I'm a Pepper, are you a Pepper?

Last night Chesapeake held a community meeting at the Southwest Branch Library to discuss progress on the Bruder Gas Drill Site located at I-20 and Park Springs in Arlington, Texas.

This location is slated to have up to 19 wells with four six leaseholds converging on one pad site.  In other words, the nearby residents will experience the  negative impacts of the process such as truck traffic, dust, fumes, and noise while others benefit from the royalties.  Somehow this does not seem ethical, but it must be fine since Chesapeake has an ethics representative who happened to be present at last night's meeting.

Before the meeting began, we learned that a resident who asked Chesapeake for a copy of their mineral lease was inadvertently sent a spreadsheet containing the names and social security numbers of lessors.   That was a huge mess!  Supposedly, Chesapeake attempted to make things right by offering LifeLock to the parties involved.  

The overall vibe in this community meeting room was contentious.  On their own website page (shown below),  Chesapeake forewarns us about this:  "At each council meeting, a small handful of vocal opponents pepper the council with dishonest reasons to stop progress and take away your rights as mineral owners."

In our estimation, there is no reason for a person to be dishonest if they oppose heavy industrial  mining operations where they live.  The facts about the process alone, along with the industry's history of accidents is scary enough reason to oppose this type of activity.  

There were many peppery type of people at the meeting last night, but sadly, the majority of the folks in the room are still concerned about receiving their royalty checks which are not being mailed as quickly as expected.  One woman actually believed she would receive $300 a month!  In a subdivision where most homes sit on quarter-acre sized lots, taking away one of the zeros will probably be more realistic.

One gentleman in the room did not hold back expressing his lack of trust in a company that is under investigation with the SEC.  He appeared frustrated when no one in the room could answer his questions - one being whether or not  Chesapeake sells their gas at the Henry Hub.   He should have received "The Pepper Award" for presenting the most challenging questions. 

What was both disappointing and surprising was that no one talked about The Process which is taking place - in this neighborhood - a mere 300 feet from homes.

Fannin Farms...e-i-e-i-Oh...

What images come to mind when you hear the words Fannin Farms?  Do you picture  green rolling pastures, fields of strawberries, apple orchards, organic vegetables, or milking cows grazing alongside a quaint red barn? 

The Fannin Farms shown here is not a farm at all.  It is one of three leaseholds at a heavy industrial shale gas mining site located in  the heart of Arlington, Texas, USA.   It does not give off the scent of fresh apples, but it does smell like rotton eggs (at least when we visited) which might be due to the presence of  hydrogen sulfide, a dangerous gas.

Entrance to Fannin Farms Gas Drill Site Operated by Carrizo 7/30/12
Although Fannin Farms is one of three leaseholds at this site, 
the actual site name is Matlock Thornton. 
With so many drill sites, it gets very confusing!

The Shale gas boom brings to the community a variety of jobs involving travel and the great outdoors.  Hopefully, the triple digit temperatures will soon subside.   It's blazing hot outside!

Workover Rig  (Hopefully they won't encounter this problem.)

Glance to the left and see how close those homes are.

Safety First!

As we said ~ no strawberry fields or apple orchards here.

Looks like a breeding ground for mosquitoes.  With all the confirmed West Nile cases across the metroplex this summer, we certainly don't want this public health threat in our city.

Some graffiti by local artists.  Appears to have a copyright.

Undeveloped land adjacent to this Drill Site.  Seems to be a City Wide problem.