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.



 

Councilmember Scott Griggs Hosts Gas Drilling Meeting

Our Neighborhood and the City of Dallas is at stake!

Proposed Gas Drilling Rig of ExxonMobile at FM 1382 and Camp Wisdom Rd

Protecting Our Community from Gas Drilling -

An Update on the New Ordinance

 

Hosted by Councilmember Scott Griggs

Thursday, June 14 @ 6:30 pm

Hampton-Illinois Library (2951South Hampton Rd)

Dallas Homeowners League Helps Announce Meeting

The Dallas Homeowners League is a citywide alliance of neighborhoods working for neighborhood self-determination and empowerment.

Gas Well Drilling Meeting Notice The City Council task force appointed to study the issue of gas well drilling within the Dallas city limits has completed its study and made its recommendations to the council. Several neighborhoods and organizations (listed below) will be hosting a public meeting to discuss changes that they would like to see made to the task force's recommendations, and to mobilize public support for their changes. For more information, see this meeting flyer. Meeting Information: Tuesday, March 27th 7pm - 8:30pm Center for Community Cooperation 2900 Live Oak Dallas, TX The meeting is being hosted by the following groups: Mountain Creek Neighborhood Alliance Texas Campaign for the Environment Dallas Area Residents for Responsible Drilling Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project Downwinders at Risk Dallas Sierra Club

We hope you find this information useful. Thank you for your support of the Dallas Homeowners League! Sincerely, Crispin Lawson Dallas Homeowners League President

Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force Makes Recommendations

CONFUSING   CONFUSING

After 8 months of studying ordinances from Ft Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Flower Mound, and Hurst, the Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force has made its confusing and hard to understand recommendations.


The upshot is Dallas has a weaker proposed ordinance of protection for their citizens than most of the other cities they studied.


http://www.dallascityhall.com/pdf/GasDrilling/GasDrillingandProductionOrdinance_030112.pdf


Of major importance is the "setback" or distance required from a gas drilling and production use to a protected use is as follows:  1,000 ft minimum spacing measured from the property line of the operation/pad site to  ....


residential, institutional and community service uses *


.... but the City Council may grant a setback distance of not less than 500 ft for protected use with 2/3 vote in favor.


The distance for Habitable Structures (is any use that is not a protected use) is 300' from the property line of the operation/pad site. 


.... So our homes* could be between 500 ft to 1000 ft from a pad site 


.... and anything else can be 300 ft?


Got that?  You need to be a lobbyist to keep track of this!  


Their will be a:

Citywide Organizing Meeting on Gas Drilling in Dallas

Tuesday, March 27th  7 to 8:30 pm

Center for Comunity Cooperation

2900 Live Oak, Dallas

* See exceptions on 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.

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

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