Group calls for drilling changes

Leaders from the state and national offices of the Oil and Gas Accountability Project rolled out a platform for regulatory reform this week.

Called "Drill Right Texas," the four-page document calls for a host of changes in the ways that landowners are treated, human health and the environment are protected, and the public interest is preserved. ALSO ONLINE

  "Drill Right Texas"

The group has been portrayed as anti-drilling by some supporters of the oil and gas industry.

"Our position is that natural gas is an important part of the energy mix but the cradle-to-grave impacts make natural gas anything but clean," said Gwen Lachelt, OGAP executive director, during a nationwide media conference call Wednesday.

The Oil and Gas Accountability Project was created about 10 years ago in response to concerns for human health and the environment following intense gas drilling in western Colorado. Since then, OGAP has advocated for rules and regulations in New Mexico and Colorado that are more protective of human health and the environment.

For the most part, those new regulations have survived attempts by the industry to weaken them. Tougher rules for open waste pits in New Mexico - an old technique still used in Texas for drilling wastewater and mud - have been hailed as a victory for water quality and human health, Lachelt said.

Reform in New Mexico and Colorado took more than five years, Lachelt said.

During the conference call, state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, answered questions about a possible legislative response to the call for reform. He said industry resistance to reform, so far, has been much stronger than the political will of state and local leaders in Texas to solve the problems.

"In the last legislative session, I began to feel some encouragement from those in the rural areas," Burnam said. "But they can't see beyond their ideology - their ideological commitment not to regulate - to protect the public interest."

During the 81st session of the Texas Legislature last year, nearly 60 pieces of legislation tied to natural gas drilling, production and distribution were heard in either the state Senate's Natural Resources Committee or the House's Energy Resources Committee. A few became law - beefing up inspection, safety and cleanup efforts, particularly for pipelines.

But other bills languished, in part because of a showdown over the House calendar. Those bills would have steered the industry toward "green" well completions and sharing geological findings, as well as sorting out battles over property rights and municipal authority.

OGAP got involved toward the end of the legislative session, working with Denton County leaders to defeat House Bill 4441, which would have given the Texas Railroad Commission sweeping new powers over pipelines previously held by cities. Prior to that battle, local leaders were advocating for legislation that would better protect individual property owners from energy companies, which have used a loophole in Texas public utility law to condemn private property for their pipelines.

An emerging controversy over proposed drilling wastewater pipelines underscored the need for a moratorium on new projects until current problems can be solved, Burnam said. Operators have proposed sending the wastewater - ostensibly for recycling - through another network of pipelines, instead of trucking it.

Texas OGAP representative Sharon Wilson said the state's lack of regulation for the proposed pipelines has fueled the controversy, now at fever pitch in Flower Mound. Organizer Ginger Simonson said Flower Mound Cares has about 40 percent of the signatures needed for a referendum. The group wants to overturn a zoning change that allows centralized collection of drilling waste in agricultural areas, paving the way for a network of drilling wastewater pipelines in that community.

"Until now, I was not familiar with the piping problems," Burnam said. "There are a plethora of problems that are not being adequately addressed."

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .