Natural gas pipeline could be end of mysterious Marfa lights in West Texas, group claims

A view of the radio tower light (left) and Marfa Lights through a night-vision monocular on Saturday Oct. 20, 2012 at the Marfa Lights Viewing Area, nine miles east of Marfa, Tx. A view of the radio tower light (left) and Marfa Lights through a night-vision monocular on Saturday Oct. 20, 2012 at the Marfa Lights Viewing Area, nine miles east of Marfa, Tx. Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 62 Caption Close Natural gas pipeline could be end of mysterious Marfa lights in West Texas, group claims 1 / 62 Back to Gallery

The Trans-Pecos natural gas pipeline could cause the mysterious Marfa Lights to disappear, activists opposing the pipeline's construction claim.

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Atlas Obscura reported that a new group called the Marfa Mystery Lights Brigade believes that the pipeline could rob Marfa of the attraction that has long befuddled conspiracy theorists and the scientific community.

The logic: the lights can't be protected because the lights' source and cause is not definitively known.

Additionally, the pipeline can be seen from the Marfa Lights Viewing Station, according to the publication.

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"It's the first tangible thing in this area that people will watch disappear," Alyce Santoro, also a member of an organization called Defend Big Bend, told Atlas Obscura.

The pipeline has cleared a preliminary approval for a portion of the overall construction by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, but has been waylaid by property owners jostling with Energy Transfer Partners, the company slated to build it.

Activists also believe that energy companies could be tempted to begin fracking in Big Bend if the pipeline comes to fruition, bringing along new lights that would displace the Marfa lights, according to the publication.

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What causes the light phenomenon has been debated since their first reported sighting in 1883.

Conspiracy theorists have long thought them to be tied to UFOs and the like, but two studies in 2004 and 2008 conducted by students at the University of Texas at Dallas and Texas State University, respectively, concluded that the lights were caused by headlamps from passing automobiles and small fires.

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jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports