13, 2015, some of us attended the Coppell City Council and requested the Mayor and the city council to revise the ordinance again to remove Sec. 12-34-2-6. – Exemptions, specifically (D). Why should the city be so helpless against the utility companies? At least, there must be some kind of social and environmental compensation from the destroyers just as there is from new developers. However, we did not receive any satisfactory response from the city but discovered that the city has asked Atmos to make a presentation on the underlying causes for this destruction.

On Oct. 14, we had another meeting, this time with Oncor who at least agreed to replace the oak trees but the cedar trees will still be killed because their height might potentially be hazardous to the power transmission lines.

Alas, Atmos Energy did not take this route of dialogue with the residents.