Lack of scrutiny for Tarrant County gas wells questioned - 30% in Tarrant have not seen state scrutiny in past 5 years

By Mike Lee, and Jeff Claassen - Star-Telegram Staff Writer


In Fort Worth, restaurants get inspected by the Health Department at least once a year.

Construction sites are inspected from stakeout to top-out.

The one thing that may not be inspected is a natural gas well.

About 30 percent of the gas wells operating in Tarrant County have not been inspected within the past five years. The inspections are the responsibility of the Texas Railroad Commission, which enforces safety and environmental rules for gas drilling.

Neighborhood groups and local officials say they want the state to step up and do its part, particularly since cities cannot impose stricter safety rules than the state.

Matthew Hudson, past president of the Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods, used the analogy of a building permit. He recently paid more than $800 in permit fees to build an addition to his home, and the addition had to be inspected more than a dozen times.

"It makes sense that when somebody files a permit to drill, that there's enough money in that permit fee to do these inspections," Hudson said.

It actually costs less to get a drilling permit than Hudson paid for his building permit. The maximum fee, set by the Legislature in 2001, is $300, and the total can rise to $650 if a drilling company asks for an expedited permit and exceptions to density rules. By law, that money goes to a state fund to clean up plugged wells and other environmental problems.

The issue of inspections was first raised in a report by the state auditor's office, which came out in August. The report said 46 percent of the oil and gas wells statewide had not been inspected in the previous five years. The report also said Railroad Commission inspectors had chummy relations with the companies they oversaw, often accepting caps, meals and gift baskets.

Fort Worth has its own gas well inspectors, but they can enforce only local rules such as those that govern noise, setbacks, fencing and landscaping. The city inspectors visit every well in Fort Worth annually and can report any problems to the Railroad Commission.

Many in sensitive areas

Railroad Commission officials said at the time of the audit that there is no need to inspect every well, since many of them were plugged or were located in nonproductive fields. They said they had instead tried to concentrate on high-priority inspections, such as wells in environmentally sensitive areas or highly populated areas -- particularly the Barnett Shale field in North Texas.

"If there's a gas well in a rural area, where the water table is not going to be impacted, that well is not going to pose a risk to the environment or public safety," commission spokeswoman Ramona Nye said.

But a Star-Telegram analysis of Railroad Commission data for the same period as the state audit found that there are a lot of uninspected wells in Tarrant County. Out of 1,010 active wells in Tarrant County, the commission has inspected 696 and left 314 uninspected. About 180 of the uninspected wells have been drilled since 2005, according to the commission.
Many of the uninspected wells are in highly populated and environmentally sensitive areas:

ZIP code 76179, which includes new subdivisions such as Sendera Ranch, Bonds Ranch and the east side of Eagle Mountain Lake, has 108 uninspected wells out of 392, meaning 28 percent of the wells haven't been inspected.

ZIP code 76248, which includes Keller and parts of Fort Worth, had one of the highest rates of uninspected wells, 48 percent (11 out of 23). That's higher than the Tarrant County average and about the same as the statewide average.

ZIP code 76135, which covers Lake Worth, a major source of drinking water, had a 50 percent rate of uninspected wells -- five out of 10.

Also, each well in the Barnett Shale has a surface casing that runs from the surface to a level below the water table. Each casing has to be installed and sealed with cement to protect the groundwater before drilling can continue. Inspectors didn't check 33 percent of cementing operations in Tarrant County, according to the commission's statistics.

Limited staff available

Richard Varela, the commission's executive director, said the agency does the best it can with limited staff. There are 377,000 wells in Texas, each with associated pipelines, tank batteries and other equipment. And there are only 83 inspectors. That's about 4,500 wells per inspector.

The inspectors try to make up for their lack of numbers by randomly picking wells for important inspections such as surface casings.

"That way, the operator doesn't know when we're going to show up," Varela said.

Also, drilling companies have to submit a detailed report to the commission after each well is completed.

"For all the wells we did not get to check physically, we can do an audit to see if they're at least telling us what was done," Varela said.

The number of field staff (which includes inspectors, well-pluggers and cleanup specialists) has increased about 10 percent, from 125 to 137 since 2002, even as the agency's overall staff has dropped from 803 to 712. But the agency is struggling to keep the positions filled -- there are currently nine vacant field positions -- since the petroleum industry can pay better than the state, Varela said.

During the same five years, the number of active oil and gas wells has climbed by about 9 percent, from 240,357 to 263,057.

It would take a change in state law to add more inspectors or increase permit fees, Varela said.

'They don't protect you'

That's cold comfort for Jerry Bonds and his neighbors near Eagle Mountain Lake.

Bonds' front door is about 250 feet from a cluster of five gas wells operated by Fort Worth-based XTO Energy. The noise, dust and truck traffic have been hard to take, and Bonds figures his 1-acre property is worth about half what it was before the drilling started. There's a double-decker stack of empty cargo containers along his fence line, and a portable toilet next to his driveway.

When it rains, chalky runoff from the site comes down Bonds' driveway, headed for Eagle Mountain Lake, which is a major source of Tarrant County's drinking water. If there's ever an accident, both his home and the wells are at the end of a two-lane blacktop road.

"I want every kind of safety inspection that can be done on it," Bonds said of the gas wells. "My family lives here."

Bonds leased his mineral rights to XTO and got a $1,000 signing bonus, a monthly royalty check and an advance payment for damage. The company asked him not to disclose the damage amount, but he said it's not enough.

"I'd be happy to give them their check back every month," he said.

His next-door neighbor, Lisa Woolsey, pointed out that the wells probably wouldn't be allowed in Fort Worth or other cities, which have limits on how close wells can be to homes.

"The state standards, they don't protect you," she said. "Otherwise, all these other cities wouldn't have these distance limits."

XTO officials didn't return calls seeking comments about Bonds' or Woolsey's situation.

Industry safety record

Joe Waller, president of the Lake Worth Alliance, said he's concerned about wells near the lake where he lives, too. The alliance has been campaigning for more than a year to clean up and dredge Lake Worth, and Waller has asked the city to impose extra restrictions on gas drilling near the lake.

"If one thing should happen out of a thousand, it'd be catastrophic," he said.

Nye, the commission spokeswoman, said the oil and gas industry has a successful safety record, but there have been several incidents in Tarrant County over the last five years, including a blowout at a well in Forest Hill that killed a worker, Robert Gayan.

There have been two other blowouts, one in Haslet in 2002 and one in Fort Worth near Benbrook Lake in 2007. No one was injured in either. All three of the wells had been inspected before the blowouts.

Also in 2007, a contractor at a housing addition cut a 16-inch oil pipeline in southeast Tarrant County, causing a spill of about 420 barrels of oil. About 50 barrels ran into a dry creek bed and pond. About five barrels remained soaked in the ground two weeks later, according to Railroad Commission reports.

The Fort Worth Fire Department has responded to five incidents involving gas wells, Lt. Kent Worley said. Most of those cases involved were minor incidents in which a pressure relief valve was set off; no injuries were reported in any of them.

Mayor wants local office

Mayor Mike Moncrief said he is working with the Railroad Commission to open a satellite office in Fort Worth, with the city possibly providing office space.

Currently, inspectors work from their homes, but the nearest field offices are in Kilgore, Abilene and Wichita Falls.

"They need to be here where all this action is taking place," Moncrief said.

The city and the Railroad Commission are also discussing joint training of each other's gas inspectors.

"This is important, that we really work together and are each other's eyes and ears," Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones said in an interview.

Jones said the commission also does "a lot of work on the front end" to ensure safety before the agency issues a permit.

Colorado: All wells inspected

In Colorado, which is also undergoing a natural gas boom, state regulators inspect every gas well. Colorado inspectors also do spot inspections, said Deb Frazier, spokeswoman for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Still, lax inspections are a problem throughout the West, said Gwen Lachelt, director of the Oil & Gas Accountability Project in Durango, Colo.

High energy prices have kicked off a drilling boom from Texas to Wyoming, and state regulators are struggling to keep up, both in the number of inspectors and in up-to-date rules. Last year, Colorado passed legislation that expanded the commission's powers. The law added specific language regarding "protection of public health, safety and welfare, including protection of the environment and wildlife resources."

"Most state oil and gas regulations are terribly outdated," Lachelt said. "They need to be revisited, given the recent surge in new drilling activity, especially in areas where this drilling is within a very urban area. There need to be fees or severance taxes in order for states to hire the inspectors."

By the numbers

1,010 gas wells in Tarrant County as of fall 2007.

314 wells not inspected between 2002 and 2007.

696 wells inspected during the same period.

Texas Railroad Commission

The Railroad Commission oversees the oil and gas industry in Texas. It is run by three commissioners, who are elected statewide to six-year terms. Commissioners earn between $92,000 and $137,000 a year.

The three current commissioners each get a substantial amount of their political contributions from the oil and gas industry, according to an analysis of contributions for 2006 by the Web-based watchdog group followthemoney.org.

Chairman Michael Williams, who has been on the commission since 1999, got a third of his contributions -- $138,000 out of $400,000, from people and companies in the oil and gas business, during the 2006 election cycle.

Elizabeth Ames Jones, who was appointed to the commission by Gov. Rick Perry in 2005, also got about a third of her contributions from the oil and gas sector -- $695,000 out of $2.1 million.

Victor Carrillo, who was appointed by Perry in 2003 and re-elected in 2004, got 54 percent of his contributions from the oil and gas sector, $194,000 out of $355,000.

Online: www.followthemoney.org

Texas Railroad Commission, www.rrc.state.tx.us

Gas well inspections

Texas Railroad Commission inspectors make several kinds of checks when they visit a drilling or a completed gas well:

Leaks in the wellhead.

Oil on the ground.

Whether signs are posted correctly.

Whether water sources are protected.

They also make on-site visits when drillers are setting surface casings. At that stage, the well has been drilled to a predesignated depth -- 100 feet below any potable water. A pipe or casing is inserted and cement is pumped into the well until it flows back up the outside of the casing to form a seal between the casing and any water-bearing rock formations. The commission inspected about 67 percent of those operations from 2002 to 2007.

Source: Texas Railroad Commission

Read more in the Fort Worth Star Telegram

Water preservation key issue for Railroad Commissioner Candidate Dale Henry

By Sandra Cason - The Marshall News Messenger - Friday, February 08, 2008

It's all about water, said Dale Henry, Democratic candidate for Texas Railroad Commission.

"My campaign is important for one reason," Henry said, "and that is because the state of Texas is running out of water. It is an abused natural resource and the Railroad Commission has done nothing about it for the past 106 years."

If he is elected in this, his third bid for the seat, Henry said he will be the first commissioner with hands-on experience in oil and gas exploration, the industry for which the commission provides oversight.

Henry faces Art Hall and Mark Thompson in the March 4 Democratic Primary. If he is the party nominee, Henry will face Republican incumbent Michael Williams in the November general election.

A resident of Lampasas, 50 miles west of Austin, and a graduate of University of Texas, Henry is a retired employee of Schlumber J company, having worked in the oil fields of Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.

"I spent a number of years in research and development and I hold several fracturing patents," Henry said.

"I've been out there and seen it all," he added.

While many people may not stop to think about it that way, Henry pointed out that oil and gas drilling operations have a tremendous impact on ground water.

"Oil and gas activity inherently produces a lot of water," Henry said. "Water is what is used to bring it to the surface, but on its way, the water accumulates contaminated materials."


A common disposal method for the liquid is "to put it back in the ground."

Henry said he learned of a DeBerry preacher whose church hasn't had water in a number of years. "One well was drilled too close to his church and all the wells in the area are contaminated with salt water. You can drill a hundred good ones, but it takes just one bad well to create a whole bunch of problems," Henry said.

Good drilling practices are particularly important at this point in time because so many production companies are now using a horizontal approach.

"There's an area called the Barnett Shale," Henry said. "It is a very thick layer of stone and breaking through it has never made the effort worthwhile until horizontal drilling. That's the key."

In this method, the pipeline goes down for a distance, "turns a corner," and goes under the stone, Henry explained.

This type of drilling uses "millions of gallons of water per day. Sometimes it will be as much as 275,000 gallons," Henry added.

With such large quantities to be disposed of, Henry said it is more important than ever that the Railroad Commission check all drilling permit applications thoroughly, a practice he claims is not currently followed.

"This rubber-stamping has to stop," he said.

Use of environmentally safe drilling practices are especially important to this area because of Caddo Lake, Henry said.

"I've done hands-on work for the Railroad Commission in Caddo — the plugging of abandoned wells. Ninety percent of those I plugged had not be plugged by Railroad Commission rules and regulations the first time around.

"I will make protecting our water a priority for the Texas Railroad Commission," Henry said in a promotional brochure.

"In dry West Texas, the ranchers have to work hard at salvaging water to grow grass with which to feed cattle and produce beef. At the ranch my wife and I have operated for years, we cut the number of production acres needed per cow and calf from 25 acres to 2.5 acres by getting our water to the right place.

"Water's my passion. I know how to do it," Henry said.

"I'm not a politician and I shouldn't have to be involved in this, but the oil and gas companies are polluting our water, soil, and air, and the Railroad Commission simply turns its back and lets it happen.

"Instead of regulating these industries, the three commissioners are raking in campaign contributions from their executives and political action committees and are burying their heads in the sand.

"It's time for change," Henry said. "I need to bring the knowledge I have back to the people, if they'd like me to share it.

"I can do the job. I want the job.

"The petroleum industry is a great benefit to our state's economy, but that should not come at the expense of our environment or our fresh water supply," he said.

Read more in the Marshall News Messenger

Tx RR Commission Candidate - Dale Henry: Protecting state's water a priority

By RANDY ROSS - Longview News-Journal - Friday, February 08, 2008

Protecting the waters of Texas is a priority for Dale Henry.

The 76-year-old Democratic candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission said the production of oil and gas in Texas does not matter if the industry destroys Texas' natural water sources.

"We have to stop wasting and contaminating our water," Henry said.

Henry faces Art Hall of San Antonio and Mark Thompson of Hamilton in the Democratic primary election on March 4.

Henry has more than 40 years of experience working in the oil and natural gas fields in the United States and abroad, according to his campaign Web site. He has a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

"I've been hands-on from the top to the bottom," Henry said. "I more or less speak the language of the oilfield."

The Railroad Commission is the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry and the surface mining of coal. Established by the Legislature in 1891, the commission is the state's oldest regulatory agency, according to the agency's Web site.

The self-described environmentalist from Lampasas is a former city manager and county commissioner. He also founded 4 Arrows, the first cementing service company contracted by the railroad commission.

Henry said his experience in the oil and gas industry make him an ideal candidate for the commission. He said he knows the commission's rules and regulations from working as a contractor, and he would be able to begin working on his first day.

The oil and gas industry has a strong economic impact on the state, he said. That impact has come at a cost to the public, he said.

Henry said the commission has for many years considered the economics of the industry more important than public safety. He said that philosophy has changed in recent years, but it needs to continue to change. He said the commission must consider what is in the public's best interest.

"Environmentally, we have a problem," Henry said.

He said companies often cut corners when installing casing in wells to save money. As time erodes sealing and concrete shifts, water begins flowing and drawing out contaminants.

By forcing companies to install casing properly, Henry said companies would save more money in the long-term by avoiding remedial and repair work.

"These are serious matters," Henry said.

Attempts to reach Republican incumbent Michael Williams for comment were unsuccessful Thursday.

Read more in the Longview News-Journal

Texas Firm Indicted for Disposing Hazwaste Underground

By Environmental News Services, November, 20, 2007
HOUSTON, Texas, November 20, 2007 (ENS) - The owner of a hazardous waste transport company and his operations manager face federal charges for their roles in a conspiracy to illegally transport and dispose of hazardous waste underground. Their alleged misuse of an underground injection well may have contaminated drinking water.

The men were arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court in Houston. They are charged with 14 felony counts including conspiracy, violating the Safe Drinking Water Act and violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which regulates storage, transportation and disposal of hazardous wastes.

John Kessel, the president and owner of Texas Oil and Gathering, Inc., and Edgar Pettijohn, the company's operations manager, were arrested and charged with illegally disposing of hazardous waste at a facility only approved to take oil and gas production waste.

Texas Oil and Gathering, Inc., a licensed hazardous waste transporter and used oil handler, was also named in the indictment.

Kessel and Pettijohn allegedly conspired to purchase hazardous waste from multiple generator facilities and process it at their Texas Oil and Gathering facility in Alvin, 12 miles southeast of Houston.

The men then sold portions of the waste as a fuel additive, and allegedly directed their employees to transport the remaining hazardous waste, disguised with documents indicating the waste was from an oil production well, to Disposal Facility A.

This facility is not permitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to accept, store or dispose of hazardous material.

Once at Disposal Facility A, the hazardous waste allegedly was disposed into Class II injection wells in violation of the law.

Class II injection wells are for disposing of saltwater or brine that is produced when oil and gas are extracted from the Earth. It is illegal to dispose of anything other than these fluids through Class II wells.

The Safe Drinking Water Act prohibits the unauthorized use of these injection wells to prevent contamination of drinking water sources.

In furtherance of the conspiracy, Kessel and Pettijohn allegedly falsified bills of lading and trip tickets which misrepresented the origin and type of waste they were transporting.

If convicted of all charges, Kessel and Pettijohn each faces five years in prison, and the business faces fines of up to $7 million.

The investigation was conducted by the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the Texas Environmental Task Force, the Houston Police Department, and the Department of Transportation, Office of Inspector General.

The prosecution is being handled by the Justice Department's Environmental Crimes Section.

This is not the first time Texas Oil and Gathering has been in trouble with the EPA. In 1999, the company settled with the federal agency for selling diesel fuel with an illegally high proportion of sulfur. While denying the allegations, the company paid a civil penalty of $6,300.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.

Bush's Appalachian War: Bombing Ancient Mountains

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse - Daily Kos - Sat Oct 27, 2007
Click on the title. This journal is a MUST READ.

Texas leads nation in number of water polluters

By R.A. DYER - Star-Telegram staff writer - Fri. Oct. 12, 2007
AUSTIN -- Texas led the nation in the number of facilities discharging pollution at levels exceeding federal clean water guidelines, according to a new report from an environmental watchdog group.

The Austin-based Environment Texas said that in 2005, 318 facilities in the state reported 1,340 incidents in which they discharged more pollution than permitted under the federal Clean Water Act. The group also reported that more than 53 percent of Texas' industrial and municipal facilities discharged more pollution in 2005 than permitted under the law.

"With so many facilities dumping so much pollution, no one should be surprised that more than half of Texas waterways are unsafe for swimming and fishing -- but we should be outraged," Environment Texas Citizen Outreach director Brad Hicks said in a statement.

See http://www.environmenttexas.org/

We Can't Drink Natural Gas: Gas explosion rocks Kushequa, PA water well

By Ted Lutz - The Kane Republican - Wed., Sept. 19, 2007
KUSHEQUA " Drilling is blamed for causing natural gas to seep into the Kushequa community water well and explode.

Several blasts have rocked the well since early Friday morning, according to residents who gathered at the well site Monday to confer with representatives of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The explosions have sent a vent cap flying more than 10 feet and have flipped a half-inch thick steel lid off the opening of the well. The lid weighs about 120 pounds.

No one was injured by the explosions, which apparently were triggered by a spark from an electrical pump switch inside the manhole at the well.

The 96-foot deep well on the Tony Zippo property at 65 Church St. serves 14 residential customers, including six permanent homes and eight camps. Residents have been advised to buy bottled water for drinking.

“We didn’t have this problem until they started drilling,” John Verolini said in blaming Kushequa area oil and gas drillers for the volatile situation at the water well. He wonders whether the community well will “ever be back to normal.”

He believes the drilling companies should be “made to pay” for the expenses incurred by Kushequa residents for buying drinking water.

Verolini has lived in Kushequa his entire life. He is president of the Smethport School Board.

Bob Maykowski, water quality specialist with the DEP oil and gas office in Warren, advised the residents to “keep you receipts” for bottled water. He said the DEP would “put pressure” on the drillers to provide Kushequa with a “temporary” water supply until the DEP completes its investigation.

“We know we have a problem here,” Maykowski told the residents. “Give us a chance to see what we can do. Unfortunately, we’ve been down this road before.”

Gas and oil drilling has been taking place at several sites in the Kushequa area.

Tim Curry, a DEP oil and gas inspector from the Warren office, joined Maykowski at the meeting Monday with Kushequa residents. Two other DEP workers also were at the scene.

Curry advised the residents to keep vents open on the community well along with private water wells to keep migrating gas from building up.

Zippo, who has his own well just a few feet from the community well on his property, taped up electrical wires as a precaution. He also placed a screen over an opening to allow gas to escape.

Gas vapors were visible on the interior concrete walls of the manhole at the community well. Gurgling noises could be heard coming from the community well and Zippo’s well, indicating that gas was still present.

A DEP test showed a reading of 64 percent gas inside in the manhole at the community well.

“There’s definitely gas in it,” Maykowski said after testing the well. He said there are no known health risks associated with drinking water containing natural gas. He said he is “more concerned” about the risk of more explosions.

Other Kushequa residents also have reported gurgling noises in their wells.

The DEP took water samples from the community well and also tested several homes in Kushequa for the presence of gas.

Curry said the venting of the wells to allow gas to escape “could be for a long time.” He warned that even a small amount of gas could create a dangerous situation in the wells and in basements of nearby homes.

The DEP plans a thorough investigation of the active gas and oil wells in the Kushequa area, but this alone may not pinpoint the exact cause. DEP officials said the gas may be entering natural crevices in the mountainous terrain. Gas also may be migrating through uncharted oil wells drilled perhaps a century ago and long since abandoned.

The community well in Kushequa was drilled in 1992. At the time, the well was operated only occasionally as a backup for a nearby spring-fed reservoir, which holds 6,500 gallons of water.

About two years ago, the well replaced the reservoir as the community’s water source.

Because of the current problem with gas entering the well, the reservoir could be re-activated as the Kushequa water source, at least temporarily. However, the reservoir and certain connecting lines reportedly would need to be tested to make sure bacteria is not present.

Steven Watts of 90 Church St. said he moved to Kushequa in 2006 in part because “the water was great.” “The water is delicious,” the Bradford native said.

Watts is one of the residents who heard the first explosion at the well at 1:35 a.m. Friday. “It shook my whole house,” he said. He claims he heard three more blasts.

When he and Zippo inspected the site Friday morning, they initially thought vandals had removed the lid and vent cap from the well. Zippo said at first they “didn’t connect” the explosions with gas in the community water well.

“The whole house shook,” Zippo said in describing the first explosion at the well. He said the jolt was similar to “a loud clap of thunder.”

The explosions at the well have caused adjacent grass to turn brown.

Water from gas-infiltrated wells appears to be opaque with a “rotten egg smell,” Kushequa residents claim. The water also has “bubbles,” they point out.

Both oil and gas have infiltrated other water wells in the Kane area, according to the DEP.

In citing one example, Curry said a woman at an area home turned on a water spigot and “out came oil.” In Smethport, gas seeping into a water well caught fire and burned with a large plume, Curry said.
See photos of residents looking into a manhole at the community water well which had been rocked by several natural gas explosions.

Small East Texas community finally will get clean drinking water

By Vickie Welborn - June 15, 2007

BETHANY, Texas — Clean drinking water is finally on its way to residents of a small east Texas community.

It's news that's a long time coming and puts sighs of relief to a more than four-year journey that's been fraught with a mountain of paperwork and a bureaucratic battle through every level of government. Leading the charge for himself and his neighbors has been the Rev. David Hudson, who refused to take no for an answer.

His dogged determination to bring a reliable water source to the community that's been plagued by contamination from an abandoned saltwater well injection disposal site was noted Thursday as officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Region 6 gathered with Hudson, his neighbors and other concerned citizens in Church of the Living God near Bethany to announce the EPA will pay to have a main water line installed.
EPA officials confirmed the groundwater in the area is indeed contaminated and unsafe to drink.

"I'm elated," Hudson said after the EPA's announcement.

"It's been a long tedious process but we did find someone with in a federal agency, particularly the EPA, that is compassionate and concerned about this community without clean drinking water for years.
"It gives me confidence that the system does work if political interference is not present such as the outside interference from lobbyist for these oil and gas waste disposal companies. This demonstrates that perseverance on the part of citizens yields positive results, and we're grateful to the EPA Super Fund division for their assistance and help."

The seven families living on County Road 329 that juts just off of the Texas-Louisiana line between Bethany and DeBerry, Texas, will get immediate relief from the water line.

About 30 households on neighboring County Road 330 also are interested in tying into the line, Hudson said.

The residents will have to bear the cost of linking their homes to the water main. Hudson has secured a $10,000 grant from the Sabine River Authority of Texas to help with that expense. And Harold Hunter, development management specialist with the Community Resource Group, a rural community assistance program with offices nationwide, said he is standing by to help locate other revenue sources.

But it's the residents of County Road 329 who've been waging most of the war on their own. Frank Roberson has letters detailing complaints on the well site dating to 1996.

It wasn't until 2003 that the EPA deemed groundwater along the road unsafe to drink after high levels of hazardous chemicals such as barium, mercury, arsenic, showed up in various samplings. The EPA started providing bottled water at no charge in August 2005, and will continue to do so until clean water is flowing.

Hudson and his neighbors filed a civil lawsuit against Basic Energy Services, the last user of the disposal site known as the former R.B. Mitchell lease that was shut down in early 2005. The lawsuit was settled out of court in June 2006.

In November, Hudson filed an assessment petition with the EPA, requesting the agency conduct a preliminary assessment of the groundwater contamination. He also sought a source of clean drinking water and wants EPA to go after the responsible party.

A multitude of water samples taken by a number of agencies over the years from the private water wells, natural springs and the host of monitoring wells spread across the neighborhood resulted in a laundry list of contaminants being detected. But Jon Rinehart, EPA Region 6 site assessment manager, said Thursday that the varying tests results could be impacted by the time of the year and weather conditions under which the tests were performed.

In February, the EPA did what Rinehart described as the most comprehensive testing to date. Samples were studied by labs across the country without bias.

The findings determined that the private water wells only tested positive for fecal coliform; however, the natural springs and monitoring wells are contaminated with metals and radionuclides that exceed levels considered safe for drinking water. The radionuclides include materials such as barium, cadmium and beryllium, which are by-products of oil and gas production.
"I feel the contamination is probably from surface water spills," Rinehart said. "It appears the surface water carried the contaminates from the site."

As a result, the EPA has been authorized to pay for the water line, said Richard Franklin, EPA Region 6 on-scene coordinator.

He anticipates putting the project out to bids, with a hope that the work could be done by late summer or early fall. Franklin pledged to work with the Panola-Bethany Water System, which was represented by a few board members in the audience.

The news caught those unidentified men by surprise, and after a few quick questions to Franklin, the men left the church.

That reaction is what still keeps Roberson somewhat hesitant to get too excited about the proposed water line. Intermittent talks over the past two years with the Panola-Bethany Water System about bring water service to the affected community failed to get results.

"I just hope it really happens this time," Roberson said. "We've been through so much and we've been told we're going to get this and that. But it sounds really good this time. I really hope it happens."

Adding support to the County Road 329 residents were Texas residents Lionel Milberger, of Robertson County, and Bill Gordon, of Erath County.

Milberger and his wife can relate to what the residents of Bethany are going through this week. They, too, have been driven from their homes by gas well blowouts.

"I think the testing is not fully indicative of what these people have been drinking," Milberger said in urging the EPA to expand its testing. "The Railroad Commission (of Texas) will tell you it is saltwater. I will tell you it is that and much more."

Gordon said problems in Erath County have not risen to Panola County's level, but he is concerned the Railroad Commission, which has the authority to regulate the oil and gas industry in Texas, is not following its own regulations.

"We don't want Erath County to become a Panola County. "» We have sympathy for these people," Gordon said. "Someone needs to be overseeing the Railroad Commission."

Others such as Longview, Texas, attorney Greg Love had even more questions about the injection well site and possible casing leaks and the impact of that on the water supply. Love is representing the Ervin family, original owners of the land on which the saltwater injection disposal well was located, who have relocated from County Road 329 to Shreveport. Several family members have cancer and Love is investigating a possible connection to the contamination.

Hudson and Roberson have maintained that run-off from waste spills and leaching from corrosive pipes seeped into the ground and contaminated the water supply which the County Road 329 families ingested for years prior to any testing.

Hudson still wants someone held responsible. He's filed a federal lawsuit claiming the railroad commission violated the community's civil rights by denying clean drinking water while having full knowledge of the violations. Hudson likens the actions to environmental racism.

Read more

Read New York Times July 6, 2006 article

Read Texas Observer May 19, 2006 Article: What Lies Beneath - The threat from oilfield waste injection wells by Rusty Middleton

Injection Well Failure in Wise County

by TxSharon
This is a must read report by Sharon Wilson and Tracy Smith. It was posted March 17, 2007 but is still pertinent, especially with increased injection well development in Arlington, Fort Worth and Parker County.

Read well researched article with photos by Tracy Smith.

Barnett Shale gas field paying off

55,000 jobs, homeowner royalties part of $5B impact
By LAURIE FOX / The Dallas Morning News - Thursday, May 17, 2007
lfox@dallasnews.com

The financial reach of the Barnett Shale touches all facets of life, generating a $5 billion local economic impact and more than 55,000 jobs.

Pipeline workers find jobs digging miles of trenches. Homeowners collect royalty checks from leases. And cities build roads and sidewalks with money earned from drilling under parks.

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