Friends of the Library Help Staff and Patrons

Christmas decorations and poinsettias were donated by the Friends of the Library. Nearly 65 children with their families attended a Christmas Party in the Auditorium. Christmas Story Telling, Singing Entertainment, Balloon Artistry and refreshments were provided.

Librarian, Sharon McCollins (right) and staff person, Ms. Shirley(left)

Children Enjoy Balloon Artistry and Story Telling

More Balloon Artistry at Christmas Party

Friends of the Library, President J'Ann Alvarado sings Christmas Carols

Park in the Woods: New Perennial Garden

Audubon volunteer and educator, Mariana Griggs from near by Cedar Ridge Preserve installs a garden of herbs and native flowers in the fenced courtyard of the Park in the Woods Recreation Center.  Beds were turned by Mariana and volunteers Ed Noise from the Cedar Ridge Preserve, and Ed and Claudia Meyer from Fox Hollow Homeowneres Association.

Lemon grass, sweet marjoram, oregano, mint, wooly thyme, dill, coneflowers, calendula, sage, turk's cap, iris and many other herbs and flowers were purchased from a grant from the Audubon Society of Cedar Ridge Preserve.  Mariana hopes the garden will inspire young children, teens and adults visiting the Rec Center to spend time out-of-doors learning about plants, insects, and the birds and animals that the garden will attract.  Mariana is a teacher, naturalist, community gardener, and forensic scientist.  She sees the garden as step to understanding nature and its potential in our society.

In February, fruit trees will be planted and volunteers will be needed.  This will be a great opportunity for teens needing Community Service hours.  Email mcnadallas@gmail.com for more information.

How to Create a Garden

Mariana Griggs Ready to Work

Preparing the Beds

Ed Meyer Hauling Plants and Top Soil

Voila!



Public Meeting: Citizens Plead for Safety ...

... Gas Drillers say, "not to worry", current gas drilling ordinance is OK.

A skeptical citizen shows his response to Gas Drillers claims.

Public Meeting

Drilling Down on the Family Farm

Farmer in Pennsylvania shares his story about deciding to allow shale gas drilling on his family's farm in Ellsworth Hill, Pa.

"I thought I was prepared for it.  I had seen this operation before, on other people's land.  I had even been mildly impressed by the military precision of it all, by the way the roughnecks moved wordlessly among the massive water tanks arrayed around a drill pad the size of a high school football stadium, ....".

Piotr Redlinski for the New York Times

It takes as many as 400 truck trips to complete a single well, and that’s not even counting the fuel-guzzling equipment needed to alter the ancient land to carve out the three- to five-acre drill pad itself. Once that’s done, the diesel drill rigs arrive, towering diamond-tipped syringes that work round the clock, often for two weeks at a stretch, to bore down 7,500 feet or so into the Marcellus before making a 90-degree turn to bore another mile and a half laterally. It’s a dirty, noisy, energy-intensive process, and despite the industry’s boast that natural gas burns 30 percent cleaner than oil, in the Marcellus the hunt for it is still fueled almost entirely by diesel.

And that’s not the only resource that’s consumed. It takes millions of gallons of water to break up the shale, and at least 30 percent remains underground forever. The rest of it, along with the slightly radioactive, highly saline and heavy-metal-laden water that has existed alongside the shale for 400 million years, flows up to the surface over the lifetime of the well.

IT’S a perilous process. There is the risk of surface spills — of the fracking fluid or flowback water, or even of diesel, whether held on the site to fuel the process or dumped when a driver fails to navigate the hazards on back roads never meant to handle this kind of traffic. Groundwater has also been fouled by drifting methane that migrated because the drillers, by dint of ignorance or carelessness or just plain bad luck, failed to properly isolate those deposits with cement.

This will never be a perfectly safe operation. No industrial process ever is. There will always be risks of accidents, mechanical failures, human error. That’s every bit as inevitable as the development of the Marcellus itself. There will never be enough regulators to police all the trucks and tanks and rigs that will cover the Marcellus from New York State to the Kentucky state line in the next few decades. In the end, the responsibility for monitoring this, for holding the industry to its promises and responsible for its failures, will fall where it has always fallen — on the shoulders of the people on the ground, the people whose lives will be most directly affected.

Standing there in what used to be our pasture on that light summer night, watching as the machinery of progress blasted the rock a mile beneath my feet, I realized that was what scared me the most. Not that this was inevitable, but that its impact depended so much on me, on whether I had the character to come out from behind the convenient shield of “are you for it or against it” ideology and find the strength, the will and the means to do what I can to make sure this is done in the best way possible.
I still don’t really know the answer. Link

Environmental Poetry

Source: Hubblesite.org

Cause and Effect

Question?  i know the earth produces

natural gas.  What is the purpose

of this gas?  Does this gas help the earth

maintain its buoyancy in the atmosphere?

Does releasing its gas from its natural source

upset mother and she lashes out

with earthquakes and other natural

disasters? Think about the number

of floods, ice caps melting on both ends

of the earth.  Earth quakes on the east

coast and in the south, areas that in my

lifetime  i hadn't heard activity

in these regions. 

i heard about global

warning …. i wonder if the earth is actually

sinking …. after all it's over populated,

over developed and greed extracting all

of the natural ….  minerals from the core

of the planet.  i ask you, do i have a reason

to be concerned?

                                  Fred e Allen

                                Resident of Bella Lagos Neighborhood, 900 feet from a proposed Gas Well.

Dallas Citizens Gas Drilling Ordinance

Review the Citizens Recommendations in the link below:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/68818189/Citizens-Recommendations-for-a-Dallas-Gas-Well-Ordinance

Citizens Oppose Heavy Industry in Neighborhoods

Gas Industry Pushing to Drill in Our Neighborhood Next?

Reprinted from the Dallas Observer

What the Frack: Task Force Isn't Done, But City Moves Closer to Issuing First Drilling Permit

By Leslie Minora Wed., Oct. 12 2011 at 8:32 AM 

North Lake map with Valley Ranch to the East and Irving to the West

 

​ XTO and Trinity East, two of the companies that have paid the city big money and signed leases to drill for gas within the city limits, have agreed to wait 30 months while the city rewrites its gas drilling ordinance. But one company has no such deal with the city: Chief Oil & Gas, which, we discovered at yesterday's meeting of the gas drilling task force, is moving ahead with its longstanding plans to drill on a site owned by Luminant at North Lake, near Coppell but within the Dallas city limits. "Luminant is providing the minerals and the land. Chief is providing the know-how and the drilling," said Dallas Cothrum of Masterplan, the land-use consulting company representing Chief.

In order to drill, companies must obtain site-specific zoning permission from city council -- a specific use permit (SUP) -- as well as a city permit, which is issued according to technical standards, providing that the company submits materials demonstrating that they are in accordance with the city's current drilling ordinance. Meanwhile, the Dallas drilling task force is crafting updated ordinance recommendations, which they will vote on next month before submitting to the city council.

But before it began revising its drilling ordinance, the city approved five SUPs for drilling sites, and Chief is the only one currently moving forward in the permitting process, as documented in the letter below from Masterplan, which ends with the line, "Finally, I cannot remember an occurrence when it took the city so long to issue a permit for an allowed use."

Theresa O'Donnell, the city's director of Sustainable Development and Construction, said her office has requested additional information from Chief. And if the company complies with the current ordinance, she said, the city must grant a permit allowing fracking on the site. Currently, she said during her zoning presentation to the drilling task force yesterday, the application is "substantially complete."

If a permit is issued, there is legally nothing stopping Chief from drilling on the site. "We're perfecting our package and plan to resubmit this week," said Cothrum. Depending on a variety of factors, drilling could begin before the end of the year -- which is what Chief said last year, following the resolution of a host of other controversies involving the property.

"We want to see if there's gas there," Cothrum said. "We wouldn't have gone through the process if we weren't serious about finding out if there's gas at North Lake."

The North Lake location is relatively secluded from residential neighborhoods, O'Donnell told the task force. "We could see the activity," she said, and "watch the process without having any immediately adjacent neighbors that are affected by it."

Potential fracking sites for which the city has granted SUPs will be held to the city's current ordinance rather than being forced to comply with the revisions currently under consideration. "They'd be perfectly within their rights to say no [to complying with a revised ordinance], but we could ask," O'Donnell said, addressing this issue yesterday during her zoning and permitting presentation to the drilling task force. She told Unfair Park that, generally, "You get to play by the set of rules that are in place at the time of your application."

O'Donnell made it clear that Dallas does not have a moratorium on fracking, but reiterated that until now, gas drilling companies that have paid the city millions for leases have voluntarily stalled their applications.

"We've asked them to hold off," she said. "They're just voluntarily keeping their application suspended."

But with Chief's pursuance of a drilling permit, the promise is disintegrating. She told the task force that companies holding those leases "could come in and submit all their documentation for a permit this afternoon if they would like." In other words: Dallas could be fracked.

Citizen Recommendations for a new Gas Drilling Ordinance

Citizens work hard to protect their neighborhoods ....    by Mayor Rawlings

The Dallas City Council was presented with recommendations for the creation of a new Dallas Gas Drilling Ordinance on October 4, 2011.  These recommendations have been compiled after months of research and study coordinated by the following citizen groups:

Mountain Creek Neighborhood Alliance
Dallas Area Residents for Responsible Drilling
Downwinders at Risk
Texas Campaign for the Environment

Other municipalities gas ordinances in the Barnet Shale were studied and used as a guide for the Dallas citizens proposal.

Recommendation highlights:

• A 3000 foot setback based upon public safety (danger to water mains, foundations, bridges, etc), as outlined in the national guidelines of the Corps of Engineers Manual with regards to the Joe Pool Lake Dam infrastructure. 

• Full disclosure of fracking fluid ingredients, with no exceptions,and with samples taken by the city.

• Off-sets for air pollutants of NOx, VOCx and Greenhouse Gases.

•  No wells allowed inside a residential area.  Wells to be restricted to areas zoned for heavy industry.

• Notice of a Gas Well SUP permit application shall be mailed to all residences, schools, churches, day care center, nursing homes and business within a one mile radius of the facility.  

See attached link for copy of Recommendations: 

 http://www.scribd.com/doc/67593580/Citizens-Recommendations-for-a-Dallas-Gas-Well-Ordinance

Mountain Creek Area Alert: Redistricting Changes

A Mountain Creek Area Neighborhood

 A message from Councilman Griggs,

Our Dallas City Council is taking up the important topic of redistricting.  Every ten years we redraw our council districts and this Saturday is your opportunity to tell the full Dallas City Council what you think:

Saturday, September 24, 2011

3pm - 6pm

Dallas City Hall

1500 Marilla Street

I hope to see you there.  This is one of the most important meetings you can attend.  Please see the maps that will be discussed at:

http://www.dallascityhall.com/Redistricting/planReview.html

Please join me in supporting the Jasso Griggs Amendments to Plan 16, which keep our Oak Cliff in TWO council districts and maintain the historic connection between Mountain Creek/The Woods and North Oak Cliff.  Other plans threaten to break Oak Cliff into FOUR council districts and divide our community west of I-35.  This is an important meeting!  And YOU will have a chance to be heard! 

City of Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force

Safety and health at stake for Mountain Creek and Dallas ....

Gas Drilling Safety Monitoring Presenter

Ramon Alvarez, Environmental Defense Fund and David Bullock, Maguire Energy Institute, SMU

Chairperson Lois Finkelman and Park Board Chair Joan Walne

Will Joe Pool Lake have a future? Mother Jones reports ....

As Texas Withers, Gas Industry Guzzles

Drought restrictions are forcing homeowners to quit watering their gardens, even as thirsty fracking operations help themselves to the agua.

By Josh Harkinson | Thu Sep. 1, 2011 3:00 AM PDT

---

At Trinity Park, a popular picnic spot near downtown Fort Worth, Texas, a scorching summer has killed stately oaks and turned lawns into brittle moonscapes. On the park's eastern edge, loud diesel generators pump some 4 million gallons of water from the Trinity River, though they're not supplying the park or city residents, who began facing drought-imposed watering restrictions on Monday. Instead, Chesapeake Energy is piping the water across the park to frack a nearby natural gas well.
As Texas faces its worst single-year drought ever, many drinking wells have failed, entire towns could go dry, and millions of residential water users face mandatory cutbacks. A study released at a meeting of Texas water districts yesterday predicted that the drought will persist through next summer. But so far, the state's booming and increasingly thirsty natural gas industry faces no limits to how much water it can pump.
"In a drought like this, every drop is important," says Don Young, a local anti-fracking activist who showed me where Chesapeake's water pipes had been hoisted over a jogging trail. "And if we're asked to conserve, then I think the drilling industry should be doing the same thing."

Fracking, which employs high-pressure jets of water to fracture rock and release natural gas, accounts for a fast-growing share of water use in some of the driest parts of Texas. Though the overall affect of fracking on reservoirs and rivers in Fort Worth's Barnett Shale zone is dwarfed by agriculture and homeowners, its local impacts can be severe. For example, in the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District (UTGCD) west of Fort Worth, the share of groundwater used by frackers was 40 percent in the first half of 2011, up from 25 percent in 2010.
In the midst of a severe drought, Chesapeake Energy pumps 4 million gallons of water from a river for a fracking operation in Fort Worth."Obviously, that's a pretty heavy draw on an aquifer when we're in the midst of a drought," says Bob Patterson, UTGCD's general manager. In his water district, 40 to 50 wells have run dry and many municipalities have declared stage two or stage three drought conditions, which involve severe restrictions on residential outdoor water use. But natural gas drillers can still pump as much water from the district as they want. Patterson says restrictions targeting drillers in his area would have to be imposed by state agencies or the Legislature, which "has been fairly lax." He and many other water managers want Texas Gov. Rick Perry to place limits on the drillers.
Critics of fracking claim the industry actually uses far more water than it lets on. Because water used in the fracking process becomes contaminated with hydrocarbons and other toxins, frackers typically sequester it deep underground, removing that wastewater permanently from the hydrologic cycle. Unlike the water used for irrigation or daily living, it doesn't reenter rivers, aquifers, or the atmosphere. "Fracking water is typically not recycled," says Paul Hudak, a hydrologist with the University of North Texas. "It's not really economical."
A similar battle is playing out in the Eagle Ford Shale zone of south Texas, where, due to a quirk of geology, wells typically require four times more fracking water than those in the Barnett Shale area. Each Eagle Ford well uses an average 13 million gallons of water, enough to supply the needs of 240 adults for a year. Some farmers in the area have refused to sell water to the drillers for fear of not having enough for their crops. ExxonMobil has taken to recycling fracking fluids, and Anadarko Petroleum is replacing dirt roads with limestone to cut down on water needed for dust control.
Faced with drillers' booming water needs, some Texas cities have taken matters into their own hands, charging drillers more for water or refusing to sell to them at all. A group of cities, including Fort Worth, is encouraging drillers to tap into a new pipeline that would let them purchase reclaimed industrial water at reduced rates. The UTGCD's Patterson urges drillers to recycle their wastewater, but says he lacks the legal authority to make them do it.
Prior to the drought, opposition to fracking typically focused on the industry's potential to contaminate drinking water, befoul the air, and disrupt neighborhoods with noisy drilling operations. But in the long run, opponents now see the industry's thirst as a major sticking point. A 2007 study by the Texas Water Development Board estimated that fracking could consume up to 13 percent of the Barnett Shale zone's groundwater by 2025—water the area may not have to spare if droughts like this one become more commonplace.
"It's a symbol of the arrogance of these companies that they can run these pipes all through the park," said Young, a founder of Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance. "This is not doing the public any good at all, but these companies don't care because they're making money."

It's My Park Day

Friends of Emerald Lake Host Clean Up

Saturday, September 10th, 2011

8am - Noon

Emerald Lake Park behind Mt Creek Library

You are invited to join us at Emerald Lake shore Saturday, September 10 between 8 and 12 or at another time this week-end. The very low water gives us the opportunity to pick up bottles and other trash that have been submerged there for a long time. Call Wayne Dye if you have any questions: 214-693-0919 or Sally at 972-533-9555.

Wear sun protection and older protective shoes. Bags and gloves will be available on Saturday in 3 locations:

1. Outside the entrance of Mt. Creek Library before hours and just inside the door after the library opens.
2. From Mt. Creek Library: take sidewalk down to lakefront and the 1^st lakeside park bench.
3. From Playground end: find bags on picnic table between playground and vollyball court.

Pick up a couple of white bags and a pair of gloves and carry them around along the sidewalk to the furthest partially filled tied bag and start your trash pick up from there. When partially filled (too big to fill), tie ends together and leave below the edge of the sidewalk where you ended your pickup for later collection.

If you choose to clean-up the undeveloped side of the lake follow above guidelines, leaving your bag near the shore where you ended for collection by canoe later Saturday.

You can also collect trash along the tree lines in the park if you prefer and leave bags off the edge of the sidewalk or next to the nearest trash bin.

Thank you for considered helping in this community service effort.

Sincerely, Wayne and Sally Dye, Friends of Emerald Lake

Trinity River Water Being Taken For Gas Wells

Watch a story by Channel 11 on the last night's news.

Trinity River Water Being Taken For Gas Wells

Severe Drought ... and Joe Pool Lake

So far, we've had 58 consecutive days of 100+ temperatures and lakes that supply Dallas water are becoming depleted.  It's gotten so bad, the neighboring town of Kemp in Kaufman County lost running water, because of the extreme heat and drought conditions, and couldn't fight fires.

The City of Dallas has proposed a 5.9%  water rate increase in the 2011-2012 Dallas City Budget.  A pipeline is being built to Palestine, TX at a cost of $850 million.  New reservoirs or connections to sources in Oklahoma are being considered.

And closer to home .... there are two proposed/pending gas drilling sites in the Mountain Creek area waiting for recommendations from the Dallas City Gas Drilling Task Force to the Dallas City Council.  Each well frack uses an average of 5 million gallons per frack.  Wells are usually fracked multiple times and there are usually multiple wells on a gas pad site.

After the water is used for fracking, it is toxic and has to be buried into other wells. It is cost prohibitive to recycle.  The water is taken out of the hydrologic cycle.

Residents are asking questions:

• Has the City of Dallas projected the gas industries heavy need for water into their Plans?

• What is the average rate per gallon for residents?

• What is the average commercial rate per gallon?

• What is the rate per gallon of untreated water for the gas industry, considering the water used is taken out of the hydrologic cycle?

Or maybe we need water for living  .... not burying. 

Councilman Scott Griggs says ......

“I want to hear from you at the District 3 Town Hall Meetings.”

Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm is preparing the proposed budget for the City of Dallas for the next fiscal year, October 2011 – September 2012. This budget will determine how our tax dollars are spent on police, fire, code enforcement, streets, parks, recreation centers, libraries, as well as the arts and other important city services. 

Please save the following date for your neighborhood:

Thursday, August 25 at 7:00 p.m.

Park in the Woods Recreation Center

6801 Mountain Creek Parkway at Wheatland Road

Tel 214.671.0218

Here is a quick look at the 2011-2012 budget:

• No tax rate increase
• No sanitation rate increase

• Water rate increase of 5.9%

• Add 200 police officers
• Add 200 firefighters

• Street maintenance will remain the same as this year (2010 – 2011)

• Maintain 14 community prosecutors

• Nearly all pools and recreation centers will be open
• There will be some library staff cuts, but materials will increase

• Reduce cultural arts service programming funding by 10%

• Increase AT&T Performing Arts Center funding to $1.5M

• Historic and conservation districts will only be partially funded by general fund

• Add 17 employees in building inspection and planning

• More than $500K for modernizing building inspection and planning

Please pass along this information to your friends and neighbors. We need to get the word out! I hope to see you at the Town Hall meetings.   By Scott Griggs

Councilman Scott Griggs Meets with Friends of Library

Friends of the Library of the Mountain Creek Branch met with Councilman Griggs on August 5th about Dallas City Budget.  Friends expressed concern about another round of budget cuts.  Griggs recommends attending the Town Hall Meeting at the Park in the Woods Recreation Center at 7pm on August 25th to voice concerns.  He advised "the greater the turnout of residents, the greater chance of making changes in the proposed budget". 

Friends want to extend Library hours from 8pm to 9pm during the week to accommodate the many Homeowners Associations and other groups that have been meeting at the Library before the hours were changed.  Post your comments below.

100+ Turn Out for Gas Drilling Public Hearing in 100+ Temps

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/08/drilling_task_force_gets_a_pub.php

 

City's Gas Drilling Task Force Received a Public Education at Last Night's Hearing

By Leslie Minora Wed., Aug. 3 2011 at 1:49 PM

In the end, council members Delia Jasso, Dwaine Caraway and Scott Griggs skipped Mayor Mike's shindig to sit amongst the public at last night's hearing in front of the city's gas drilling task force. And they were surrounded: The council members were joined by about 100 people who addressed many of the issues topping the list of the task force's concerns -- air and water pollution, truck traffic, proximity to neighborhoods, you name it. In short, they wanted to make sure Dallas doesn't get fracked when the task force makes its recommendations to the council, which will rewrite its drilling ordinance in the fall.
"I need as much information as possible," said task force member Cherelle Blazer. Far as she was concerned, the citizenry's input would serve as a "good barometer" of public concern.
"This task force is an opportunity," said Jeffrey Jacoby of Texas Campaign for the Environment when he took the podium. "You are an opportunity, and, of course, you have an opportunity." He theatrically expanded on his point, saying that the task force has the ability to give energy companies a chance to make "boatloads" of money and that it also has the chance to protect the citizens of Dallas.
"I see you as the group that's going to define the word 'safety' for the city."
"I believe fracking is a license to kill," Dallas resident Donna Turman said. She noted that it felt "surreal" to ask the task force, "Please don't kill us."
Raymond Crawford, often hailed by his fellow activists as the man who got City Hall to pay attention to drilling diligence, asked the task force to pay close attention to drilling impact studies that detail the effects of drilling on water, road conditions, the environment and business. "Very little science was known or was used" when the current ordinance was created in '08, he said.
"No matter what anybody says, there is not a stainless steel plate under the earth," environmental activist Marc McCord said when it was his turn to speak. "We're in a critical shortage of water ... and this is nothing new. There is no new water coming from outer space."
Mountain Creek's Ed and Claudia Meyer took back-to-back turns at the mic, and both ended their three minutes with that quote Mayor Rawlings uttered before the screening of Gasland at the Texas Theatre several weeks ago: "I will never vote to put any neighborhood at risk because of money."
Dallas resident Robert Unger was one of only two people to speak in favor of fracking: "It has proven to be a safe technology," he said. "It is an industry that is respectful of the communities in which we operate and in which we live." He characterized the practice as a "compromise" wherein the positive outcomes outweigh the negatives.
At the end of the hearing, task force chair Lois Finkelman told Unfair Park, "We can hear from dozens of professionals and experts in all the various fields ... but the bottom line is what is the effect on citizens and neighbors and what are their concerns." Public hearings, she said, are another way of "broadening the education" of the task force.
Finkelman hinted that the task force may need to extend its flexible October deadline for its recommendations to council. "Whether or not [the October deadline] is realistic remains to be seen," she said at the hearing's outset, adding that she has her sights set on early November. After that, she said there would be additional opportunities for public input as their recommendations make their way to the city council.

​

"Ethel, what do they mean snail gas"?

Welcome to your new blog ...

Welcome to the Mountain Creek Neighborhood Alliance blog.  The purpose of the Alliance and this blog is to help residents of the Mountain Creek area of Dallas share information about subjects that could affect Mountain Creek Neighborhoods and the City of Dallas ... either positively or negatively.  Informed neighbors make for a better community! 

The 2 current issues of concern for our neighborhoods are Redistricting for City Council Elections and the pending Gas Well Drilling sites at Camp Wisdom/FM 1382 and at Hensley Field.  The Hensley Field site will be the first gas drilling application to come up for a vote at the Dallas City Council in October, 2011.  The outcome of the Hensley Field application will determine the outcome of future gas drilling applications in the City of Dallas.

Here is your opportunity for citizen input on gas well drilling in your neighborhood:

Public Hearing/Comments

Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force

August 2, 2011 at 7pm

Dallas City Hall
 L1F Auditorium
1500 Marilla

Dallas, TX 75201

Please visit links for more information on Gas Drilling in Texas.