Ain't all it's cracked up to be...

Not only does the drilling industry no longer own the 4th of July, they rolled through here and tore up the roads.

We think we heard that at a meeting (or a hundred), citizens asking WHO was going to pay for it, all the while knowing the answer.

Guess WHO rolled out of town?  Now what?

Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

The Texas Department of Transportation told industry representatives and elected officials Monday that repairing roads damaged by drilling activity to bring them up to standard would "conservatively" cost $1 billion for farm-to-market roads and another $1 billion for local roads. And that doesn't include the costs of maintaining interstate and state highways.

The task force -- made up of county judges, state legislators, state highway and public safety officials, and industry representatives -- plans to forge legislative recommendations this fall to address what has become a statewide infrastructure problem caused by five big energy plays, he said.

Now that drilling activity has slowed significantly, the big operators are gone and small subcontractors are hauling salt water and drilling mud, often making it difficult to get anyone to cover road maintenance costs, said Rick Bailey, Johnson County Precinct 1 commissioner.

"We'd be better off if they hauled the legal limit," Bailey said of truckers who often carry 10 to 35 percent over their legal capacity.