Conroe City Council voted March 12 to deny Mustang Express Pipeline access to city-owned land at the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant.
What happened
Council denied the company’s request for a survey access form for the wastewater plant property after city staff said they did not have enough information to support the request.
During the meeting, Norman McGuire, assistant city administrator and public works director, said staff were not comfortable with the language included in the application and wanted to avoid repeating issues tied to the Blackfin project.
Council member Marsha Porter added that the city had “learned a lesson on pipelines” and referenced having “dodged the bullet” with Blackfin before the item was rejected by the council.
A closer look
According to a March 3 staff memo, city officials were concerned that the project documents authorized a wide range of pipeline-related infrastructure—such as valves, compressors, pumps, meters, pigging stations, dehydration facilities, electric and communication facilities, risers and regulators—even though Mustang’s land agent said by email that there would be no compressor station in Montgomery County.
Staff also said the engineering firm had not provided any design layout, leaving the city unable to verify whether the project would comply with Conroe’s pipeline ordinance.
Engineering Manager Brandy Taylor told Mustang representatives in February that the city could not grant access without a preliminary alignment exhibit and more details about the intended facilities and route. In response, the company said the broad addendum language was a standard statutory disclosure used for all potentially affected landowners and was not specific to the Conroe tract.
About the project
Mustang Express is proposed as a 240-mile, 42-inch intrastate natural gas pipeline designed to move up to 2.5 billion cubic feet per day from receipt points in Colorado and Waller counties to the Port Arthur LNG II facility, per company materials.
Company materials state the project includes about 187 miles of mainline, a 53-mile lateral, three compressor stations and one nitrogen removal unit, with construction projected to begin in the first quarter of 2028 and finish in the third quarter of 2029.
In correspondence with the city, Mustang’s right of way agent said no permanent facilities were planned on the wastewater plant property. Instead, the company was seeking permission to survey a temporary workspace and access area similar to one used during the Blackfin pipeline project.
Company materials estimate the project would generate about $82 million in state and local tax revenue during construction and about $96 million annually once operational.
How we got here
The vote against access to the survey access form comes months after Conroe adopted a new pipeline ordinance in October 2025 following public backlash over the proposed Blackfin compressor station.
That ordinance requires compressor stations and similar facilities to be at least 2,000 feet from occupied structures and shifts final approval authority to the council after a public hearing.
City officials said at the time that the measure was intended to close a regulatory gap and give the city stronger oversight of pipeline-related infrastructure.