Water rising, WHO pays?

YOU do, of course.

Read about it in the Colleyville Courier.

We noticed no mention of the Tarrant Regional Water District.  WHY is that?

Most area cities are paying more for water and wastewater treatment, and that means residents will likely see higher water bills.

North Richland Hills recently announced that its residents will see an average increase of $2.21 per month to cover the higher rates charged by the Trinity River Authority and Fort Worth, the city's suppliers. North Richland Hills passed along the higher charges to residents.

Westlake increased its rates starting Jan. 1, citing a 10 percent increase in costs. Fort Worth residents also saw their rates go up. Euless raised its rates Oct. 1 for users of more than 2,000 gallons per month.

By then, the Trinity River Authority is projecting that the price for water will be 26 cents per 1,000 gallons higher than today and the cost of sending back wastewater will be 62 cents per 1,000 gallons higher.

The authority has said that it is facing higher costs in obtaining raw water and meeting state and federal regulations and that it needs updated facilities to treat and transport water and wastewater. The area's population growth is increasing those needs, officials said.

All member cities of the authority will pay a combined $2.2 million more for water and sewer services this year than last year, said Michelle Clark, Trinity River Authority spokeswoman. "A little over $1 million of that cost increase is for raw water," she said. "About $1.3 million is for debt service."

"Water will become a scarce resource," he said. "We need to have water conservation, water management to keep those increases down."

What the Hell?

Southlake Planning and Zoning Commission is asking just that.  Read about the latest gas drilling bait and switch drama playing out there in the Southlake Journal.  And be there Tuesday for the City Council vote, it could be fun.

The City Council could vote Tuesday on whether to authorize the city's first gas wells, despite objections from some Planning and Zoning Commission members who voted against the application.

But some residents, including planning and zoning commissioners, say the city is ignoring the will of the commission by not requiring a supermajority vote, or six of the seven council members. Typically, when the commission denies a request, a supermajority is required for approval.

A city attorney's ruling later that day said that because the commission didn't follow up that vote with a recommendation to deny the permit, XTO Energy could proceed to the council without a commission recommendation. Attorney Tim Sralla advised City Manager Shana Yelverton that a supermajority would not be needed.

That surprised many commissioners, who said their intent was to deny the application, according to e-mails obtained through the Public Information Act by residents who live near the drilling site in the Chapel Downs subdivision. One of the residents forwarded the e-mails to the Star-Telegram.

Commissioner Jim Hamel, in a Nov. 20 e-mail to city officials, said Sralla's opinion is "incorrect on several fronts." He also wrote that he and other commissioners were never told that a specific motion to deny was needed. "If we needed a separate denial to make a legally operative recommendation, it seems to me that should have been made clear to us long before now," Hamel wrote, calling Sralla's conclusion "simply absurd." Last week, Hamel said he stands by those statements.

However, Ken Baker, the city's planning director, told Yelverton in a text message that he believed that Sralla's opinion was factual. "I cannot read the commissioners' minds and thus do not know of their intentions," he wrote.

Bet he can read their minds now...

Welcome to Cowtown

Read about the streets shut down in downtown Fort Worth in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

A 6-inch line broke at the intersection of East 3rd and Calhoun streets, said Mary Gugliuzza, Fort Worth Water Department public education coordinator.

Safety first?

WHO's next?

Read about the California pipeline explosion here.

Federal investigators' findings in the San Bruno pipeline explosion probe suggest that thousands of miles of long-buried and untested natural gas pipelines across the United States are at far greater risk of failure than the industry and government regulators have long maintained, experts say.

"It's a wake-up call," Robert Eiber, a pipeline integrity expert with 50 years of experience in the industry, said of the implications of the National Transportation Safety Board's metallurgical analysis of the line that exploded Sept. 9.

"They need to make sure they don't have a duplicate situation someplace else," Eiber said. "If it has not been tested, you need to test it."

Just connect the dots to the Texas Century

A letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram caught our eye this morning.

Connect the dots

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is investigating how states can declare bankruptcy and flee their financial obligations instead of raising taxes.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry declares that the next 100 years will be the "Texas Century."

Just connect the dots.

-- Catherine Clyde, Fort Worth

Wastewater spill, it all runs downhill...

Polluted wastewater from a Quicksilver pipeline near Granbury. Quicksilver euphemistically called the 60 barrels of chemically contaminated well fracking fluid "salty produced water."

Excerpt from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article...

"The Texas Railroad Commission said Wednesday that it continues to monitor the cleanup of polluted wastewater that spilled from a small pipeline serving a Quicksilver Resources natural gas production site five miles south of Granbury.

Quicksilver estimated that 60 barrels of salty "produced water," including less than a barrel of oil, leaked from the pipeline, which carries wastewater from wells to a saltwater injection well, where it is pumped underground. Produced water comes up through a wellbore along with natural gas."

Congrats to Josh Fox & GASLAND

GASLAND the Movie has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Congratulations to Josh Fox.

The Gasland Oscar nomination did not bring any congratulations from Natural Gas industry spokespeople. Quite the contrary....

Entire town evacuated

Due to leaking gas.

Read about it on msnbc.com

WHO's in charge?

The Cities or the Industry?  What is more important, citizens safety or making a buck?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an article about gas drilling in Hurst, Bedford, Southlake.  YOU can't afford to miss it.  Read what the cities have to say about the tactics used.

Grand Prairie and Southlake both took part in moratoriums.  Do YOU think they all should?

So, WHO's the next target?  We hear it's Haltom City.  Be there, tonight.

"I had people come up to me and say, 'Man, what did you all do to tick off Chesapeake?'" said Bedford Mayor Jim Story, who attended the meeting and took issue with some of Wilson's remarks.

Both Queen and Story said they are unclear about what Chesapeake wants from the city.

"To my knowledge, Chesapeake has not come to us for anything. Not to talk about the setback or the ordinance," Story said. "To my knowledge, there has been no communication at all."

"While we have fulfilled all requirements to obtain the necessary permit, delays caused by the City still prevent the permit from being approved," one version of the letter reads. It encourages mineral-rights owners to urge council members to approve the applications.

Assistant City Manager Jeff Jones said Chesapeake's applications were held up because they were incomplete.

The week before last, the Southlake City Council implemented a 180-day drilling moratorium as officials tweak the drilling ordinance, last addressed in 2008. No drilling has been approved in the city, though two requests from XTO are pending, city Planning Director Ken Baker said.

Possible changes advocated by Southlake Mayor John Terrell include requiring companies to disclose all the chemicals used in fracturing.

You are invited!

Saturday!  Where?  Tandy Hills.

See Durango for the low down.