Fracking Arlington's Rare Gem ~ Blackland Prairie Nature Preserve

Nestled unimpressively in a southeast corner of Arlington, TX amid warehouse buildings, homes, and gas drill sites lies a small remnant of land called Blackland Prairie Nature Preserve.  The Texas Blackland Prairie sprawls from just south of the Red River in North Texas and extends all the way to San Antonio.  It covers a vast area ~ over 19,000 square miles.  Although the Dallas/Fort Worth region of the Blacklands is highly developed today, it once was characterized by its grasslands, savannas, and shrubs.  Now much of it is covered in a sea of homes, businesses, and gas wells. 

Native Americans once settled in the North Texas area.  It wasn't until after the shale gas industry invaded and transformed our communities into heavy industrial mining zones that we were able to fully comprehended what it must have felt like for the Native Americans to be driven off their land and onto reservations.  Now we get it. 

A public meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, December 3, 2013 from 6:30 - 7:30 at the Arlington Municipal Airport located at 5070 South Collins Street to discuss the preservation and Master Plan of what MyArlingtonTX describes as its "rare Arlington gem."  Next you will see this Master Plan.  Looks good, huh?

Black Land Layout

 

A public meeting will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 3, from 6:30 –  7:30 p.m. at the Arlington Municipal Airport Lobby, 5070 S. Collins Street, to discuss options for the preservation and protection of this rare Arlington gem. - See more at: http://myarlingtontx.com/2013/11/18/arlington-home-to-rare-tract-of-blackland-prairie/#sthash.uTyQD93P.dpuf

Wait.  Take a look at this screen shot from a Railroad Commission of Texas GIS map.  Circled in red is Blackland Prairie Nature Preserve.    It looks like two, or at least one  horizontal well has been drilled, perfed,  and fracked under the preserve.  

It seems strange to dress up the surface when down below flows millions of gallons of toxic fluids.  It's too bad our City does not prohibit drilling under parks and nature preserves.  If this drilling frenzy continues with little restraints, we have concerns that Arlington's future  may be the next  Love Canal.  We say future because high-volume unconventional slickwater horizontal drilling is still in its experimental phase.  We have not yet seen the full ramifications of this process, but the harmful effects are already manifesting themselves in many ways from contaminated, flaming water to earthquakes.  

Note:  There may be an issue with this meeting date for some residents.  A City Council meeting is scheduled for the same evening.  Here is that agenda.  We hope this scheduling conflict will not impede citizen participation on a more pressing issue.

Here's a throwback commercial from the early 1970's:

Is it too late to keep Arlington beautiful, or have we gone beyond the point of no return?