Fort Worth Task Force Finalizes Gas Ordinance Recommendations

KERA

Published March 30, 2006 at 2:38 AM CST

By Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 Reporter

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-505498.mp3

Fort Worth, TX –

[sound of drilling]
Catherine Cuellar, 90.1 reporter: During the past five years, more than 4000 wells have been drilled in the Barnett Shale, which is underneath 20 north Texas counties, including all of Jack, Wise, Parker, Hood, Johnson, Somervell, Bosque, and Tarrant. This is the sound of natural gas drilling in east Fort Worth just north of I-30 and 820, as heard from less than 200 feet away.
[fade out sound]

Under the city of Fort Worth's current ordinance, gas drilling can take place 600 feet from private property. That's about the distance between a so-called "frac pit," where the Barnett Shale is fractured for natural gas extraction, and the home of Stan Hines. Hines and his wife Debra, a member of the city's gas drilling task force, have lived in this new subdivision near the Texas Motor Speedway since December 2004. Drilling commenced last summer. His family literally lost sleep over it.

Hines: Honest to goodness we used earplugs. It was a screeching almost like a screech owl if you will but louder because when the pipes go in, something with the metal on metal type of sound. It's consistent and constant and my neighbors also complained they couldn't sleep. It really bothered my wife terribly.

Cuellar: Hines, like most homeowners outside the 820 loop, only owns the surface rights to his property, but has no control over the minerals below. He now doubts he could sell his home for what he spent on it.

Stan Hines, Fort Worth resident: We paid a $30,000 premium to be on this golf course lot. We were expecting a golf course view. As you can see, we look out here. We see this gigantic pit. We see the golf course and then right behind it is a gigantic pit, and a big tank with a big slab of cement. And for the longest period, there were big containers, containers that go on tractor trailers that they were keeping water in or something. It's just like a production site. It's been outside our back door almost since we moved in.

Cuellar: Wells operate on a two to five acre site. A 150 foot tall rig is erected for drilling into the ground 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for up to a month. Next comes the frac'ing process, where millions of gallons of water and sand are used to free gas in the Barnett Shale. That usually occurs during daylight hours and takes up to a week. After that, a well head about five feet tall is installed. It remains, along with eight-foot tall tanks to collect water.

Rev. Billy Taylor, Pastor, Sagamore Hill Baptist Church: We felt like if the opportunity came along for the church to benefit from it and for the community to benefit from it, then we should take advantage of it.

Cuellar: Pastor Billy Taylor examines a map showing land just south of I-30 that his church owns surrounding KXAS-TV's Broadcast Hill. Sagamore Hill Baptist Church has leased its mineral rights to a drilling company.

Taylor: If you look at that property, it's not like it's untouched property. There is a 300 foot transmission tower on it. That in itself kind of moves it out of the untouched, unaltered area.

Cuellar: Sagamore Hill is an aging congregation in a big old building that needs repairs.

Taylor: And if we actually start receiving royalty from the gas well then those funds would make it possible for us to help fund a relocation, help do more civic projects and community projects, and to fulfill that mission statement of the church to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and help folks that we see in need.

Cuellar: A neighborhood group opposing gas drilling have protested outside the church during Sunday morning worship.

Taylor: A number of the folks in this neighborhood in this group view anything besides leaving it absolutely untouched in any form or any fashion as unacceptable. We should pay the taxes on it on a yearly basis and it should be their free park. We want to be sensitive to the folks there and we don't want to disturb their quality of life. At the same time, we need to have a little bit of latitude to do something with that resource that's here. This is on 55 acres. 50 acres is a lot of land, so it's not like these are going to be right behind someone's fence.

[sound of Don Young's yard]
Cuellar: There are no gas wells in Don Young's backyard, but he is concerned about noise, light, and air pollution from drilling; compromised public safety; and loss of green space and quality of life. He founded Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance, which staged the protest at Sagamore Hill church. Young wants the distance between gas wells and property to be increased to 3000 feet.

Don Young, Fort Worth CAN DO: The city can enact a tough ordinance. If they were to enact a very tough ordinance, there's a strong likelihood the city would be sued. That's exactly what I think needs to happen here, because these state laws are antiquated. They were written so long ago that I don't think anyone expected drilling to go on in the middle of an urban environment of half a million or more people. But now with the discovery of the Barnett Shale gas which is right under Fort Worth and surrounding counties, all bets are off. There's so much money involved, it's very difficult to find a politician. or anyone that's not negatively affected to be against this. Everyone wants the money.

Cuellar: Under Texas law, mineral ownership and home ownership are two separate things, and mineral rights prevail. So, if a mineral rights owner can't access and extract natural gas, that violates the law, according to Fort Worth's assistant city attorney Sarah Fullenweider.

Sarah Fullenweider, Fort Worth Assistant City Attorney: The court is going to rule under current law. And so, I don't know what the magic number is as far as the distance. Somewhere out there is that magic number where a city has gone too far and it just hasn't been tested yet. I know some opponents have proposed 3000 feet. That's a huge distance. I think that the court would look at that and actually say that was a taking because that's such a huge distance, there's no way they can get to their minerals from that site.

Cuellar: The city also profits from gas drilling on public property - more than $6 million dollars as a one-time bonus for leasing the rights, plus a million more in royalties. Gas revenue going forward will fund an endowment for parks and recreation. Although the current ordinance doesn't allow wells in public parks, new horizontal drilling technology allows the gas under green space to be accessed from adjacent land.

David Buchanan, Dale Resources: Horizontal drilling is great because it gives us the opportunity to produce minerals underneath schools, underneath residences, where you know, 5-10 years ago you would never put a rig in the middle of a schoolyard. You would never put a rig in the middle of a neighborhood. For a lot of the residential homes and neighborhoods, people can receive royalties even though there isn't a rig in their backyard.

Cuellar: David Buchanan is community liason for the gas drilling company Dale Resources. Fort Worth's biggest gas drilling company, XTO, was contacted for this story but did not comment. Buchanan is paid to tout industry benefits in neighborhoods where Dale plans to drill for gas.

Buchanan: It's one of the largest gas fields in Texas, and the next 1-2 years could be one of the largest in the U.S. and provides a great opportunity for everybody within the metroplex whether it's jobs or royalty benefits - just, has huge potential every way you look at it.

Cuellar: His company is also represented on the city of Fort Worth's gas drilling task force, which will report to the city council next week on possible changes to the gas drilling ordinance. The task force includes two attorneys, four real estate developers, five gas drilling company reps, and citizens appointed by each of the nine council members. The task force is chaired by the League of Neighborhood Associations president, Eva Bonilla, who hopes gas drilling companies will do the right thing.

Eva Bonilla, Gas Drilling Task Force Chair: They know that they don't want to have a riot on their hands, so they're trying to work with the neighborhoods and the neighborhoods are trying to keep them from changing the fabric of their neighborhoods.

Cuellar: The gas drilling task force meets this afternoon to finalize its ordinance recommendations to the city council.
For KERA 90.1, I'm Catherine Cuellar.

Discuss this story in KERA's online forum