Denton residents start petition to ban fracking in the city

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Efforts to support the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing could come to a head in the General Assembly.

Nicholas Sakelaris

Staff Writer- Dallas Business Journal

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Denton residents will start collecting signatures for a petition to ban hydraulic fracturing in the city on Thursday, a strong move by anti-drilling groups who say they are done trying to negotiate drilling regulations at the city level.

The initiative needs 571 signatures within 180 days to be considered a valid petition, a number that’s based on the turnout of the last municipal election in May.

“There’s so many people who are affected by this,” said Cathy McMullen, with the Denton Drilling Awareness Group. “There’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to get the signatures for that.”

The group will start with a rally at the Sweetwater Grill & Tavern, 115 S. Elm St. in Denton on Thursday. 

If successful, the Denton City Council would have two options: Approve the fracking ban or put it on the ballot at the next opportunity, likely in November.

Over the past decade, new residential development has popped up on the city’s southwest side. These homes are encroaching on old dormant, oil fields that are being given new life by using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to target the Barnett Shale. Small operators such as Eagle Ridge Energy, based in Dallas, are among the companies drilling there.

The noise, smells and panic caused by drilling a few hundred feet from homes drove residents like McMullen to pursue the ban. They’d tried to work with the city since 2010 to develop a stronger ordinance but the final product, McMullen says, is weaker than the city’s previous regulations.

“We are 100 times worse than before the ordinances were even passed,” she said.

Nicholas covers the energy, manufacturing, aviation and transportation beats for the Dallas Business Journal. Subscribe the Energy Inc. newsletter