WTH is going on in Trophy Club?!

Good thing for the citizens that THE PEOPLE are following the trail.  Too bad the "news" isn't.  As with most things in Tarrant County, it leads back to water and money.

Here's the latest incoming from Trophy Club concerning their water, MUD, SLAPP, corruption and lack of "news" coverage.

We know we've asked this before, but is there a reporter in the county?  Anyone?  Hello...

Trophy Club's Wastewater Woes Worsen

Trophy Club Municipal Utility District(MUD) officials showed little Christmas cheer on Tuesday December 20th as they reviewed  the findings of a local wastewater treatment consultant hired to review MUD 1 operations after repeated violations of the plant's permitted limits for Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD).  The MUD District Manager and newly hired wastewater treatment superintendent briefed the 5 directors on the report and detailed the problems that contributed to the previous superintendent's resignation just last month.

The report addressing chronic violations of BOD limits was a 180 degree deviation from the previous administration's handling of the matter.  As late as 2010, MUD director Jim Budarf had claimed in writing that the wastewater treatment plant had, “...never been in noncompliance.”

According to the report, the MUD wastewater treatment equipment was designed to meet a BOD permit limit of 10 parts per million (ppm) by  the engineering firm CDM when it was installed.  The current MUD permit limit however is 5 ppm(one half the equipment's capability).

The MUD was required to install approximately 3 million dollars in equipment in 2003 as a part of an agreed enforcement order by the Environmental Protection Agency.  The enforcement order came after multiple permit limit violations of BOD and other pollutants.

Details about the wastewater treatment equipment had been requested repeatedly by the group Citizens for MUD Accountability.  Ironically, MUD attorney Pam Liston, who had stated that there were no records responsive to those requests in 2009, presided over    Tuesday's discussion.

Kevin Carr, who was the subject of a formal ethics complaint by Citizens for MUD Accountability in 2009 over the environmental violations, was also present.  Mr. Carr, who had  been quoted in 2009 as saying that he was “insulted” by the ethics complaint, stated for the record that the report was not related to drinking water.  He did not clarify why he thought the discharge into Grapevine Lake (a source of drinking water for millions) had no impact on drinking water.

The Title of this article pays homage to the editorial travesty published by the Star-Telegram Times Register on Nov. 18, 2009 titled “Water Woes Wrapped Up” .  According to that article,“Trophy Club resolved its wastewater violations months ago and no longer has issues needing correction...”

Unfortunately for the Trophy Club MUD, the Star Telegram holds little sway with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality who issued the permit this year with the 5 ppm limit.  According to Trophy Club's most recent notice from that agency penalties can be subject to fines of $32,500 per violation per day with the possibility of imprisonment for knowing violations.

Another flood "study"...

This one in Arlington concerning Rush Creek Watershed.

Once it's completed FEMA and the Corp will get involved.  YOU know what that means.  Cha-ching.

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Then watch the Arlington flooding that happened Wednesday, though no one is sure the cause for the water main break.  Those living near the waste water plant have been flooded many times in the past several years.  Maybe they should study that, too.  Check it out on Fox 4 news.  What all runs downhill?

In September 2010, Tropical Storm Hermine sent several feet of floodwater raging through dozens of west Arlington homes and the Willows at Shady Valley condos. The city, saying that no amount of dredging would stop Rush Creek from flooding, bought 48 of the affected homes and the condominium complex as part of a $16 million program to address chronic flooding.

During Tuesday's City Council meeting, interim Public Works and Transportation Director Keith Melton outlined a planned Rush Creek watershed study that aims to identify its true 100-year flood plain, which hasn't been updated since the 1970s.

Many of the homes in the Shady Valley area were built before those flood maps were adopted. Over the years, development upstream has increased storm-water runoff flowing into the creek and through the downstream neighborhoods, causing millions of dollars in flood damage.

Arlington wants to determine how high Rush Creek storm water could rise once the watershed is fully developed. Rush Creek, which encompasses about one-third of the city, is the largest of the city's nine watersheds and has the most undeveloped land within it, Melton said.

The study, set to be presented to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers in 2013, will help the city identify possible drainage and storm-water-retention projects to protect structures, interim City Manager Bob Byrd said. The studies could help FEMA determine a new 100-year Rush Creek basin flood plain, which could affect homeowners' flood insurance premiums.

________________________________________________

Some Arlington homeowners said they were shocked and completely helpless when a water treatment plant mishap sent water rushing through their homes.

“I’m a realtor and was working at my computer and happened to look out the door and saw water coming 90 miles an hour down the hill,” said Carol Cash.

She said this is not the first time water from the plant has flooded their home. And her family has been trying to negotiate a settlement deal with the city.

Mary's Creek

The Fort Worth Business Press gives you the heads up about the Fort Worth Water Department meeting concerning Mary's Creek. 

From the article it doesn't sound like much has changed, no matter how much the residents protest.  YOU should pay attention.  YOU could be next.

And speaking of water and sewage...check out Durango's question for the day. 

The Fort Worth Water Department will host an open house on July 21 to discuss plans to purchase a site for the future Mary’s Creek Water Reclamation Facility. The open house will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. at Western Hills Baptist Church at 8500 Chapin Road.

The event will feature no special presentation, but citizens with questions about the project can ask water department officials about the plans.

Work on the Mary’s Creek Water Reclamation Facility began in 2009 with a Site Selection Study that included a Community Advisory Committee. The committee recommended criteria for selecting the site.

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

Holy Cow

More cows dead, this time in Palo Pinto.

 Read about it on TXSharon.

What happens when it's our kids??

Double Standard?

The City of Lewisville has been fined by TCEQ for a waste water spill.  Was the industry fined for this? Or this? 

And how much did they pay for the 1,146,598,272.73 gallons of water they used from one aquifer alone in 2009?  Read about it on TXSharon.  You don't know what you got, until it's gone...The Tarrant Regional Water District might want to hurry their Oklahoma law suit along, we're gonna need your water, O.K. blog readers.

Something smells...

Read the latest on a new waste water system in Fort Worth in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Be sure and read the comments from the CITIZENS.

Disposal Well Hell

Read about it in the FW Weekly. They do good work! Everyone needs to read the entire article. We'll give you a couple of incentives below. Don't miss WHERE the Fort Worth disposal well is or Louis McBee's question...it's an important one.

"There is no protection for the citizens," said Tim Lane, a University of North Texas psychologist who is dealing with fumes, noise, lights, runoff, and other concerns from a disposal well next to his small ranch in Cooke County. "From everything we see, their [the Railroad Commission's] purpose is to protect the oil and gas industry from the public."

If there is fear of the big companies, there's an even bigger fear of the unknown - about whether it's safe to drink the water, to breathe the air, and what the company on the other side of the fence is putting into the ground.

On East First Street in Fort Worth, in the Trinity River bottoms and not far from city ball fields and Gateway Park, a line of trucks leads the way to the city's only current disposal well. The trucks could eventually be replaced, at least in part, by a "significant" pipeline to carry the so-called "saltwater" from up to a hundred Chesapeake Energy gas wells strung out along the Trinity from Beach Street east to Arlington.

"How do you fix an aquifer" if it becomes contaminated, asked Louis McBee. "What are we going to do, react after it happens?"

By then it will be too late...

More Water Rising

Thanks to one of our contributors for forwarding this email. Notice public comment is allowed through September 21st...that's Monday.


Fort Worth Report on proposed water & wastewater rate changes available

A report detailing proposed changes to the City of Fort Worth's water and wastewater rates is available for public review and comment through Sept. 21. The report can be viewed via the city's Water Department Web site at or, starting Wednesday, at each of the Fort Worth libraries.
The City Council may act as soon as Sept. 22 on the rate recommendations. If approved by council members, the rate increases take effect Jan. 1.