That's all, folks!

Seems we aren't the only ones with questions about OUR water.

What happens when it's gone?  Or contaminated?

Check out the letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on water conservation.

Meaningful conservation

Use rain barrels: check. Put in drip irrigation system: check. Turn off water while washing hands and brushing teeth: check. While every little bit helps, how much water is saved with these individual efforts?

Meanwhile, we sign leases and approve governmental policies allowing hydraulic fracturing to recover natural gas. A typical drilling site will use 50,000 to 4 million gallons of water; a larger site uses as much as 13 million gallons. The Texas Water Development Board estimates that the total water used statewide for fracking in 2010 was 13.5 billion gallons. Only 20 to 25 percent of this water is recovered, and it is contaminated with chemicals.

When companies ask why I will not sign a mineral rights lease, I respond that it is their waste of the scarce, essential, natural resource of water that concerns me. Some tell me they respect me. Some tell me they admire me. Not one has told me I am wrong.

Yes, individuals need to conserve water, but the degree of conservation Texas needs will come only when industry also makes conservation of water a priority -- even if that means new city and state regulations.

Agua es vida. Water is life.

-- Risa Payne, Fort Worth

Durango wanted to know how much water is used on fracing gas wells in the BS.  Chesapeake representatives have said 3-5 million gallons per well (which can be fraced multiple times).  Seems those numbers might be off.  Check out the number on Earthblog.  And remember that doesn't count unmetered sources.  Think that doesn't happen?  Take a drive around town, check out the wells along the creeks and river, it won't take you long.   

We don’t know exactly how much water they use because most of the estimates come from industry. We do have the little dab of information from the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District that revealed industry used 1,146,598,272.73 gallons of groundwater in 2009. But that only considers the metered sources. There were many cases where industry took water from unmetered sources with no enforcement action or fines.

Another estimate on frack water usage comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Mywesttexas.com recently reported in their article, Gas fracturing trades one scarce resource for another, that EPA “estimates water use for fracking nationwide was 70 billion to 140 billion gallons in 2010.”

What happens when it's all gone?

That's all, folks!

Mayors Everywhere - Part 2

In our previous post, we asked what kind of mayor YOU wanted?

We like this kind.

We cut the town's debt by over 50%, built a very nice municipal park and library which provides computers with internet access to the community, as well as wii fit systems to area residents. We also have won the Governor's challenge on fitness four of the six years I was involved and two of the four years I served as mayor. Another proud moment was when we installed solar panels on our municipal building. We did all of this without raising taxes or putting undue burden on the taxpayers. Another thing that I am very proud of, is that we partnered with area churches to develop programs to help our area youth. This was very successful and well attended by our area youth. However, the thing that I am most proud of, is that we came together as a community and stood shoulder to shoulder to protect our turf.

I would like to thank the citizens of DISH, and others around the United States as well as the World who have supported me and my family through all of this. Please know to all of you that have adopted me as your mayor, that I am still your mayor and will support you however you need me too. Thanks again.

A Mayor that stood WITH his citizens and stood up for them.  One that cut debt and made progress without shouldering his citizens with the burden of higher taxes.  One that made great strides not only in his town, but all over the U.S. 
 
We salute Calvin Tillman, former Mayor of DISH, Texas.  Current Mayor of many.  Carry on, sir!

Mayors Everywhere

Are YOU listening?

Read the recent article for the Dallas Monthly on what Libertarians want from the new mayor.

Change "Libertarians" to citizens and change "Dallas" to Fort Worth.  Remember, it's all interchangable. 
So are the Mayors.

What do YOU want from YOUR Mayor?

I was asked by the Dallas Monthly News to write a short article on what I might like to see from the new Mayor, many people like me have sat on the side lines with their investment money because we can never be sure what our government is going to do, for instance, I have seen a recent resurgence in the Deep Ellum area and think now is the time to invest, so I bought a restaurant and bar there called The Free Man Cajun Cafe & Lounge, but if at the same time the city works with its influential friends to prop up another area, that could actually harm me. Meaning I would have been better off staying on the side lines, not creating 30 jobs and not giving people another great place to eat.

This is what is so important for people to understand, government needs to stay out of business, it makes for a shaky, unfair playing field, and though many might say "but look how great The House of Blues is doing!" they don't understand that in order for the House of Blues to make it with government subsidies, places like Trees, and The Granada suffer. By what right does the city have to pick winners and losers in business? I can only hope that they don't play favorites, and let Deep Ellum revive as it as has been doing on its own lately.

That being said, I wanted to include a reaction from my great friend Jordan Wagnon, who has his masters in City Politics:

"What would Libertarians want from him? First we would want an end to the sweetheart deals at City Hall. "Public-private partnerships" and "bringing business and jobs to Dallas" sound great, but in practice the Council just funnels the city's resources away from the many into the pockets of a few. We hope Mayor Rawlings understands that every tax deal makes the rest of us shoulder a heavier burden, and every subsidy or TIF project forces businesses that already create jobs and earn their own way to go up against government backed competitors. The best thing the new mayor could do for the economy would be to fight against the rigged system so the people of Dallas can decide for themselves where resources are needed most.

In addition, we hope he shares our commitment to the personal freedoms that Americans cherish but the City Council seems to hate. The smoking ban, teen curfew, and window sign restrictions are recent ordinances that have no place in a free country. These measures do not make anyone safer, except for incumbents, who can say they did something about violence and theft by making criminals out of peaceful property owners or juveniles who dare to venture into public during the daytime. So Mayor Rawlings has a simple choice - he can embrace the idea that Dallas government exists to serve and protect freedom, or he can embrace the coercion and favoritism now imposed on us by City Hall. We will support him whenever he chooses freedom."

John Jay Myers & Jordan Wagnon of the Libertarian Party of Dallas County.

Save OUR water

The gas drillers need it.

The Tarrant Regional Water District (same district that just put on the fireworks display in Fort Worth with Chesapeake, how much did that cost YOU?) says they will have to place restrictions on water soon.

You can read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  And what did Durango have to say?

Yesterday, in the short distance I drove by the Trinity River, I saw 3 instances of multiple pipelines sucking water out of the Trinity River by Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers.

In June Fort Worth broke its water use record, using an all-time high of 8 billion gallons.

How many of those gallons were injected into natural gas wells, I could not help but wonder?

No mention was made, in the article, about the drought, in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, regarding the fact that a new heavy user of water has moved into town in recent years. One would think mention of this would be made in an article about the local water woes.

Here's a thought, tell the drillers to bring their own water. And take their flow back, back with them. 

Remember in the good ol' days when our slogan was "don't mess with Texas".  Unfortunately these days, that cowboy is all hat.

What was the plan again?

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram touts the new Trinity River plan in 2003.  Makes you miss Silcox, doesn't it?

Pure River Propaganda

More poetry from the Bard of the Trinity River...

Our River's a natural wonder.

So, I think it's a terrible blunder,

To change it's meander.

Why, that's pure propagander,

Spread by the gang waiting to plunder.

Since'49 floods are controlled,

But that's not what we're being told.

It's the creeks they've forgotten

And it makes your life rotten,

So, down those creeks we're being sold! 

More Trinity River Rhymes

Keep on rollin' with the flow.  And keep sending us more!

Flood Control! That's what they are fakin',

But it's really our land that their takin'.

They'll show us the fluff,

Not the negative stuff,

While our hearts and our wallets are achin'.

Rhyming on the River

We were sent this clever little limerick in honor of the Fort Worth Fourth.  You know the event where our politicians are using your tax dollars to convince you to get in the Trinity River.  They must not be from 'round these parts.

Don't be fooled.  Don't be sheep, you know where they are led.

Do alligators like sheep?

The country is broke, I'm not lyin',

But around here Big Spenders are tryin',

To make us swim in some water,

...that would dissolve an otter

Where the Catfish and Gar are both cryin'

"Inaccurate and Misleading"

No we're not referring to our politicians or local "news". 

Seconds after the back to back real newspaper articles (New York Times) concerning natural gas drilling might just be the Ponzi scheme many have warned about for years, the drillers started their spin.  Yeah, no one saw that coming.

Gas drilling companies called the information (which came from industry insider emails) "inaccurate and misleading".  Isn't that what the Times articles said about their propaganda, just in a more professional way?

As usual, local "news" jumped on the spin wagon. 

Here's a copy of what a local concerned citizen sent to the local paper.  Since you won't see the letter in the paper, we'll share it here.  Think they'll get a response?

You might tell your friends in the business that people are wary of propaganda pieces like this one masquerading as news. If Aubrey wants to put forward something that people will not consider to be "inaccurate and misleading" hype from the business end of the industry, then they need to get their most credible geophysicist and petroleum engineer to write a piece explaining how refracking can be made to work sufficiently well to keep these wells productive for 30-50 years. Oh, and the article needs to be signed and stamped with a Professional Engineer's seal so that his career is on the line. Also please stop putting out the hype about there being no chance of raw gas invading the aquifers because the fracking is done 7000-8000 feet below the surface and an aquifer is typically only a few hundred feet deep.

That dog won't hunt any longer. Look at any flagstone patio or sidewalk. You've never seen one without cracks. That's what happens in the wellbore at the interfaces between the cement and the casing and between the cement and the rock wall. There's the conduit for transporting the raw gas up the wellbore to the aquifer.

I'd be ashamed to be writing propaganda for CHK. If you want to do that then go to work for them. Hey, they'd even pay you more than the S-T does.

Where will YOU be tonight?

You have options.  You could attend the Arlington City Council where they'll be discussing the Hike and Bike Plan.  The last Arlington City Council meeting was so much fun, YOU might not want to miss this one.

Or you could attend the Trophy Club/Roanoke Town Hall where Congressman Michael Burgess will be speaking. 7-8 at Byron Nelson High School.

See you there!