Residents Battle Cry ...

 

"Don't Frack My Fairway"

 

Residents Protest with Drilling Rig at Official Re-Opening of City Golf Course Already Leased For Fracking

 

 

 

Spotlighting what they say is their city's rush to sacrifice park land to heavy industry, Dallas residents supporting a ban on gas drilling in public greenbelts crashed the official re-opening ceremonies on October 26, 2012 at the municipal golf course that City Hall has alaready leased for fracking.

 

Now being renamed "Luna Vista," the former LB Houston Golf Course hosted at least three separate leased drilling sites - including one immediately next to the driving range.  To show golfers how close they'll be to hundreds of trucks, heavy machinery and toxic chemicals, members of the Dallas Residents at Risk alliance set-up a 15-foot tall mock drilling rig immediately next to the club house for the ribbon-cutting.  The prop loomed over the proceedings, attended by City Council and Park and Recreation Board members, as a stark reminder of how the city has already compromised public safety and popular sentiment for the sake of gas leases.

 

Residents voiced concerns that the new Luna Vista Golf Course shows off our natural beauty here in the Trinity River bottomlands, and the proposal to allow a heavy industrial operation like gas drilling in between the river and the driving range is simply unacceptable.  Our park lands are for recreation and relaxation, not fracking and gas extraction.  The last thing this golf course needs is a toxic water hazard and hazardous fumes.

 

Afer two years and a list of task force recommendations, the Dallas City Council is still wrestling with the problems created in 2006 when they took over $30 million from gas operators for leases on city-owned propeerty.  The decision was not publicized and there were no public hearings.  Despite not drilling on those sites in the intervening period, gas operatos are continuing to seek permission to exploit them.  Many of those leases are either in park land like the Luna Vista sites, or in the Trinity River floodplain.  City Councilmember Sheffie Kadane and others have endorsed park drilling, saying the land is underutilized.

 

It's appalling that Councilmember Kadane and others on the Council are seriously considering fracking on thousands of acres of public park lands along the Trinity River with miles of hike and bike trails, a massive new socccer complex, and a municipal golf course in which we've just invested $5 million in renovations.  Our park lands are a generational asset, and our choices today will leave a lasting legacy.