Who's Railroading Whom?

The Railroad Commission of Texas inspected our sinkhole at Barnett Junior High.  They sent Mr. Smith, Engineering Technician III, from their Kilgore office.  It's a shame they do not have a local office in our area.  They really need one.

His inspection report included a brief conversation with Javier, an Arlington Independent School District crew worker.  We think Javier was the one carrying the shovel.  After Mr. Smith witnessed Javier patching up this ground collapse at the school's driveway entrance, he popped over to the West Wing Unit of the Fulson Drill Site where he noted that nothing unusual was taking place.   Wait... looks like he forgot to mention all that drilling, fracking, and perfing  under homes and under that sinkhole in 2009.  

We would like to know why the Railroad Commission does not have any ethical or moral obligation to make sure that Javier was remediating this sinkhole correctly.  We are pretty sure there is a certain way this must be done or else it could collapse again and be even larger next time.  Much Larger.

We called a sinkhole remediation expert, and they DO NOT recommend shoveling dirt in the void and patching it with concrete because this, potentially, could happen:

 Click Here for full story.

 

Is the Railroad Commission of Texas regulating the Oil & Gas industry or they enabling the industry to railroad us?

What can you do to change the status quo?   Contact your Representative about how our State Regulators are failing to protect citizens living in Shale Gas Extraction zones.  Click Here to see who represents you.

We encourage you to continue emailing us at Fishcreekneighbor@gmail.com if you have questions or if you have sustained property damage after drilling began in your community.  Include location and photos, please.

For the time being...all you need to know is the hole has been covered up, and all is well in the Gas Patch.

The Barnett Sinkhole

This photo shows a sinkhole by the parking lot entrance to Barnett Junior High School in southeast Arlington, Texas.  It has been there for some time, but since it wasn't clear as to whether this was on  City or School property, it remained in a state of disrepair.   We just learned that it is the School District's responsibility.  Originally, the issue was suspected to have been caused by a leak in the City's water main; however, that turned out not to be the case, according to an AISD official.  The reason for the ground collapse remains a mystery. 

Sinkhole at Barnett Junior High between parking lot and Prescott Drive, Arlington, TX

Barnett Junior High School located in the heart of a shale gas extraction zone in Arlington, TX

Now take a look at this Railroad Commission of Texas GIS map showing the horizontal well bores coming off the Fulson Drill Site operated by Chesapeake in Arlington, Texas:

 

Notice that the West Wing 1H well was drilled beneath the location near that sinkhole.  Could all of this drilling, fracking, and extraction of natural gas be the culprit?  It certainly may be plausible, but only time will tell... 

In the meantime, while we're waiting for these revelations, click Here to read about subsidence.  And click Here to read about the Wink Sink on Texas Sharon's blog.   We hope to bring you more updates very soon...  Shortly after this blog story was published, this weird event happened in Ohio.