Fort Worth and Flower Mound

Featuring Never Before Seen Footage From Texas

You may think I am wacko, well I guess people in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Arkansas and all over the Barnett Shale are too.  I could attend a town or school board meeting almost nightly where citizens already affected and many that are concerned plead for their health and safety.

Watch the video at the bottom of the post (note the following).

About 6 minutes in Judy shows the commissioners her medical testing where her blood has phenol and benzene in it. She also talks about health effects.

At 10 minutes in you can hear Steph Hallowich speak. It seems bloody noses are all too common in the gas patch and foolish people allow drilling next to schools no matter where you live.

Yesterday, Flower Mound Shares confirmed 2 cases of brain tumors, 10 cases of breast cancer and potentially 12 cases of childhood leukemia all within the area of Liberty Elementary. These figures are alarming – especially the childhood leukemia part – the children in the area began to be diagnosed in 2005 – one year after construction of 2 gas wells and a compression station.

A lot of hard work by many people has been put in to the review of our Oil & Gas Ordinances, yet our City Council wants to pass the following:

600ft for wells and 1000ft for tanks reduced to 600ft with vapor recovery.

This invites the gas companies right back into our neighborhoods!

We need to DEMAND at least 

1000ft+ with vapor recovery and emission controls.

STAND UP AND VOICE YOUR CONCERN!

When we ignore, downplay or dispute the PROVEN health effects from living in the gas-patch, we are either willfully ignorant or negligent.

Our city council thinks we have faded away.

Let’s prove them wrong!

Review Gas Well Ordinance Draft

http://www.youtube.com/embed/_fWMjft0yck?rel=0

DISH is located in the epicenter of the Barnett Shale gas play and is home
to a mega-complex of compressor stations, as well as pipelines, metering
stations, gathering lines and gas wells. The town of DISH spent nearly 
15% of its annual budget on a comprehensive air study after months of 
complaints to the state regulatory agencies and the operators of the compressor sites gave the citizens no relief.

DISH mayor Calvin Tillman says that “we really thought our air quality was
improving, this is devastating to find this information is inaccurate. 
The TCEQ permitted this facility, and they have no idea how to clean it up to 
to protect public health. It is also very disappointing that the State of
Texas has spent a million dollars on equipment that is not accurate”.

The monitor has been running since mid April and has detected no major
problems with the air quality in the community. It is unclear whether the
monitor is not capable of producing accurate results, or if the results 
are being manipulated. The TCEQ has not given the Town of DISH any explanation for the false readings, or any plans to protect the health of the citizens of DISH.
For More Information Contact
* Calvin Tillman, Mayor, DISH, TX
(940) 453-3640, tillman4council@aol.com.

* Town of DISH
5413 Tim Donald Road
DISH, Texas 76247

Link to story in Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/08/09/2393815/dish-mayor-questions-results-of.html

Video Link of testimony before EPA:
http://un-naturalgas.org/weblog/2010/08/every-agency-has-its-price/

• Use of an independent Environmental Consultant/Company to review appropriate parts of the ordinance, or conditions at a proposed well site.
• Presentation titled ‘Gas Drilling 101’ by NCTCA to provide information on the drilling process from a non industry perspective.
• Submitting recommended ordinance changes for review by an Oil and Gas Attorney towards the end our committee.
• Sage Environmental could provide more detailed analysis of the BTEX emissions concerns raised at the XTO Permit Hearings.
• A study of property value changes due to gas well proximity.
• Each committee member began reviewing the ordinance and creating a document tracking recommended changes.

The next meeting was a joint City Council and Gas Well Committee meeting for the ‘Gas Drilling 101’ by NCTCA presentation on June 29.  This was attended by several citizens also who asked questions of the panel after the presentation was over.

The third meeting was on July 6 and the topics on the agenda included:

• The need more information about compressors, tank servicing and maintenance since it is becoming more common that up to 20+ wells could be on a single pad site.
• Inviting the Barnett Shale Energy Education Council to present information on Gas Well Drilling and Production, a fracturing fluid recycling operator, a vapor recovery company, the gas inspector who handles much of Tarrant County and performs well inspection for Flower Mound and Argyle, and Society of Petroleum Engineers possibly from local schools such as UNT, UTA.
• Inquiring about the courses as NCTC on Gas & Oil Production and utilizing the College as a resource.
• Committee member initial recommendations on Chapter 114 Corinth Code of Ordinances.
• Special Use Permit or changes to existing zoning that require Council to adopt a zoning ordinance; Planning and Zoning Commission must have a public hearing and take action first. Last possible P&Z meeting would be Aug 23, 2010. The City Council would then be able to take action at the September 2 or September 16 meetings.

The fourth meeting was held on July 13.  Items on the agenda included

• Following up on previously mentioned presenters. 
  • The Barnett Shale Energy Education Council contact had not replied due to being out of the area until the week July 12
  • The fracturing fluid recycling operator, Fountain Quail offered to attend a meeting and allow the committee to tour the facility in Justin
  • The NCTC Gas & Oil Production courses are held at the Bowie Campus but the instructor was open to email correspondence in regards to questions.
  • Other presenters had not been contacted or responded
• It was generally decided that the priority had to be completing our review of Chapter 114 Corinth Code of Ordinances and multiple presentations may take valuable meeting time away from that process.
• Recommending the City Council consider the process of  a Specific Use Permit for gas well drilling operations in its next meeting.
• Some information on property values in proximity to gas well in Colorado was presented by Dave Goodwin.
• Randy Gibbons suggested utilizing the Southlake ordinance as a comparision to our current ordinance for parameters since it has greater distances on setbacks.
• Continued discussing the review by each member and some consultant recommendations on Chapter 114 Corinth Code of Ordinances.

Our next two meeting dates are Monday July 19 and Wednesday August 10 at 7 p.m. at Corinth City Hall.  If you have any questions or comments please post and we will request our resident representatives to respond to them.

On another topic: If you are a Cypress Pointe Resident, please read the message on the Facebook page in regards to our landscape fund.  Click here

EPA will make a short presentation at the beginning of each meeting. Attendees will have the opportunity to provide verbal and written comments directly to EPA.

Please complete a Registration Form if you plan to attend one of these meetings. Capacity at the meeting sites is limited, and EPA wants to ensure that everyone who wishes to attend can be accommodated. While “walk-ins” will be permitted to register on site, the number of attendees is expected to be very high. Priority speaking slots will be given to those who pre-register. Walk-ins will be assigned speaking slots on a first come-first served basis as time permits.

Public Meeting Information
Date: July 8, 2010
Location: Hilton Fort Worth, 815 Main Street Click here to show map

Time: 6:00pm – 10:00pm; pre-registration begins at 5:00pm
Register for this meeting

Click here for more information on hydraulic fracturing and EPA’s research study.

Remember to join us at tonight, Tuesday at Corinth City Hall for Gas Drilling 101.

For more pictures of the event visit the Corinth Cares Facebook Group.

“The program is not meant to make folks ‘experts,’ but rather to give them a working knowledge of basic facts and terminology so that they can have more effective communications with both the gas drilling industry, their elected officials and area municipal personnel” explained Esther McElfish, NCTCA President.

NCTCA presenters include Advisory Board members Jerry Lobdill, Vice-President Gary Hogan, and Treasurer Louis McBee. There will be an opportunity for a question and answer period following their presentation.

The program is open to the public (adults and youth, alike!).  If you or your neighbors are being approached to sign a lease with a natural gas well drilling company, this is the perfect opportunity to educate yourself on the entire process.  All residents in the surrounding communities are also invited to attend. 

For more information on North Central Texas Communities Alliance background and current information, visit the nonprofit organization’s website www.nctca.net

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Public Meeting
on a New DFW Clean Air Plan
Thursday, June 24th
7 to 9 pm
Arlington City Council Chambers
101 West Abram

For more information check the flyer: June 24the Smog Mtg Flyer

and check out the details on Sharon Wilson’s post on Bluedaze 

The flyer is a joined initiative of:

The North Central Texas Clean Air Task Force 

Environmental Defense Fund

North Central Texas Communities Alliance 

Public Citizen - Sierra Club  

the Texas Oil and Gas Accountability

Winner of the special Jury Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, GASLAND, is more than a documentary. It is a piece of art with beautiful cinematography that propels the audience to interact with collective gasps of horror, jubilant applause, hilarity and tears.

In other words a “must see” for our community. If you do not have HBO, you have the following options:

1. Click here to find GASLAND watch parties in your area.
2. Encourage your neighbors with HBO to invite others or setup a watch party.

If you do have HBO, please invite your neighbors to watch GASLAND at you home or host your own watch party and get on the map by sending an email to Texas.OGAP@earthworksaction.org.

For more information on the watch parties – click here.