Newly discovered information about the way drilling was permitted in Denton illustrates why a stronger ordinance will not save Denton from fracking disaster.
For years, Denton residents have taken a moderate approach to fracking, trying to find any reasonable way to coexist with the fracking industry. But time after time the city has shown us that they will not protect the public.
A stronger ordinance will not save Denton from fracking disaster.
Before the Gas Well Administration division of the city was formed, all the permits went through the Fire Department where they permitted drilling by plat, not by well.
When Ed Ireland said in a Natural Gas Intelligence article, that these permits issued by the fire department allow an unlimited amount of wells to be drilled at each pad site in perpetuity, he wasn’t kidding.
Ireland said. “When the fire department issued these permits, they permitted entire pad sites; that’s just the way they did it,” he said. “And the permit was for perpetuity…so as many wells as anyone wanted to drill on that pad site were permitted in perpetuity.
History, Sprawl, Legacy Wells Put Fracking Focus on Texas Town
Joe Fisher, April 10, 2014, NGI’s Shale Daily
Thanks for clearing that up Eddie!
To recap: the permits were issued for forever and industry has a vested right to drill as many wells as they want on these plats. Therefore,–and this is the part that is hard for Denton residents to understand–a stronger ordinance will have no effect on and will not apply to these wells.
The only way to protect Denton is to ban fracking. Texans have lived with drilling for decades but this new kind of fracking is far too brutal to happen anywhere near where people live.
OVER 30% of the available acreage in Denton is included in these plats.
Cathy McMullen and I spent three days looking through files in the Denton Fire Department to find these plats. When we hit the 30% mark, we stopped because it was too depressing to continue. There are hundreds of plats we didn’t look at.
56,960 Total Acres in Denton
16837.899 approx. acres platted for unlimited drilling in perpetuity
OVER 30% Percent of Denton acreage
Here is the Guyer plat that includes Guyer High School. Larger image
Raise your hand if you want your child attending school where there is unlimited fracking forever.
No fracking protection from the city.
Let’s recap a few of the failures of the city:
- They approved a permit to drill only 200′ – 300′ from a neighborhood, park, hospital and medical offices. There was a letter from over 80 doctors who were concerned about health effects. They neighborhood contracted for air testing that showed high levels of benzene.
- When residents demanded a stronger ordinance, they stacked an advisory task force with industry insiders to insure a 3 to 2 vote to enable drilling friendly regulations. The result was a very weak ordinance.
- They promised air monitoring but never delivered. See FLIR GasFindIR Videos taken by me.
- In several instance operators have violated the ordinance but the city has taken no action.
- They recently weakened the noise ordinance.
- There was a blowout and the city’s response was to cover it up.
While digging through the files, we found correspondence showing the city believes they can’t even enforce a requirement for the operator to notify the city in case of emergency. larger image
We also found a memo from an operator to the city notifying them that each well would use approximately 8 million gallons of water. This is a huge concern because we are running out of water and what we have will cost more.
The world is running out of water. Supplies could fall as much as 40% short of demand by 2030, according to the World Economic Forum, which ranks water crises as the third biggest risk to global stability in the next decade, after fiscal crises and unemployment.
It’s all about fracking.
Denton residents are not seeking a ban on drilling. They are seeking a ban on the brutal process of fracking. Read more about why on the FrackFreeDenton website in the FAQs.
What Denton has on their hands is a cluster frack and there is only one way to fix it.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
There are clearly a lot of dangerous and unhealthy businesses and business practices getting a grip in our state in recent years.
As Sam Rayburn (the longest serving US House Speaker from Texas) once said,
“When you get too big a majority, you’re immediately in trouble.”
WCGasette recently posted..Voilà!! Let’s Just Cover it Up with NEW Homes!! *UPDATE*
On Friday, June 20, 2014 1:44 AM, Beth Martell wrote:
http://ihavethoughtaboutit.wordpress.com/
Regulatory capture is a form of political corruption that occurs when a government regulatory agency like the Illinois State Geological Survey, which was created to serve the public interest, is instead is co-opted to advance an agenda that serves profit motives of the Oil and Gas industry. This creates great harm as the governmental agency abandons their primary responsibilities to educate and protect the public.
What happens when a government regulatory agency is undermined by the very corporate client groups it is supposed to be overseeing? Nobel laureate economist George Stigler knows. He recognizes corporations gain marketing and political advantages by partnering with the government to share information. Big business pays for control of the economic agencies who benefit them. Dr. Johnson at Auburn University describes how this works:
“A captured agency shapes its regulations and policies primarily to benefit these favored client groups at the expense of less organized and often less influential groups (such as consumers) rather than designs them in accordance with some broader or more inclusive conception of the public interest.”
Capture Regulatory Agencies are Politically Corrupt
Savvy lobbyists focus their resources and attention on creating consensus and getting the policy outcomes they prefer. Corporate goals are short-sighted compared to public ones. That’s what makes legislating the internet so important to major corporations. The perceptual shifts are quantifiable and results are available almost immediately. Businesses are interested in controlling the flow of information and creating tiers of knowledge that can be commodified for layers and layers of users. Individuals, communities, and organizations are transformed by the social memes that are valued by employers. Even in democracies with high levels of transparency and the power of the free press, the more complex the regulations are, the more chance there is for corruption.
Information is power.
“Trends in information policy bring about fundamental social changes,” Susan Braman offers. “Control over information creation, processing, flows, and use has become the most effective form of power … These changes create theoretical, conceptual, and historical foundations for understanding the new information state.
The Revolving Door
Industry professionals who work as managers,support staff, and executives in the field, have what it takes to become regulators. Once a person gains expertise, he might spend part of his career with a regulatory agency and return to his old job when his stint is finished. As the AmosWEB site explains, “If the agency is effectively controlled by ‘regulators’ who remain, in essence, industry employees in every sense of the word except receiving a current paycheck, the industry has captured the regulatory agency.
Government agencies are often created to regulate oligopoly industries comprised of a small number of firms, each with a moderate degree of market control. If the industry captures one of these, it can be transformed into a monopoly. The regulatory agency then exerts a great deal more market control acting as the effective ‘head’ of the industry. Industry control of the agency can even worsen inefficiency.” This is also called crony capitalism and it’s common in many countries. Intentionally ambiguous regulations lead to bribes and tax evasions.
In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Any society that will give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”
Here’s what’s happening in my neck of the woods.
http://thesouthern.com/news/lo…
SPRINGFIELD
— The man overseeing the crafting of rules governing hydraulic
fracturing in the state has been pulled from the job, apparently after
concerns were raised regarding his views on fracking.
Mitchell Cohen is, at least temporarily, no longer in charge of the Illinois
Department of Natural Resources Office of Oil and Gas Resource
Management, IDNR spokesman Chris Young confirmed Friday.
“Mr. Cohen is a respected lawyer with an exemplary work record at
IDNR. He has been temporarily reassigned to handle other duties within
the agency,” Young said. Cohen was director of the oil and gas division
responsible for writing the administrative rules for implementation of the
state’s Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act.
No reason was offered for the reassignment but state Rep. Brandon Phelps,
D-Harrisburg, said the circulation of a recent presentation given by Cohen
in Chicago was the likely cause. The presentation included lyrics from an
anti-fracking song, Phelps said. “That got a lot of people talking. He told us
before that he had to be neutral but his presentation didn’t seem neutral,”
Phelps said. “We didn’t demand his reassignment but kudos to the
leadership of Gov. (Pat) Quinn for recognizing there was a problem and
taking care of it.” Cohen’s reassignment, however, raises another concern,
Phelps said. “Here we are almost a year after the governor signed the act
and there are still no rules,” he said. “Hopefully, IDNR will find a
replacement and get these rules up and running.”
Young said there is no timetable for completion of the rules.
“The IDNR is in the process of reviewing comments received from the
public and considering possible revisions to the rules,” he said.
[If someone in the IDNR, the Department of NATURAL Resources, can't speak up for the environment, what is the point? Why pretend to be a regulatory agency? Why pretend to have laws?]
And here’s the newest developments:
https://www.facebook.com/events/264411973743413/permalink/264412980409979/
John Bradley, the southern Illinois representative who sponsored the original controversial fracking bill, attempted to gut the very bill he put in place in order to start fracking Illinois immediately! In a move that could be called anything but forthright or transparent, Bradley introduced legislation on the Friday afternoon of the Memorial holiday weekend when most people in Illinois were preparing for the three-day holiday weekend. The proposed amendments would have completely bypassed the rule making process, which the IDNR still has until November 2014 to complete. The bill made it to the house and died on the floor.
The original fracking regulatory bill was pushed through the house with the knowledge that not a single health study regarding the impact of fracking on the people of Illinois had been done … Many of the people of Illinois were unaware of the implications of the fracking bill. They were misinformed by a lot of the coverage and outright lies from industry and government representatives … It was a firsthand example of how industry and government work against the majority of citizens. For starters they refused to include the voices and interests of the people that would be most impacted by fracking! When the draft regulations were released, thousands of people came to the conclusion that the rules did not protect our most precious natural resources, our water, air and soil. They posed 30,000 questions to the IDNR when given an opportunity to publicly comment.
… This year water contamination has been confirmed in four states. There have been landmark lawsuits and decisions that document poisoning and sickness due to fracking. The risks are too great. The greatest assets that Illinois citizens have are natural resources. Our water and air are the most basic, and by far, the most valuable of our resources. All the regulations in the world can’t make fracking safe.
Resources:
Johnson, Paul M. “A Glossary of Political Economy Terms.” Captured Agency:. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2014.
Braman, Sandra. “Forms and Phases of Power: The Bias of the Informational
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009: 9-38.
CAPTURE THEORY OF REGULATION, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2014. [Accessed: February 2, 2014].
BIG PICTURE:
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/c…
BIGGER PICTURE:
“We need to be very mindful of the
way we’re using soil. It could be the next limiting component when we
talk about feeding the planet and having a sustainable lifestyle —
because all the good stuff is gone and soil is being degraded,” Kelly
said.
http://www.denverpost.com/envi…
BIGGEST PICTURE:
When we first heard high volume fracking was coming to Southern Illinois, we went to the Murphysboro courthouse. Our protests upset the man they sent from the fracking industry. When our meeting was over, I heard him say under his breath that he’d recently lost a child and if he had the strength go through that he could go through anything. He was making his heart hard. He was trying to withstand the pain because he had a job to do and I’m sure if he didn’t do it, someone else would.
Later he made a presentation at Southern Illinois University, I watched how far he’d come. There were three industry representatives to take the heat. This time when everyone got upset, he smiled at the discomfort and stuffed his emotions to keep them under control. We looked at how he was handling things and we knew he was just following orders. He was not listening to us. He was a brick wall. And that’s something you’re going to want to get a handle on if you’re going to be a leader and not a follower. You can’t afford to burnout, you can’t afford to feel as if nothing seems meaningful, you can’t afford to feel alienated from other people.
Karma’s a funny thing, but it doesn’t work the way most people think it does. The idea of karma is you continually get the lessons that you need to open your heart. To the degree that you didn’t understand in the past how to stop protecting your soft spot, how to stop armoring your heart, you’re given this gift of life lessons to help you open further according to Pema Chodron. It’s called the Wisdom of No Escape once you recognize we’re all in this together you can find better solutions based on mutual wisdom.
Other industries simplify their complex interconnected problems by working backwards to solve problems. Other industries experiment with a bottom up management style to solve problems in the field. Why does the oil andgas industry get to dictate how things are going to go? I’ve got 10 reasons to tell you why they are going to have to change too.
1. All steel rusts. All concrete cracks. Louis Allstadt former Executive VP of Mobil Oil confirms it. He says:
“Sooner or later the steel casing is going to rust out, and the cement is going to crumble. We may have better cements now, we may have slightly better techniques of packing the cement and mud into the well bore to close it up, but even if nothing comes up through the fissures in the rock layers above, where it was fracked, those well bores will deteriorate over time. And there is at least one study showing that 100 percent of plugs installed in abandoned wells fail within 100 years and many of them much sooner.”
Concrete crumbles. Steel rusts. In the United States since the year 2000, sixteen bridges have collapsed. The Federal National Bridge Inventory reports 85,000 U.S. bridges are in bad shape and need to be replaced. What are bridges made of? Steel and concrete. What does the fracking industry use to keep deadly chemicals out of our drinking water? Steel and concrete. They bury steel pipes thousands of feet underground, fill them with fracked water, effluents and sand, put them under a tremendous amount of pressure, wait for 20% to 80% of the toxic and radioactive inside the steel pipes with an inch of concrete. Then they tell you everything’s going to be okay. You don’t have to worry that fracked water is poisoned with more than 600 toxic and radioactive chemicals. Out of sight is outta mind.
That’s why we’re fighting for a moratorium. The poison is eventually going to end up in your water because all steel rusts. The question is this. Why are we betting against a natural process everyone understands and expecting everything to work out to our advantage? All steel rusts. Doesn’t that single fact unhinge all the fracking science?
Who is going to check those steel pipes in a few generations when all the fracking money is gone and the pipes are still down there in the dark getting rustier and rustier. Don’t be fooled. They are going to hand this problem back to you and you’re the one who will have to find the solution. Not them. They’re in it for the money and if you’ll sell your water cheap, they’ll certainly take that to the bank.
2. Earthquakes go hand in hand with fracking. Since we are between two active earthquake zones, you’re going to want to take a look at Brent Ritzel’s report.
http://fullerfuturefest.com/fr…
3. The USGS says we should treat water as if it is all coming from the same source because it does. We can’t keep it separate. Fracking operations dump 10 trillion gallons of toxic liquids into Class II injection wells using broad expanses of the nation’s geology as an invisible dumping ground.
4. The Bonds the fracking companies put up to do the work won’t be high enough to clean up the environment; if anything goes wrong it’ll be up the taxpayers to flip the bill.
5. Your infrastructure is going to be undermined. That goes for roads, utilities, health care and police.
http://fullerfuturefest.com/sp…
6. Crime rates are going to sky-rocket … especially crimes against women because of the kinds of people these jobs attract. They are drifters with high risk jobs, working hard and playing harder.
7. Fracking is a 24 hour round the clock operation. The noise is not going to end. The lights are never going to go off. The industrialization of your lives will be complete. I guess with fracking industrialization operations a mile apart, there won’t be much wilderness left even in rural areas. National parks aren’t even safe.
8. When the fracking lottery comes to town, some people will make money selling their mineral rights. Some people will get poisoned. Doctors won’t know what people are poisoned with because the industry doesn’t want to divulge the ingredients of its fracking effluent. They’re protected as trade secrets. Rest assured with hundreds of toxic ingredients, fracking effluent is even more toxic once you put those poisons together. Many ingredients have 10 serious health side effects on their own.
9. And you know we’re going to run out of clean water, right? According to the United Nations, water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century. By 2025 an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity with two thirds of the world’s population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.
10. The IDNR regulating radiation doesn’t keep it from hurting anyone. If we want to find out what’s beyond the Thunderdome, we’re going to have to take care of the next generation. Not give our children harder problems to solve than the ones we have.
Frédéric Bastiat sums up our dilemma: “When law and morality contradict each other, the citizen has the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense or losing his respect for the law. These two evils are of equal consequence, and it would be difficult for a person to choose between them.”
Beth, I am sorry fracking is coming to your community. It is worse than people can even imagine and all your words are absolutely true.
Don’t let them beat you down or shut you up or they win.
When we get a ban on hydraulic fracturing in Denton it will give other communities the knowledge, strength, and courage to do the same.
Ed Ireland would lie to his mother just to get seconds at the dinner table. Why do his quotes get any love? The Guyer plat image only shows 2 wells. According to teh city, the Guyer plat was amended to add 4 wells for a total of just 6. They did not approve an unlimited number because I thnk there is already 6 wells. Fire Department did permit each well and I understand you trying to save the ban, but I can’t imagine anyone ever approved an unlimited number. Ed just tried to protect his client and industry by his lies.
Interesting that you would come on here pretending to be someone who you are not. Also find your phrasing “save” the ban interesting.
If you hold Ireland in such contempt, why was he allowed on the task force?
Billy Bob, Your argument against Ed Ireland raises more questions than it answers. If for a fact Ed Ireland is a liar.
The City of Denton appointed Mr. Ireland to its task force to develop the new drilling ordinances, over the strong objections of the citizens of Denton. The city staff recommended approving every action item Mr. Ireland voted yes for and denying every item Mr. Ireland voted no for. The city council then voted to approve a set of ordinances Mr. Ireland and two other industry supporters wanted.
Does this mean the city would pick a liar to develop its new gas well drilling ordinance or Mr. Ireland is a credible person the city has a great deal of respect for? Does this mean the city council knowingly approved a set of industry friendly ordinances developed by a liar? Can;t have it both ways.
Please let us get something straight, there is no reason to “save the ban” because the ban does not need saving. However, the people of Denton do need saving from the the brutal and destructive process known as hydraulic fracturing.
The ban will pass in November.
Interesting this IP address comes from UNT. I did not know it was acceptable to use state property to email propaganda presumably while being paid by the university to do work for them. Interesting!
How can I found out if my house/neighbhood sits on a plat, which I am almost sure it is since we dont own the mineral rights.
At the top of the page, click contact me and send me an email with your location.
We hope to have a map soon.