Jan 15, 2009
by Steve Smith
Even though some said that a comprehensive approach to gas drilling in Fort Worth was not needed or even possible, it appears that Fort Worth and Chesapeake Energy have taken a first step in that direction.
After months of work on the issue, the City of Fort Worth and Chesapeake Energy have reached a tentative agreement on what District 9 City Council representative Joel Burns called a comprehensive plan proposal for gas drilling in Southwest Fort Worth. The proposed agreement, if presented and approved by the City Council, means that Chesapeake will not drill a well on the TCU campus and the Alton Road pipeline through Westcliff will be unnecessary. TCU’s mineral leases will be developed instead from two well sites off of Granbury Road to the Southeast of the campus, including the Thornton site pictured above.
“I hope this agreement is a helpful example of what we can accomplish in other parts of the city when we take a comprehensive approach to gas drilling,” Burns said.
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Aug 4, 2008
by Steve Smith
Frequent West and Clear readers might recall a story we wrote about the first public meeting of the Fort Worth Gas Drilling Task Force. At that meeting, a Fort Worth resident named Mike Dean, spoke quite movingly about nearly being asphyxiated by carbon monoxide from a nearby gas well. The man wept openly as he told about how gas from a nearby well nearly took his life.
How did the Task Force respond to this testimony? They ignored it. And in one instance, one member of the Task Force actually made light of Dean, having a laugh at the expense of man who almost died, according to two people in attendance at the meeting.
That man was Lee Nichol, the same man who wrote an op-ed in the Star-Telegram yesterday claiming that the City of Fort Worth does not need a master plan for drilling as fellow Task Force member Jim Bradbury wrote in the S-T last Sunday and the newly formed FWCREDO is calling for. It’s also interesting that Nichol was instrumental in making sure minutes of Task Force meetings aren’t maintained, presumably so comments like the one he made about Dean wouldn’t be made public.
Nichol’s op-ed starkly presents the choice that we in Fort Worth have:
Develop a master plan that can make developing the Barnett Shale a planned and less painful process.
Let city government stand aside and cheer from the sidelines as the industry and business interests maximize their profits as the quality of life in the city of Fort Worth is diminished.
[Read more]
