Mother Nature has showered upon us bountiful rains this spring...
Fish Creek, Southeast Arlington, TX 5-17-2015
Texas was dry. People across the State had been praying for rain. Barnhart, a small Texas town, ran out of water, The oil and gas industry sucked massive quantities of this precious resource for fracking. In case you missed it:
Click Here to see the United States Drought Monitor.
During our epic drought in the summer of 2011, there were many strange water shenanigans happening in Arlington, Texas. One church made a special deal with Chesapeake to supply them with water for fracking by running water pipelines from their decorative pond across the highway to a drill site. Our City treated it as a cash cow by selling it to gas operators. Grand Prairie had a water moratorium in place due to the drought, but that didn't stop Chesapeake. They hauled Arlington water across the city line, violating the site stipulations for the Fulson Drill Site. Here are those back stories:
While we've received copious amounts of rain this spring, and Fish Creek is full, the State is not yet out of the woods as far as the drought is concerned. And citizens have a long battle ahead due to the recent power grab by our State and the industry because Governor Greg Abbott just signed HB40 into law today. But the lakes and creeks are full, so for now we can enjoy this miraculous gift.
On January 22, 2013
Lynda Gearheart, Project Manager for Chesapeake, told the Arlington,TX
City Council that security cameras are difficult to come by. Installation of a camera was one stipulation for approval of a gas well permit at the controversial Rocking Horse Drill Site. Click Here for that backstory.
In this video clip from January 22, 2013 City Councilmen Charlie Parker and Robert Rivera question Ms. Gearheart about that security camera:
Below is a document obtained by a citizen via an open records request through the City of Arlington. These are gas drilling citations that were issued in the spring of 2014. Security
cameras must be in short supply because more than 18 months have passed and ~ as these citations reveal ~
many of their drill sites still do not have cameras! When we called the City for a status update, they
said that Chesapeake is working on it. Come on, guys, time's up!
What would Minnie the Meter Maid say about issuing gas drilling violations on parking tickets?
Darlene (Sunnie) Minney Hubbard
Photo Attribution Grand Prairie Historical Organization
Arlington treats gas drilling violations no differently
than expired parking meters! Perhaps they want us to believe that gas drilling in residential neighborhoods is innocuous. Well, we know better. These are dangerous
industrial mining sites in our neighborhoods ~ not bakeries! We live near them, experience the impacts, and study the issues.
Notice that the company names are left off every citation. Is this intentional? Throwing workers under the bus. Glenn Stetson's name appears on many of these citations. He is a Production Superintendent for Chesapeake. This seems unfair because after the third offense, this civil citation turns into a criminal matter. It just wouldn't be right to press charges against a young newlywed when it is the City's responsibility to enforce the ordinance AND the company's responsibility to comply with it.
Curiously, the names of the drill sites are not listed on the citations either. Where's the transparency? If you wish to obtain records for a particular gas drill site, you must ask specifically by address or else no records will turn up. The City may charge for the records, but there is no charge for our tip!
We would like to point out that the last ticket in the bundle belongs to Atlas Resource Partners who acquired Titan Operating, LLC. They have an interest in 12,000 oil and gas wells with assets of $200 million.
They paid their fine.
If an Arlington meter maid ever issues you a parking ticket, here's how you can look up the amount of your fine. (A city employee taught us how to do this.) Let's practice by looking up the aforementioned code for the gas drilling violation since both are handled exactly the same way: 1) Go to the City of Arlington's new website: We've provided the link.
2) At the top right-hand side of the page click on the green tab that says
Pay Online
3) Now scroll down the page until you see a grouping of 8 large boxes. Click on the blue box with a picture of a police officer that says
"PAY Traffic Ticket."
4) On the left hand side of the page is a heading that says, "Fine Amounts."
Select "Civil Fines."
5) You will now see a 13-page listing of Civil Offenses. Code 5655 is on page 10. The offense for this code is "Misc. Violation Flammable or Combustible Liquids - IFC Chapter 34."
The Penalty for each offense is $130.
As of Friday, July 25, 2014 Chesapeake has NOT PAID any of these tickets.
A civil hearing is scheduled for September 24th at 2:00 p.m at the Arlington Municipal Courthouse. Anyone who wishes to attend this hearing must check in by 8:00 a.m.
If you are seeking an exciting new career as a meter maid, here is salary information:
Thanks for visiting our community blog!
Y'all come back soon for more updates and be sure to follow us on Twitter @Fishcreek1269.
"It took five days but they got 'er done," according to Atmos spokesperson Shawn Michie. No more gas will vent into the atmosphere because the relief valves have been replaced with regulators. Previously, whenever there was a malfunction from overpressurization, gas would simply vent into our airshed. Atmos made this upgrade after receiving numerous complaints from neighbors about loud venting noises which woke them up in the middle of the night. These new regulators are designed to reduce pressure rather than allowing gas to spew into our community. We feel relieved about this since ~ when the breeze is blowing in just the right direction ~ we smell mercaptan on our property a half mile away. In addition, we have two public schools near these two metering stations. We were under the impression that this was one gas metering station, but we learned that this southeast Arlington Gas Metering Station is actually two. (See photo above.) The one on the left serves the City of Grand Prairie, Texas and the one on the right serves the City of Arlington, Texas. We are always discovering new things in Gasland! Now let's talk about mercaptan. We are told that mercaptan is added to natural gas for safety reasons since natural gas is odorless and explosive. [We certainly wouldn't want a repeat of the New London School explosion.] What we are not told about mercaptan, however, is that it is a toxic, hazardous chemical. Short term exposure can cause headache, dizziness, nausea, pulmonary irritation, wheezing, rapid heart beat, and irritation of the eyes and mucous membranes. In lab experiments monkeys, rats, and mice that inhaled mercaptan exhibited altered blood chemistries and cellular changes of the liver, lungs, and kidneys.
According to the ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry):
We have very little information on the health effects of exposure to
methyl mercaptan. A worker exposed to very high levels (exact amount
unknown) of this compound for several days when he opened and emptied
tanks of methyl mercaptan went into a coma (became unconscious),
developed anemia (a blood disorder) and internal bleeding. He died
within a month after this incident.
We do not know whether long-term exposure of humans to low levels of
methyl mercaptan can result in harmful health effects such as cancer,
birth defects, or problems with reproduction.
Methyl mercaptan can be smelled and recognized in Air when it is
there at a level of about 1.6 ppb (1.6 parts of methyl mercaptan per
billion parts of air). It can be smelled when it is present in water at a
level far lower than 1 ppb.
Rest assured that Atmos employees may monitor these stations through their I-Phones 24/7, 365 days/year.
Pressure may also be controlled remotely out of the Pressure Control
Office located in Lincoln Center in Dallas.
Regarding health-effects of long-term exposure to low levels of mercaptan:
