"BS responses"

Coming from Fort Worth.  How fitting. 

The subject today?  Injection wells.  Seems we aren't the only ones who noticed the "citizen input" meetings are similiar to those supposed "citizen input" meetings for other Fort Worth projects.  You remember, the ones where when the citizens started giving their input, the city shut the meeting down? 

Read the latest in the Fort Worth Weekly.  YOU can't afford to miss it.  Take note of the players, YOU need to know WHO they are.  

It sounds if the city is most concerned about "truck traffic".  Really?  That's your biggest concern?  And WHY would earthquakes need to be discussed on a national level when they are being felt in Fort Worth?

“You can tell the Planning Department has instructions to make this [lifting of the current disposal well moratorium] happen,” the longtime statehouse Democrat said. He’s clearly angry over how the disposal well issue has been presented. City staffers, he said, are giving “bullshit responses” to what he believes are very real concerns.

The league is not opposed to “safe drilling that respects the environment,” Wood said. “We are, however, opposed to the destruction of our most valuable and increasingly threatened natural resource — water — by its contamination and injection into disposal wells.”

Hogan said the weakness of the setback requirement is evident in the frequency with which the council has waived similar requirements for gas wells. In a substantial percentage of cases, he said, the council has allowed the standard 600-foot setback for gas wells to be  reduced even when drillers produced waivers from less than half the affected property owners.

The city staff presentation notes that having disposal wells in the city, served by pipelines, would cut down on the traffic of heavy trucks that damages city roadways and results in surface spills, including accidents involving tanker trucks.

Trice acknowledged that allowing injection wells within the city won’t stop operators from drilling other wells in the surrounding county. And it’s correct, he said, that having disposal wells in the city would reduce truck traffic only if the wells are served by pipelines.

Asked about the city staff’s views on seismic dangers, Trice said, “I’m not sure we have a take [on that issue].” The staff is concerned, he said, but “that dialogue is more appropriate at a state or national level.”

“We would hope if there is a dire safety question,” the Texas Railroad Commission or Environmental Protection Agency would address it, he said.

WHO controls YOUR water?

It's a tricky question.  For a reason.  There are many water districts in Texas.  Nine times out of ten, they are above the law, as in they don't have to follow any.

There's been a lot of talk about the Tarrant Regional Water District lately, but it hasn't been due to water.  It's all been about the J.D. Granger and Tim Love Woodshed restaurant sweetheart deal on the Trinity River. A million dollar (give or take a few, again, it's just YOUR money) deal.  Don't you wish YOU could go into business for with no start up cost and if it bombs, you lose nothing?  YOU bet you do, cause you've already lost another million.  And counting.  It's a small price to pay for the billion dollar boondoggle known as the Trinity River Vision. 

The TRWD and the Trinity River Vision Authority, under the leadership of JD Granger, Congresswoman Kay Granger's son, heavily promoted Tubing on Trinity or Rocking on the River this summer to the citizens and taxpayers of Tarrant County.  WHY didn't they test the water?  WHY did the citizens have to pay to have it tested?

The project was touted as flood control, so it would receive federal money.  YOU hear that rest of the country?  YOU'RE paying for this too, so there.  We have to ask again, what does a BBQ shack on the river, a wakeboard park and bridges over dry land do for flood control?  YOU should ask.  After all YOU paid for it.

The TRWD should be reaching out to real water planners of the world and getting their act together before Fort Worth runs out of water.  Instead their reaching out and suing our neighbor, Oklahoma for their water.  The same state those gas drillers using all our water hail from. The same fellas that made our water district rich. Hey, here's a thought, why don't you make them bring their own water and take their waste back with them?  Ever wondered why many drill sites are close to the river and the tributaries? Remember, it flows both ways. Water, too.

If all that weren't enough, then there's fracing.  Even if you don't believe it could ever possibly happen, let's just say, what IF just ONE time it does? Remember the coast? What IF the Trinity aquifer is contaminated?  How do YOU fix it?  What happens then?  WHO is responsible?

If all that isn't enough, we came across the article below.  Which brings us back to the original question, WHO controls YOUR water?

I am in Parker County at a hearing where Range Resources has filed a plea to jurisdiction in the water contamination case where EPA had to step in. If the judge grants this motion, it means the Texas Railroad Commission is the final authority in fracking water contamination cases. It means you can’t sue for damages if the Big Gas Mafia fracks up your water. It would be a disaster for all Texas water drinkers. 

Read the rest here. 

Is YOUR aquifer next?

Fracking chemicals found in Wyoming aquifer. 

Once you destroy an aquifer, how do you fix it?

Once you're out of water, what's next?

WHO comes first in Fort Worth?

YOU or THE industry?

Durango knows.

WHO's Water is it?

WHO besides Texas Lone Star is worried about YOUR water?

Lots of folks.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU can't afford not to.

But rancher J.K. "Rooter" Brite Jr. is worried -- worried that the courts, legislators or groundwater districts might take that water right away.


Brite, 58, isn't opposed to all regulation -- he doesn't approve of water marketers like billionaire Boone Pickens sucking aquifers dry, and he believes that groundwater districts can provide some protection from the oil and gas industry -- but he said strict groundwater-use regulations could cripple his ranching operation during a drought.

"If that right doesn't belong to me, and I do benefit because I know it's in reserve, then what incentive do I have to care for this land?" Brite said as he drove his pickup through tall stands of native grasses on his 3,400-acre ranch outside Bowie.

Restricting access to groundwater would discourage good range management practices that lead to less silt downstream in the Trinity River as it flows into Lake Bridgeport and Eagle Mountain Lake, he said.

"I guarantee you this soil will move if you don't protect it," said Brite, who serves as vice chairman of an agricultural research committee for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.


A pending case, Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Burrell Day and Joel McDaniel, has been going on for over a decade and wrestles with the issue of who owns the groundwater underneath land.

The case has been heard by the Texas Supreme Court and may eventually affect the state's interpretation of groundwater rights.

A brief by Austin attorney Paul Terrill on behalf of a Medina County client, who also has a claim against the aquifer authority, argued that the Supreme Court "should reaffirm the clear principle that landowners have vested property rights in groundwater and reject [the aquifer authority] and the State's attempt to reverse a century of precedent and make it so that no government is ever required to pay just compensation for taking groundwater from a landowner."

Another case that concerns landowners is State of Texas v. 7KX Investments, in which land was condemned for a Texas Department of Transportation rest stop along I-35 south of Salado. The owners of the property argued that there was a vested groundwater right with the property and a jury agreed, saying it was worth $5 million.

The state has appealed, and Attorney General Greg Abbott argued in his appellate brief that under Texas' rule of capture law "a landowner does not have a vested and constitutionally protected interest in groundwater."

Any legislative action is unlikely until the Supreme Court rules on the Edwards Aquifer Authority case.

"I think everybody sees this as the big one; it's been before the Supreme Court and everybody has been waiting for a decision from the Supreme Court for months now," said Ken Kramer, executive director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.

Locally, groundwater districts became a political issue this year in the Republican primary race for Parker County judge, when challenger Cary McKay accused County Judge Mark Riley of bringing unwanted regulation to the county with the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District.

At the time the Upper Trinity district was formed, Parker County officials said the state was forcing them to join a groundwater district and the formation of Upper Trinity was viewed as better than being placed in a district with Dallas and Tarrant counties, where they felt their concerns would lost to the bigger cities.

But Brite feels the same way about Upper Trinity, which stretches all the way north to include Montague County, where his ranch is located. He believes Montague County's groundwater planning has little in common with Parker and Wise counties, which have become more suburban over the last decade.

What do you know?

Not enough when it comes to YOUR water. Check out the Region C Water Planning info here.

Notice no mention of the millions of gallons used for fracing. Instead YOU need to conserve. Also, take note how many times an "aquifer" is the main source of water to large areas. What happens when that water is contaminated?

HOW

Do you fix an aquifer?  A resident wants to know, let's see if the Fort Worth City Council knows.

Fort Worth City Council

The air is contaminated at my house already. What next?

Louisiana well blowout forces hundreds from homes.

It was only a matter of time. How do you repair an aquifer?

What happens when it does happens in The Fort Worth area? Where does the water come from. You can't drink it, you can't bath in it and you can't wash your clothes in it.

You have a city that is inhabitable.

That is a pretty high price for your glory.

WHO's to blame?

Another aquifer bites the dust...these folks realize you can't buy a new one, right?

Read about the residents of Caddo and the aquifer and private well contamination on TXSharon.

As the #1 Watchdog says, "You can't drink natural gas".

PROTECT OUR WATER!