Urge the Mayor and City Council to Extend Moratorium on Saltwater Disposal Wells
by Steve-OI know folks are busy, but I’d like to ask you to take a couple of minutes and write a letter to the Mayor and your City Council representative and ask them to vote to extend the moratorium on saltwater disposal wells in the City of Fort Worth.
If this extension is not passed, additional injection wells could be drilled within the city.
Jim Bradbury, the Fort Worth Gas Drilling Task Force representative from District 9, is asking all concerned Fort Worth citizens to “send a message to their City Council representatives calling for the extension of the moratorium.” Bradbury goes on to say he has “deep concerns about even letting one more injection well in the city and moreover that this is being conducted without adequate public participation and input.” He takes this position because the issue of injection wells was removed from topics allowed for consideration by the Gas Drilling Task Force where citizen input should occur.
Hell, I’ll even write the letter for you. Just cut, paste and make any needed edits:
Dear Mayor and Members of the Council:
I urge you to vote tonight to extend the moratorium on saltwater injection wells in the City of Fort Worth. Although the Mayor has wrongfully chosen to use rule by edict and keep the issue of wastewater disposal — which is known to contain many harmful chemicals which would jeopardize the health the safety of the people of Fort Worth — out of an appropriate public forum such as the gas drilling task force, I still believe it is not too late to do the right thing and extend the moratorium. In the meantime, give the people of Fort Worth a say on how this issue is handled. Allow the Gas Drilling Task Force to address this issue.
Sincerely,
A citizen of Fort Worth
You may find the e-mail addresses you need right here.
Oh, and in case you are wondering how effective the Texas Railroad Commission oversight of oil and gas drilling is in this state, check this out. The answer is “not very effective.”
Tags: activism, Chesapeake Energy, city council, gas drilling, gas drilling task force, injection wells, jim bradbury, texas railroad commission, trc, urban gas drilling
3 Comments, Comments or Pings
Citizen K
Keep us posted on how it went.
Apr 21st, 2008
Don Young
Dear K. Please keep YOURSELF posted by showing up at city council. Steve-O is not a virtual publisher/correspondent and gas drilling in our neighborhoods is not an electronic fantasy. Democracy depends on citizens showing up to be counted. This whole mess may seem like an excerpt from a novel by Kafka featuring a similarly named character as yourself but I assure you, this is very real. You and your fellow citizens and their offspring have a major stake in what happens at city hall Tuesday morning. No offense intended.
DY
Apr 21st, 2008
TXsharon
Check out these pictures of an injection well that was just inspected and pronounced safe and clean by the RRC: http://txsharon.blogspot.com/2007/10/injection-well-up-close-and-personal.html
This well was inspected on 9/27/07 and these pictures were taken on 10/05/07 only 8 days later.
At the BS EXPO, John Tinterra of the Texas Railroad Commission, stood onstage and told a room full of citizens who pay his salary that the Texas Railroad Commission inspects injection wells every month. He also said that they do drive-by inspections each week. Was this lie was told to give Fort Worth citizens a false sense of security?
From the Texas Railroad Commission website:
“How often are these wells inspected?
The Railroad Commission inspects commercial disposal wells (wells that take produced water from various operators for a fee) once a year, while non-commercial injection wells (wells drilled by one operator to dispose of produced water from their own oil or gas production) are inspected at least once every five years.”
Apr 22nd, 2008
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