What they didn't say...

If you saw the news on WFAA about the Texas earthquake on Labor Day weekend, you didn't see the whole story.  We know, you aren't surprised.

While WFAA made quick mention of there being a fault in the area of the quakes, they left out the part that there are 27 injection wells in the area.  And that Timpson hadn't had earthquakes until they had wells.

You can read about it here.

Let the shakedown begin.

Taking bets on if the USGS stands up for itself.  Hopefully they stand their ground, for YOU.

Read about it on Yahoo.

According to the Associated Press, a study from the U.S. Geological Survey has found a link between oil and natural gas production and a recent spike in small earthquakes in the country. The study looked at an increase in tectonic activity in the U.S. just west of Ohio and east of Utah. It found that starting in 2001 between the state lines of Colorado and New Mexico, an increase that occurred as methane production in the area occurred. Earthquake frequency spiked again since 2009, which was around the same time and in the same area as natural gas production increased.

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

"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.

Dear Fort Worth,

WHO's in charge?

Read a letter to the City of Fort Worth from a concerned taxpayer.  All taxpayers should be so concerned. 

Attend the Fort Worth City Council meeting February 14th, to find out what exactly what YOU are paying for. And remember that next election.

I would like to bring to the attention all in Fort Worth another atrocity by the Fort worth City Council and perhaps our State leaders.  It appears that a pipeline and a distribution facility by Devon Energy was allowed to be placed in the way of a runway at Alliance Airport.  In order to correct this blunder, Devon will be paid up to $3.66 million tax dollars.  Fort worth's portion will be 5% or $180,000.  Since Alliance is a Fort Worth project, why would the City allow this to happen?  Did they not know there were plans or might be plans for a runway?  If not, why didn't they.  Even though Fort Worth's portion is $180,000, the remaining 3.5 million is taxpayer dollars, of which we individually will end up paying part of that too.

This is similar to another blunder recently, when Fort Worth allowed a gas drilling facility to be placed in a location along I-35 in the Northern part of Fort Worth.  For a number of years the Highway Department and the City of Fort Worth worked on a plan to widen a highly congested portion of highway, I-35.  While this project was in the works, neighborhoods along the route had been assured the highway would not be relocated closer to their neighborhoods.  Someplace along the way in the City's need and greed or lack of concern, a gas drilling facility was permitted and allowed to be drilled in the location needed for the highway.  Despite the previous assurances to local residences, the highway now must be rerouted closer to the neighborhoods resulting in more traffic noise, pollution and hazards as a result of the high volume traffic being nearer to their homes.  How many tax dollars will be lost  as a result over the years, because residential property located closer to busy highways always loses value.  The well site will never produce enough to off-set the neighborhoods lost value.   The drilling facility could be moved, but the the price to do so is staggering. 

In a matter somewhat related, the City wants to place an injection well and place pipelines onto the Alliance Airport now, how stupid is that?  What happens when another expansion or runway for the Alliance Airport is needed, will the Injection Well or the pipelines be a hinderance or danger?  How much does it cost to move pipelines or an injection well?  Guess who will bear that entire amount?  

  Some of these things could be prevented if the City had a Comprehensive Zoning Plan.  Wait, they do, but the City Attorney's Office claims the Gas Drilling Ordinance regulates gas drilling and not the Comprehensive Zoning Plan, in essence the gas drilling is exempt from the the Comprehensive Zoning Plan.  My question is, since when does a City Ordinance overrule State Law?  It doesn't.  The State of Texas mandates all Home Rule Cities have a Comprehensive Zoning Plan that must be followed, with very few exceptions.  The City has no authority to disregard State Law and exempt the gas drilling industry from the Comprehensive Zoning Plan, but Fort Worth for some reason is placing itself above State Law.

The reason for a Comprehensive Zoning Plan is to protect the citizens from stupid or intentional blunders by individuals that seem to have an agenda or a City that doesn't seem to be able to plan or think past its nose.

Everybody's talkin' about

WATER.

YOU might want to listen.

The WFAA video that TXSharon posted shows some of what is coming from an injection well site to a creek in Johnson County.  It ain't pig blood, but it ain't good.  And where does this unnamed creek end up?  In Joe Pool Lake.  A source of drinking water for many Texans. 

The FW Weekly tells you about the water battle taking place all over the United States, the battle between THE PEOPLE and the industry.  What happens when it's YOUR drinking water supply?  WHO will save YOU?

And the Star-Telegram tells you the latest on the Range Resources lawsuit mentioned in the part of the Weekly article below.

Did three "news" sources in Fort Worth all report on water issues?  What is the world coming to?

"The gas companies own the Railroad Commission," Lipsky said in reference to Range and other natural gas producers.

Lipsky said of Range, "They own the system ... they know they got away with it (water well contamination) and they're laughing about it. ... God help us all."

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/28/3694982/judge-parker-county-not-the-place.html#storylink=cpy

_____________________________________

From FWW:
The area was quickly designated an EPA Superfund site, meaning that it has been found to be contaminated with hazardous chemicals and that the EPA will try to determine who is responsible so that they can be legally forced to clean up the mess.

The EPA’s findings, released as a draft last month, clearly lay the blame at the feet of the gas industry and in particular, Encana Corporation, the gas field owner around Pavillion.

The agency found that natural gas and dangerous chemicals were migrating through local aquifers. More importantly the EPA discovered, via its own monitoring wells, that man-made chemicals used exclusively for hydraulic fracturing are showing up in the water.

In other words, these chemicals couldn’t have come from some sort of natural source or even another man-made source, but only from gas drilling. It was the first time that a direct scientific link has been made between gas drilling and groundwater contamination.

Not surprisingly, Encana and the industry are fighting back, arguing that the EPA’s findings are flawed on several grounds. The impact on their industry — and the worldwide natural gas supply situation — could be tremendous, if the EPA’s findings are upheld.

At stake are shale plays all around the country that have not been allowed to proceed until the gas industry proves it can drill without contaminating water supplies. Not to mention the blowback in places like Texas, where landowners across the Barnett Shale and other shale areas could conceivably use the EPA’s findings as a basis for damage suits and  actions to prevent or stop drilling activities. The Natural Resources Defense Council has a list of 36 places around the country — including nine in the Barnett Shale —  where landowners believe that gas fracking has contaminated their water wells.

One of those problem areas in North Texas, involving three homeowners in Hill County, stopped being a problem after the drillers, Williams Production–Gulf Coast Co., purchased all of the affected property. A second local case, involving possible contamination by Range Resources of water wells in Parker County is an ongoing legal battle.

Resolutions?

We were catching up on the incoming emails from the New Year and came across this little gem from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  As usual, a double edged sword.  The brightest gem and the dullest bulb all in the same box.

This comes from a list of resolutions they listed for others.  One made us applaud, one made us scratch our heads.

The Tarrant Regional Water District and the Trinity River Vision Authority resolve to clearly explain how county residents can tell when J.D. Granger is working on behalf of the water district and when he's working in his capacity as executive director of the TRVA, because it's really confusing to keep it straight.

The Fort Worth council resolves to reach a logical decision about injection wells to dispose of natural gas drilling waste. The current method -- trucking the waste away to be buried in somebody else's back yard -- is not logical.

Coming Soon...

Earthquakes in Fort Worth.

What are some of the causes of earthquakes?  Yeah, we got them all.

We're about to get some more.

Where was the most recent earthquake felt in Fort Worth? Oh yes,Waxahachie.  

Read about it on FWCANDO.