Welcome to Shale

We were a fan of Jerry Lobdill back when he was helping Gary Hogan run for District 3. We are even more so now.

If you need another reason to wonder why YOU should be concerned about the pipeline on Carter Avenue, and the deceptive practices of the gas industry, read Mr. Lobdill's guest column in the FW Weekly.

If a lot of your neighbors also signed, the gas company now has powers you were never told about. The lessee can essentially do whatever he wishes on the surface to produce the gas under your property. He can hold your property hostage for decades by performing inexpensive, nonproductive tasks. He can, and from all historical evidence will, pollute any surface location where he installs mineral extraction equipment. He does not care what you think about it.

Equipment that is no longer functional still leaks carcinogens into the ground. The surface rights owners have been denied access to areas on their property. So, while you've been told verbally that there'll be no effects on your surface usage, that is not an enforceable contract provision, and the lessee, and his landman representative, knew it when he or she asked you to sign.

They didn't tell you that each drilling pad will require a 16-inch gathering line to carry away the gas to a processing facility or that right-of-way for this line can be taken by eminent domain if necessary or that the line will lie as close as 20 feet from home foundations without regard to the possible presence of enclosed spaces under the homes that can cause accumulation of unodorized gas and subsequent explosions in the event of a leak.

The city has acted as a co-conspirator by approving the industry's activities and helping create a bandwagon atmosphere that blinds mineral rights owners with dollar signs.

Statistically, those numbers imply that when industry and the City of Fort Worth have enabled a full build-out of the gas field here, there should be roughly one such incident every six months in Fort Worth.