At the end of a very long evening and the vote was tallied, the elation of most in the City Council chambers was matched only by their disbelief as they watched a unanimous vote decline a variance for the proposed drilling site at Eighth Avenue. Even though it was the first time the City had denied a high-impact variance, I was still marveling at how the whole thing wrapped up.
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The proposed variance on Chesapeake Energy’s high-impact drilling site at Eighth Avenue is scheduled for a vote at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. An email is circulating that indicates that the city staff recommendation is officially neutral: “It is recommended that the City Council consider a waiver for the high-impact gas well permit and issuance of a gas well pad site permit requested by Chesapeake Operating, Inc., to allow the drilling of the Railroad-1H and 2H gas wells on Pad-A of the 8th Avenue Railroad Lease located at 2592 8th Avenue in the Adolph Gouhenant Survey, Abstract 612, Tract 3E.”
However, a source in one of the neighborhood associations in the neighborhoods around Eighth Avenue indicated that staff discussion indicated that drilling at the site “would not be OK.”
So, what do you think? Does the variance get approved or denied?
As Kevin Buchanan pointed out on another comment thread, a representative from one of the neighborhood associations around Chesapeake Energy’s proposed high-impact drilling site at Eighth Avenue confirmed that the Oklahoma City-based company is planning an end-run around the city’s gas drilling ordinance to get the site on-line. According to the source, Chesapeake plans to sue the City of Fort Worth and circumvent the city’s gas drilling ordinance in an attempt to enforce the state’s more lax requirements on drill site distance if Fairmount, Ryan Place, Berkeley and Mistletoe Heights continue to oppose the site. A City Council Hearing on a variance for this site is schedule on Tuesday, October 7.
What do you think would happen if Chesapeake tries to go around the City’s drilling ordinance?
On the same day that we find out a new city board is being considered to hold hearings on permits for high-impact gas wells, we also find out that the City Council put off a vote on the proposed Greenwood drilling site for the third time.
Carter Burdette told the Star-Telegram that he was delaying the vote until January 6 at the request of Chesapeake so that both the energy company and Greenwood Cemetery have time to address “serious access issues.”
However, the Greenwood variance isn’t the only one bouncing around council chambers. A source at City Hall told me yesterday the high-impact variance on the proposed Eighth Avenue drilling site is on the Council’s agenda for October 7 and the proposed TCU gas well site is on the agenda for November 4.
Although there had been some rumors about moving the TCU drilling site from its current spot on parking lot north of Amon Carter Stadium near Alice Carlson Elementary School, according to the City Hall source, the location has not changed and search of the Texas Railroad Commission website indicates that this is the only permitted drilling site in the TCU area.
Like water seeking base level, the fight over urban gas drilling in Fort Worth always seems to come back to the Trinity River. Much like the Trinity Trees situation last year, the current debate over the Greenwood Cemetery drilling site wraps up all of the dilemmas and contradictions the public space / private property situation in one neat little package.
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There may be some hope yet for the city’s tree planting program. Last week Mayor Mikey told Channel 5 that the program could avoid the budget ax altogether thanks to some creative bookkeeping to access the money from the gas drilling lock box.
Of course, I’m wonder what happened to the $500,000 that Chesapeake pledged for planting trees as part of the Trinity Trees settlement. A source at City Hall said that the money was promised as $500,000 over five years, not one lump sum, and the source is confident that the city will eventually get that money. However, the city still has not received a penny of that money pledged almost 11 months ago. Did someone forget to send an invoice? The city could sure use $100,000 for trees right now.
Also, if you would like to take a survey about the city’s tree planting program, click here. The survey is live until Friday.
A Conversation With Jerry Horton - West and Clear from James M. Johnston on Vimeo.
When you knock on Jerry Horton’s front door on Carter Avenue, you’ll notice that there’s a horseshoe above it. It’s obviously been there a long time — it’s painted the same color of white as her 100-year-old house. But any luck that horseshoe brought to the house or the rest of Carter Avenue appears to be running out — Ms. Horton has a court date scheduled for Thursday as Chesapeake Energy’s pipeline subsidiary, Texas Midstream, is moving ahead with its condemnation proceedings. On Monday evening, she and her neighbors will meet with Texas Midstream to try and reach a last-minute compromise. If that fails and Ms. Horton has to go to court, the odds aren’t in her favor. She can’t afford a lawyer and the laws of this state don’t offer much protection for property owners against entities like Texas Midstream that have eminent domain powers.
Above is a short film that West and Clear collaborated on with Fort Worth filmmaker James M. Johnston. Eminent domain abuse is an abstract problem, but Ms. Horton’s plight puts a very human face on this issue. James and I wanted Ms. Horton to be able to tell her story in her own words and show you what it is like to have a pipeline literally coming to your front porch.
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From the desk of Julie Wilson:
We thought you’d like to have a heads-up on an exciting event: Chesapeake will be spudding Fort Worth’s first downtown well this Friday, August 15.
Trinidad Rig #111 – the same turquoise rig that drilled the Pearson site (aka the “Trinity Trails” site near Colonial) will be drilling the Westgate 1-H on the south edge of downtown behind the old red brick Star-Telegram warehouse off Lancaster. We’ll be doing preliminary work and rigging up from Tuesday to Thursday and turning the drillbit on Friday morning.
The initial well will be drilled westerly, not actually under downtown. Key mineral owners for the first well include UPRR, J. Don Williamson, World Life Insurance, Richard May, Robert Ritter, Champion Parts, Ron Investments, and Harmony Realty Corp. Future wells from this site could develop the minerals underneath City Hall, the Convention Center, the Fort Worth Club, portions of Sundance Square, and other parts of downtown. Chesapeake plans to develop the balance of Downtown from our four other sites in the area, including our “Ron” site - located behind the Ashton Depot, the “Dakota” site - located northwest of Downtown near the railroad tracts and Dakota St., the “Henderson Bazaar” site - located at the intersection of Jacksboro Highway and Henderson St., and the “Fourth Street” site - located just east of I-35W and south of 4th St.
This Trinidad is one of the newer, quieter, and more attractive rigs in our fleet. Because this location will have such high visibility from the highway as well as downtown, we want you to know that we’re paying special attention to the noise and aesthetics. Frankly, the noise shouldn’t be an issue as this is close to the active train tracks as well as the highway, but we will nonetheless be very mindful of neighbors and install sound blankets. We will be restricting our construction traffic to avoid business commuter times (curtailing from 7 – 9 am and 4 - 7 pm). The city-approved traffic route is from I-30 to Lancaster to Lamar. As with other wells, the drilling here should take about 18-24 days. We are only drilling one well here at this time, so the rig will move off in early September.
Because we anticipate interest in this location will be high – and the location convenient - we’ll offer a series of “rig tour” times for civic leaders, city staff, and council members. Although we don’t know yet exactly what time the drilling will commence on Friday, we will hold a small inaugural tour at 2 pm for those who’d like to be present on the exciting first day. If you would like to participate, please let us know, as space will be limited. Otherwise, we will send you a schedule of other tours so you can select a convenient date and time.
Anyone want to go? Email Julie Wilson now. Tell her West and Clear sent you.
So four lawyers walk into a Presbyterian Church last night and three lawyers say that the city needs a master plan on pipeline infrastucture. Who was the odd person out? Was it:
Gosh, I suppose I couldn’t have put it any better myself…
From the text of the story aired on NPR’s “All Things Considered” today. (Emphasis mine.)
In the wake of Chesapeake’s infomercial comes Shale TV, a daily talk show about the Barnett Shale set to air this fall. The company has hired three award-winning Dallas broadcast journalists to produce the show.
Julie Wilson, Chesapeake vice president for corporate development, says she understands there’s skepticism about the objectivity of Shale TV, but she insists it’s no different than the rest of corporate media.
“Well, I think we pay those journalists — whether on Channel 8 or Channel 11 or the Star-Telegram — in terms of advertising support,” Wilson says. “We see this as pretty much instead of running the ads on the program, we’re just writing the check direct.”
Next,
