Barnett Shale

Council steps back on setback requirement

City Council members were leaning toward getting rid of an extra setback requirement for gas drilling sites with more than one well.

The proposed  ordinance would have required multiple well sites to get a special permit that required waivers from everyone affected property within 600 feet of the site boundary. Under the old ordinance, drillers measued the setback from the well bore -- which is a much smaller radius.

It was one of only two points that have not been adopted in the new gas ordinance. In a discussion Tuesday afternoon, council members seemed to favor getting rid of the new requirements, and leaving the old setback rules in place.

A new Gas Drilling Review Board would still hold hearings on well sites that create traffic or pipeline impacts on surrounding neighborhoods.

Dozens of residents were expected for a public hearing.

 -- Mike Lee 

Still no agreement on drilling ordinance

Even after a year of meetings and negotiation, the City Council couldn’t agree on some of the new rules for natural gas drilling.

Council members approved most of a new ordinance on drilling, along with resolutions encouraging the state to fund an environmental impact study and spend more money on pipeline and well inspections.

But they were divided on what sort of setback to impose on sites with multiple wells, and opted to hold another workshop before voting on that section.

"I don't want to get in a hurry and shoot ourselves in the foot," Mayor Mike Moncrief said.

 

-- Mike Lee

More on the gas ordinance

The Oil and Gas Accountability Project, a non-profit environmental group, has also drawn up some suggestions and comments about the Fort Worth gas drilling ordinance.

Read 'em here: OGAP_Addendum.pdf

Bone up on the drilling ordinance

Fort Worth city officials is holding the first of two hearings on their new drilling ordinance at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

There's already been quite a bit of comment on the ordinance. 

The Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods and the League of Women Voters of Tarrant County

have weighed in with some objections and suggestions.

That's in addition to:

The recommendations from the task force that's been writing the ordinance

The minority report filed by neighborhood representatives on the task force

and Some sections written by the city staff.

The City Council will try to balance all those viewpoints when it takes up the ordinance in December.

-- Mike

Drilling ordinance beginning to take shape

The City Council started digging into the competing proposals for Fort Worth's gas drilling ordinance Tuesday. They've got recommendations from the task force that was set up to review the ordinance, a minority report from neighborhood representatives on the task force, and separate recommendations from the city staff.

Catch the story at Star-Telegram.com

For those who want to do a little more reading, here's the power point digest that the City Council saw:

Council_presentation.pdf

The marked-up version of the ordinance:

Final 2008.pdf

The task force recommendations:

Recommendations 110408.doc.pdf

And the minority report:

Minority Report Final.pdf

Environmental debate

Fort Worth residents are about to hear a lot about the environmental impact of natural gas drilling.

City officials have said they want to take environmental concerns into account when they finalize Fort Worth's new drilling ordinance later in the fall. The City Council and the Fort Worth's gas drilling task force are planning a joint meeting on Oct. 14 that will likely feature expert testimony from state and federal agencies.

Meanwhile, the Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods has lined up its own experts and plans to hold an informational meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, at University Christian Church, 2720 University Dr.

Scheduled speakers include:

-- Al Armendariz, an assistant engineer professor at SMU who has calculated the health impacts of various air quality problems in North Texas. Armendariz is currently studying the effects of natural gas production on air quality.

-- Kathy Chruscielski, of Parker Area Residents Committed to Halting Excessive Drilling (PARCHED), who will discuss water quality issues.

-- Nina Hutton, vice president for environmental health and safety at XTO Energy.

-- Mike

Compressor stations debated

There was a lot of discussion among Fort Worth's gas ordinance task force members Monday night about how to control the noise from natural gas compressor stations.

Check out the full story at Star-Telegram.com.

For those of you who want to know more, here's a map of the existing compressor stations in Fort Worth, along with a chart that shows the owners and other information. The category "NPU" means the distance in feet to the nearest public use (those are houses, churches, parks and other sensitive land uses).

The map shows five "non-permitted sites." City officials say those sites apparently were built before the current ordinance took effect.

-- Mike Lee

Chesapeake postpones 8th Avenue drilling permit hearing

Chesapeake Energy today asked the city of Fort Worth to postpone a scheduled hearing next week on its request for a drilling permit at the controversial Eighth Avenue site near the Berkeley and Ryan Place neighborhoods. The move came after an hours-long meeting Monday afternoon with representatives of the two affected neighborhoods as well as surrounding neighborhoods and Councilman Joel Burns, who represents the near South Side area. Also present was a representative of William Davis, who owns the proposed drill site, and of urban planning firm Gideon Toal.

Tom Edwards, a gas well inspector for the city, said Chesapeake “just asked us to postpone the hearing. They’re not pulling their request for a permit.” He said Chesapeake did not indicate when it might seek another hearing.

A Chesapeake representative was not immediately available for comment. Because Chesapeake does not have waivers from property owners within the city's 600-foot buffer zone, City Council must approve the company’s drilling permit before it can be issued. A hearing on the permit had been set for July 8.

-- Jim Fuquay

Let the pipeline debate begin...

Two summers ago, pipeline right-of-way agents were predicting that the gas pipelines being built to handle the Barnett Shale boom might affect more people than the wells themselves. Judging by the reaction when pipelines began running through neighborhoods, that prediction might turn out to be true.

• Fort Worth's gas drilling task force started digging into pipeline regulations Monday night. Here's the full story.
• At the same time, City Council in North Richland Hills passed its own pipeline regulations. Here's the story: http://www.star-telegram.com/northeast/story/719575.html
• And, folks in Meadowbrook over on Fort Worth's East Side are worried about a pipeline in their neighborhood. Here's the full story.

Judging by the number of spectator's at Fort Worth's meeting, pipelines are getting a lot of attention from neighborhood groups. Watch this space for more details.

-- Mike Lee

Residents get their say at task force meeting

The citizens of the shale spoke out Monday night at the city of Fort Worth's gas drilling task force meeting, and they weren't too happy. Here's Mike Lee's full story on the meeting.

The meeting at City Hall was the first chance for residents to make their views heard in front of the task force, which is charged with revising the city's drilling ordinances, particularly on noise issues. It was also the first public meeting since Chesapeake Energy put in its application to drill a well on Eighth Avenue near Elizabeth Boulevard, on Fort Worth's near south side.

The City Council chambers were packed, mostly with people who said they had been on the wrong end of transactions with gas companies.

"The last thing I hear before I got to bed is the compressor," said Joe Cardillo, who lives near a facility in north Fort Worth that he said complies with the current ordinance. "The first thing I hear when I wake up in the morning is the compressor."

Others complained of gas company tactics.

"These people fight you with no mercy," said Bill Mitchell of Aledo, who lost part of his land to a right-of-way for a pipeline and said that even $100,000 in attorney fees couldn't get him so much as a hearing in court.

William Fisher, who said he had been a senior attorney running pipelines for a Houston firm for 25 years, said he was in disbelief that companies planned to pipe "raw unodorized gas" through neighborhoods.

And Jerry Horton, who lives on Carter Avenue and was the subject of a recent Star-Telegram report about plans to build a pipeline down her street, said the task force couldn't make changes fast enough.

"We don't need it tomorrow," she said to applause. "We need it now."

-- Richard Stubbe