Fort Worth showdown – Tuesday. Be There.

Don’t miss the Fort Worth City Council meeting tomorrow.  YOU can’t afford to miss it.

Read the letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram concerning the meeting.  

You can cross your fingers, but we wouldn’t hold your breath.

Injection wells

I wonder what the Fort Worth City Council will decide Tuesday about salt-water injection wells. I hope it's not the same decision made 12 years ago, when the council, without any research, voted to make Fort Worth the first city in America allowing urban gas drilling while requiring almost no safety regulations of well sites or restrictions on water usage or pollution controls.

Today, fracking is suspected in increasing ozone levels, contaminating ground water and causing earthquakes. Some scientists believe that injecting 3 million to 5 million gallons of water and chemicals into one well can, in some cases, crack a home's foundation. What kind of seismic activity can we expect if tens of millions of gallons of wastewater are continually pumped into these proposed wells?

That's the question Fort Worth residents should be asking the council. Maybe then this council will finally put the health and welfare of residents first and, after 12 years, have the courage to stand up to the gas industry.

-- Sharon Austry, Fort Worth