Texas Officials Clear Gas Driller of Harming Water
In a meeting this morning punctuated by harsh denunciations of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas Railroad Commission voted unanimously to clear a natural gas driller, Range Resources, of charges that it contaminated two water wells in Parker County.
"We'll see which is the real protection agency, and I'd say it's the Railroad Commission of Texas," Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones said after the vote. The EPA, she said, had been too "hasty" in accusing Range of contaminating an aquifer roughly one mile above its drilling site in the Barnett Shale. The case acquired a high profile after ...
Comments (10)
Karen Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It will be interesting to see how the court rules regarding this.
texasgal
The EPA did not even allow Range to defend itself. The Railroad Commission and the TEQ should be the ones in charge in Texas. Natural gas can seep into the water anywhere. A Sulfur gas is commonly found in water wells drilled here in South Central Texas.
BurningFeet
"We owe an enormous thank you to Range Resources, because quite frankly they put up a diligent and aggressive defense of their operations," said Williams.
Who are you going to believe, the politicians apologizing to the corporations that fund their political campaigns, or the scientists trying to protect your drinking water?
Kim Feil
Hey if a councilman responded to my request about the Pantego well migrating produced water into an older well, I can see how broken up shale is a catalyst for migration...lovely!
Gwen Jewiss via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Disgusting!
Susan Read
The Texas Railroad Commission? Are they still acting like a regulatory commission in Texas? I hope they all find their calling elsewhere because they sure haven't done anything to protect the citizens who live so close to shale gas drilling in North Texas. I don't like to be so dismissive of all Republicans, but sadly, based on all the bills I've seen coming from Republican lawmakers in this legislative session...they are all clearly listening to industry more than "the people." God Help Us.
texasgal
Just would like to know how many of you own land that is leased for shale exploration ? The parcels or "pools" of land are 640 acres. All my neighbors are also leased. There is written into the lease requirements, prohibitions, replacement, and compensation for any type of damage to ground water wells or any type of surface water. There are many wells here in the Eagle Ford shale. NO damage has been reported, and I would know about that.
Burning feet- Exactly who and what scientists are you referring to with your comment? We, the land owners are very very careful caregivers of our land. It has been in our family for generations. We use NO poisons or chemical fertilizers, we provide cover for the wildlife, we love our land.
The unemployment rate is high in this area. People need jobs to support their families. The drilling here has been a blessing for the area. Do you have personal experience to back up your accusations?
At the risk of offending you by speaking about God, around here, we take seriously God's gift of the earth and all that is on it to man. God said that all the earth, the plants, and animals were given to man to care for and use. Disrespect of God's creation will not be a sin that I will have to account for on Judgement Day.
Susan Read
@texasgal: The industry has not been so kind to people I know all across the Barnett Shale and in my own community. This is not hearsay. You sound as if you have never said "no" to this industry. I ask for God's Help because many are in crisis. Saying that you don't do anything to knowingly harm the Earth...well, I'm sure YOU don't. But shale gas drilling turns communities into industrial zones while posing as a "good neighbor."
People were never told the entire story about the industrial process and are still kept in the dark about it. The need for the leases pits neighborhood against neighborhood and neighbor against neighbor. The drilling site can be in one neighborhood while the well bores can be drilled under an entirely different neighborhood. Promises of royalties on very small amounts of land have been exaggerated by landmen who don't like to take "no" for an answer and do whatever it takes to lease the land. And then they have what are called Rule 37 Exception Hearings for those property owners within a certain distance of the wellbore who won't lease their minerals.
You speak of shale gas drilling as a "blessing." I think of it as a terrible "curse." I didn't come to that conclusion by reading about it.
BurningFeet
@texasgal Exactly who and what scientists are you referring to with your comment?
http://www.epa.gov/
The Environmental Protection Agency, established in 1970 by noted treehugger Richard Nixon, are the scientists I am referring to in my post. In fact the EPA bulges at the seams with scientists, and they are required by law to use science to protect the land, air and water. As you will note in the story, Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones is a politician.
It is pleasing to read that stewardship of the land is alive and well. Also take note, the Bible nowhere commands believers to be rubes. Just because science isn't discussed in the Bible doesn't mean it can be ignored. Nowhere in the Bible is mentioned mathematics, computers, antibiotics, aquifers, natural gas drilling or chemical fertilizers, either.
Kim Feil
So do you take the bible literally when God told man to "subdue the earth"? Does that include man go out and drill holes and posion the water/pollute the air? The bible says to take care of the defenseless widows and orphans...that would be those low income people that toxic industrial sites seem to move in their neighborhoods-like the Chesapeake Truman drillsite by the Cowboy Stadium.