When the Fort Worth City Council meets tomorrow night, it is expected to extend its moratorium on injection wells until April 30, 2008. Although I applaud the extension of this moratorium, it is not enough. The citizens of Fort Worth do not need or want these wells in Fort Worth. I strongly urge the City Council to make this ban permanent. Contact your City Council representative and make your feelings known.
Monday, October 22, 2007
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Injection well are not safe. Click on the links HERE
Channel 8 news just reported: a geological engineer explained how detrimental to the North Texas soils these are and why it is too dangerous to continue to put these things here
Salt water injection sites are lethal. The scientific studies are already out- the citizens are forced to educate themselves in order to protect their soil, water , and quality of air. This will have a hugh negative impact to the point of "disaster" if a moratorium is not permanently imposed.
WHAT IS OUR QUALITY OF LIFE WORTH? If we even got to $24,000 for the amount of land many of us have in Meadowbrook and Eastern Hills, about 1/4 acre and maybe up to about 1/3 acre....we would get about $6,000 to $8,000.
For those with an 1/8 of an acre...5,000 square feet, which is what most folks have for a lot size in many parts of Fort Worth, they would only get $3,000 if it got to $24,000 per acre. PEANUTS! When we take it down to reality, which is what we need to do...then even $50,000 per acre is not enough for what we will lose in the long run, while they make billions, and while our property values fall far lower than we will ever make on this. Think this through folks and add up the numbers....for me and many others, they just do not add up. What we are being offered is not near enough to make it worth while in the long run.
The acreage price sounds great until you break it down into the pieces of pie that we all have. We will never make anything close to what folks think they will. When they are hearing the price per acre...very few have an acre and when folks realize that we are sharing 25% in royalty payments with 160 to 340 other folks...that also substantially reduces the amount they get, which also relates to PEANUTS.
We are worth more than that by a long shot. I am not being greedy, it is just I cannot put a price on what my piece of mind, my health, my quality of life, and my neighbor's too at anywhere near where we are now. In the meantime, we get to see how all this pans out for the other neighborhoods that have signed and set toward being having active drilling in the next few months, see if the city is going to go against neighborhoods in allowing high impact wells, despite what we want, see what the city is going to do to allow on site dumping of waste, which the gas companies say is harmless.....it contains some very hazardous chemicals....frac pits close to where your children play....what is your piece of mind worth as far as they are concerned? In later years will you be glad you made the same choice? If we find out later that our cancer rate is higher, that there are chemicals that have leached into our precious acquifers, trucks that are spilling waste into our Trinity River, which by the way, Don Young found was happening just a week ago, despite denials. Look at more than the money, because in the big scheme of things, that money will seem paltry in comparison. Choose wisely and don't listen to hype. They want you to think that there is some rush to do all this. There is not. They are not going away....so WHAT IS THE RUSH to sign anything, except so that they can play poker with your leases and sell them to someone else? Every time that happens, and it does, they make a big profit, especially for those that thought they were going to miss out....they did...by signing! Our quality of life is worth far more than you think.
Please point out that there are many complex issues in this controversial matter. Disposal wastes are highly toxic (containing an average of 257 carcinogens used in the fracing process ...proven to damage respiratory, liver, kidney -the endocrine system as a whole) and have proved extremely damaging to our environment as well as to exposed livestock and humans-the botanical ramifications are intense -usually everything within a certain radius is literally "fried".
This is separate issue from drilling, although it is certainly an consequence of urban drilling. Even with a low impact site (and most certainly a high impact site) an admitted "frost" of chemical components covers the area during the drilling process "which is normal" according to geologists, drillers, and chemists. I is my current understanding that the City of Fort Worth has already approved 500 disposal wells within our city limits. Since the disposal well containment system is usually penetrable -esp after exposure to the elements and natural ground shifting; common sense will tell you this toxic mixture (salt water alone contaminates our watershed,soil,etc) will eventually "seep" out into our systems. They can make a NASA type containment casing, but it is very expensive and not as cost profitable to the gas companies to use it when they can get variances or "permits" to inject it this cheaply.
Naturally, there are still no environmental studies being done on ANY aspects -which is a huge concern to the scientific,environmental and medical communities. There are many urban gas drilling research reports currently generated out of Colorado (the endocrine disruption report), New Mexico (biologists,chemical analysis, medical doctors) releasing reports of human, animal, and biological health hazards/internal damage(you don't know you are being poisoned until the damage is done-most of the vapors cannot be smelled or tasted -directly linked to urban gas drilling. The reports are worse from other countries -like China with less "safety" regulations where literally thousands are sick and dying from urban gas drilling (and explosions) -entire villages are being "wiped out" and people are suffering "in mass" from chemical burns, toxins, and agriculture has come to a stand still from contaminated crops.
I think that Urban gas drilling is a personal choice -but to an extent it affects the whole as a community. I would rather get a smaller amount (or none) in a royalty check knowing there were certain protections (and salt water disposal wells are not one of them) in place for myself, my neighbors, and most certainly the environment that affects me - than to take a higher amount with no thought to the consequences of my actions. Royalty checks are very tempting and all of us could probably use the extra money..yet the consequences need to be pointed out truthfully- as my granny always said, "there's no such thing as FREE money".
Check out these links/files @ http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/
Files:
Chemicals used in Natural Gas Development and Delivery in Colorado
Chemicals used to Drill the Crosby 25-3 Well in Wyoming
Chemicals used in Oil and Gas Development and Delivery in New Mexico
Chemicals Proposed to be used in Natural Gas Development in Washington
Chemicals used in Natural Gas Develoment in Four Western States
Health Effects Charts for Four Western States
Definitions for Products or Functions in Natural Gas Development
I would hate for Fort Worth to be the focal point for Erin Brocovitch -THE SEQUEL. How much are we selling out our body organs for - or the health of our children and retired citizens who have been living with poor air quality for several years in this area. I do not think it is a coicindence that this area of North Texas has one of the fastest growing cancer rates in America.
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