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)

Proposed Gas Drilling in Mountain Creek

GAS DRILLING

What you need to know

TUESDAY, MAY 8^th 7:00 — 8:30

Harmony Charter School

8120 W. Camp Wisdom Road, Dallas

Don’t let the Dallas City Council Roll Back Protection for Mountain Creek Residents

Keep Drilling Away from People & Parks

Water for Drinking Not for Drilling

Don’t Make Bad Air Worse

Full Disclosure of Toxic Risk

24/7 Effective Oversight

For more information: Zac Trahan 214-599-7840

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

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

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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."

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.