Bazinga

WHAT happens when reporters start asking questions? 

Read it in the Rolling Stone.  Fracker Aubrey McClendon Booted From Chesapeake Board

The facts of the loan itself were bad enough, but the way the Chesapeake’s PR dweebs handled it – at first they said the board was "fully aware" of the loan and approved it, then the next day reversed themselves – just made the whole deal more rancid. Chesapeake is a publicly-held company, with a market cap of about $12 billion.
 
The company’s stock tanked by 10 percent or so, vaporizing more than a billion dollars of shareholder value. The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the loan, as is the Security and Exchange Commission. No less than three shareholders filed lawsuits. You just know Chesapeake’s lawyers are going to be dealing with fallout from this for years. And who knows what other sweet nuggets of impropriety investigators might unearth along the way?

As I learned a few months ago while reporting for Rolling Stone, the Chesapeake is really a land-acquisition company disguised as a natural gas producer, and one that is leveraged up the wazoo.

If I were a Chesapeake shareholder, I’d have lots of questions – like, if the company is playing games with financial disclosure, what kind of foolery are they up to with disclosure about, say, the chemicals they are pumping underground during fracking operations, or what they are doing with the hundreds of millions of gallons of toxic flowback water they dispose of every year?

Enron with drilling rigs.

No matter which party you're in

This will affect YOUR kids.  Show up. 

Dear Friends,

I hope you will join me tomorrow, April 3rd for a very important city council meeting.  The council will receive public comment on whether to lift the current ban on "salt water disposal" wells inside the City of Fort Worth.  The Council will vote on the ban next Tuesday, April 10, and could decide either to extend the moratorium, prohibit wastewater wells altogether in the city limits, allow the wells certain land-use restrictions, or to take some other action. Unless the council votes to extend it, the current moratorium against saltwater disposal wells will expire on April 30, 2012. 

Because of the importance of the outcome of the April 10th meeting, I encourage you to attend the hearing tomorrow, Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at City Hall, 1000 Throckmorton Street, at 7 pm.  City council members need to hear from you on this important topic that could impact our health, safety, and environment. If you would like to speak at the hearing, keep in mind that the usual rules regarding signing up before the meeting and speaking limits will apply. 

For more information about the hearings, please see the City News page.  You can find general information about disposal wells here. You may also call my district office at 817-924-1997 if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Lon

WHO does Fort Worth belong to?

YOU decide.

Click here to see how many gas wells have been drilled in North Texas. 

Don't worry, the industry and their political friends say it's safe and everyone is going to make money...

Saltwater Disposal Hell

Oops, Well.  The word is well.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports on the city council meeting about extending the moratorium for Saltwater disposal wells in Fort Worth for gas drilling. 

Since 2002, urban gas drilling has seeped into almost every corner of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding counties to the north, south and west. But we still don't have a good way to deal with the 3.5 million gallons or so of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing at each of those wells or the "produced water" that comes up out of the hole afterward.

The standard way is to inject it back into another hole dug into a formation even deeper than the mile-deep, gas-rich Barnett Shale. But some people call that pollution -- gas well wastewater has a salt content about three times that of seawater. Some scientists have even blamed deep injection wells for minor earthquakes in North Texas.

Our favorite part of the report?  A comment from a citizen living near a drill site.  

I married a Texan, moved here a few years ago. I have a BS degree in zoology and a certificate in Environmental Engineering Technology. I come from Alberta, known for natural gas drilling as well as oil patch drilling. What I have seen here is a joke, an environmental disaster.

They put a well in right at the edge of our property, 5 1/2 acres south of Fort Worth. I have been watching the construction, drilling and operation. Of course we get money from the company, very little actually. It is not even worth the smell, noise and damage they have done to our land. After everyone from Mansfield ISD to Tarrant County take their cuts, we get pocket change. Now we have bottom feeding lawyers and ambulance chasers sending us collection notices on taxes from every Tom, Dick and Harry out there that wants a cut.

I watched the construction and they took about every big shortcut they could. There is NO Environmental oversight what so ever. During the injection, they built a large Tailing Pond at the edge of our property. They did not use a liner, not bentonite nor plastic, in it's construction. The water was dumped in there to soak into the soil and evaporate. Afterwards it has been filled in, to hide the evidence I would guess. We have lost over 25 old growth oak trees in the space of 1 1/2 years. They have poisoned our ground water.

The fracing does occur too deep to affect the trees, that part is true. But when you do not line a tailing pond you will taint the ground water available to the plant life.

It would cost thousands to prove it, so why worry for the companies.

They are not paying the $$ to the little guys when they disrupt your life, destroy your peace and quiet and kill your trees. Where is the money going? I would look in government. Crooked bunch do nothing reprobates. Oh wait here comes another tax notice.

Could you repeat the question?

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram brings up the question that continues to come up at least once a week from citizens.  WHO's listening?

Water woes

According to news reports, we are experiencing a severe drought. Water supplies in our lakes and reservoirs are getting lower and lower and, unless we get some much-needed rain, the situation will only continue to get worse.

Many cities in our area have imposed water restrictions and others are talking about doing the same. We have even explored the possibility of piping in water from East Texas or Oklahoma.

If we started building these supply lines today, it would still be years before they are completed.

In light of our current, or soon-to-be, water shortage, why are we allowing the natural gas drillers such as Chesapeake and Devon to continue using hundreds of millions of gallons of this precious resource to frack their gas wells? I have read nothing to indicate that there is a shortage of natural gas.

My suggestion is to let these drillers go ahead and drill all the wells they want, cap them off and, when the water shortage is definitely over, then frack the wells.

-- Larry McGuire, Crowley

Whole lotta shaking...

Arkansas has had nearly 500 earthquakes in less than 2 months.  Don't worry, the industry says it has nothing to do with drilling.  Question is, what about those salt water disposal wells all around Guy, Arkansas?

Read about it on CNN.com.

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!

Do not miss 60 Minutes.

Tell your friends.  Tell your neighbors.  Tell your City Council.

Straight from the Shale, it's the Ruggiero's.  And of course, Aruba Petroleum.

Believe it now?

In January, we told you about the soon to be water shortage in Fort Worth.  Now Yahoo tells you about the Ten Biggest Cities that are running out of water.  Where are we?  Number 6. 

Wake up, people, before it's too late.  Remember what happens when nothing is ever done...it just gets worse.  Maybe the Tarrant Regional Water District should spend less time traveling the country, running up tabs while looking at bridges and wake board parks for the Trinity River Vision, and more time focusing on what they were created to do.  PROTECT YOU from flooding and running out of clean water.  Would you rather have clean water or float on a tube in the Trinity? 

Yes, this is the same Tarrant Regional Water District that just gave themselves a raise.

We notice it says "multiple" for water supply.  The Trinity Aquifer is the main water source for the majority of us.  What happens if that gets contaminated?  ASK.

6. Fort Worth, Texas
Major Water Supply: Multiple
Population (U.S. rank): 727,577 (17th)
Population Growth Rate: 36.1% since 2000
Average annual rainfall: 34.01 inches
As Fort Worth continues to grow (its population is expected to hit 4.3 million by 2060), the amount of water demand has continued to exceed the amount of water available through local supply. As a result, the city, which is in Tarrant County, must rely on storage water, making the system much more exposed to the worst effects of prolonged drought. To remedy this problem, the Tarrant Regional Water District is trying to bring in more water from Oklahoma's Red River. Oklahoma, wishing to preserve its water sources, limits interstate water sales. Fort Worth has countered with a lawsuit, which is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Drilling in the Barnett Shale Video

Don't miss it.  Detective Durango has the scoop.

Wyoming leads the way!

"People need to know what they’re being exposed to. If the fluids are safe, why won’t companies tell the public what chemicals are in them?"

We couldn't agree more.  Kudos to Wyoming for taking back their state.  Hey, Wild West Texas - where you at?

Read about "Wyoming First in Nation to Require Public Disclosure of Chemicals Used in Gas, Oil Drilling" here.

YOU are invited.

TODAY.  Be there.

Tea at the EPA

While we like the Tea Partiers and their mission, matter of fact some of our favorite people are Tea Partiers, we were disappointed with what they (one group of them) did today.  Protesting the EPA meeting, really?  

The air belongs to all of us.  And no matter if you are Republican or Democrat, YOU need air and water.  Money won't save you.  Educate yourself.  Please.  If not for your own good, for the sake of your children.

Prosperity is the word of the day, alright.  Check out the flow chart on TXSharon.

Perry Vs. the EPA

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

WHO do you want in charge of your air and water?  And WHY weren't these questions addressed sooner?

Oh, that's right, GREED.

The scope of the EPA study is a bit unnerving, given the amount of fracking that's already occurred. Plus, it won't be completed for 21/2 years.

Some questions listed by the EPA: How are well casings constructed? How is dirty fracking fluid managed? What are the gaps in current knowledge?

Sounds like basic stuff -- facts that really should have been settled long ago.

The Barnett Shale has about 14,000 gas wells, and we're now asking what we don't know about the environmental impact?
Parker County Judge Mark Riley, one of dozens of speakers at the hearing, blamed the states and the gas industry for the current crisis in confidence.

"The states just haven't been responsive to citizens," Riley said.

Not in YOUR backyard?

Unless you live in Fort Worth.

Read the letter from Jim Ashford to the Fort Worth City Council, Mayor and staff. YOU can't afford not to.

Fort Worth City Council

It is my opinion the proposed Salt Water Disposal Facility is a terrible idea. I fail to understand why this item is allowed to continue being drug through the permitting system primarily by one Council person. It was a bad idea when it was proposed, and the more that is known about the chemicals in produced water, the worse it gets.

The thought of 1200 barrels* of produced water being evaporated into the atmosphere every day for the residents of Fort worth to breath is a scary thought. The chemicals which will be heated and evaporated include some the deadliest elements in the produced water, that being the benzines, toluenes, lead, mercury, uranium, radium 226 and 228 along with other deadly chemicals. These chemicals can not be filtered out of the water completely or satisfactorily. A more complete list of some of the chemicals that are in produced water is attached.

I have also attached a paper describing what produced water is from the Department of U.S. Energy. You will note the difference from the description of produced water in the attached information than presented by Chesapeake Energy. It is not just saltwater. I have highlighted some of the important sections in yellow relating to Natural gas, specifically, pages 4, 6, 7, 8, 9,15, 16, 18, 67.

Council person Danny Scarth (District 4), who has promoted this item like it was his own and often refers to "WE" when talking about Chesapeake, has suggested it will reduce Nox in the air by reducing truck traffic used to dispose of the water. What he is neglecting to mention in promoting this project, is the gas compressors needed to evaporate the 50,400 barrels of water every day into nearby neighborhoods include four massive 1400 horsepower engines. These industrial motors and their emissions are regulated very little in any form. The large trucks which haul the water, on the other hand, have a great deal of regulation in their emissions control and the type and quality of fuel they must use.

This site in East Fort Worth has even been promoted as a recycling facility of produced water by the City and Chesapeake, even though there is no water being reused. It is not a recycling facility but it is a cheap method for Chesapeake alone, to dispose of toxic waste.

Why would the city promote a site such as this that recycles no water, when other local companies recycle up to 80-90 percent of the water at their sites. There are even other companies that report a near 100 percent recycle ability.

The City has already proposed allocating funds to study the air quality at this experimental project for hydrocarbons. There is no money, however, to study the air for the radium 226 or 228 or the natural occurring uranium, lead or mercury.

Why is anyone promoting this experimental project so adamantly when its impact on District 4 is not good for the people? Only Chesapeake benefits from this, not other companies or the citizens and the people who live nearby.

*(1 barrel = 42 gallons)

Jim Ashford