Recent History
In 2007, looking at the revenues generated by Fort Worth and other cities in the Barnett Shale area of North Texas, City Manager Mary Suhm quietly did backroom deals with XTO Energy and Trinity East Energy in which the city leased public land to those companies for natural gas exploration and production in return for about $33.7 million in land use lease fees. This deal was done without public knowledge or approval, and remained unknown to all but a small few people until around 2009 or early 2010, at which time problems in other areas were beginning to make national news. Several prominent environmental protection groups and concerned individuals began educating themselves about the issues surrounding natural gas exploration and production, particularly in densely-populated urban areas.
In late 2010, XTO Energy applied for Specific Use Permits (SUPs) to change zoning designations at Hensley Field so that natural gas exploration and production activities would be allowed there ahead of their asking for a drilling permit to begin drilling at the city-owned facility. XTO's leases were within about 90 days of expiring and they were required to get pipe in the ground to hold their leases, but had delayed asking for permits because natural gas prices had been plummeting. A small group of concerned citizens armed with a wealth of information available at that time concerning the dangers of drilling in densely-populated urban areas showed up to fill the City Council Chamber for the Dallas City Plan Commission (CPC) hearing to determine if a zoning change would be authorized. At the end of the meeting a vote was taken and the SUP was denied without prejudice sending it to the Dallas City Council where a 12-vote super majority is required to override the CPC denial.
When the matter came before the City Council citizens again opposed it and the Council decided to table the application while it studied the issue. Then, XTO made a second SUP application for its Luminant lease at Beltline Road (FM 1382) and West Camp Wisdom Road adjacent to the dam at Joe Pool Reservoir. Citizens again showed up at the CPC hearing and protested that the Council had not even ruled on the first XTO SUP, and that it would be inappropriate for the CPC to vote on the second SUP before the Council had ruled on the first one. Because of direct conflicts of interest in owning ExxonMobil stock (XTO Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of ExxonMobil) a majority of the CPC was forced to recuse themselves leaving the Commission without a legal quorum necessary to conduct business. Chairman Joe Alcantar allowed citizens to speak because we had taken the time to attend the meeting, but no vote was taken due to a lack of a quorum.
In late 2010 and early 2011, the City Council flirted with the idea of establishing a gas drilling task force to investigate issues and concerns about urban drilling. That Task Force was finally instituted in the summer of 2011, and began its 8 month effort to determine how to re-write the city's gas drilling ordinance to reflect currently known issues that were either insufficiently addressed, or not addressed at all, in the existing city code as to health and safety issues and other impediments to drilling in Dallas, not the least of which included still current prohibitions against drilling in floodplains or on city-owned park lands.
In February, 2012, the Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force made its recommendations to the City Council in a public meeting attended by a large crowd of concerned citizens. Among other recommendations, the Task Force suggested a ban on compressor stations within city limits due to their potential for explosions and the long history of compressor stations leaking volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the air causing major health problems as well as smog and ozone, both of which contribute to our already dirty air that has not been in compliance with EPA clean air standards for more than 20 years.
The City Council took the Task Force recommendations under advisement and were supposed to use them to re-write the existing gas drilling ordinance to assure citizens that if gas drilling were allowed to proceed within city limits that it would do so in ways that protected public health and safety, property values and the environment at minimal additional cost to the taxpaying citizens of Dallas. As of today no effort has been made by the City Council to re-write the gas drilling ordinance, and the same ordinance that was in effect in previous years remains in effect today.
In early December, 2012, word was out that Trinity East Energy was seeking SUPs for three pad site in northwest Dallas, and that a CPC hearing was set for December 20. The leases in question were for two sites on the L.B. Houston Sports Complex and one site on the brand new Elm Fork Soccer Complex. The L.B. Houston leases included one pad site for up to 20 wells on the north end of the newly-renovated (at a taxpayer cost of $3.5 million) and newly re-named Luna Vista Golf Course, and at the south end of the complex adjacent to the Elm Fork Shooting Sports gun range where up to 20 more wells would be drilled, both sites located on the east bank of the Trinity River, which serves as the principle drinking water resource for over 50% of all Texas residents, according to the Trinity River Authority. The third site is situated on the east side of Luna Road adjacent to the L.B. Houston Sports Complex and Luna Vista Golf Course on the site where the new Elm Fork Soccer Complex is located. That site is designated for up to 20 wells and a compressor station that the task force specifically recommended against allowing in the city limits.
The SUP applications stipulated and recognized that all three sites are presently ones where drilling is prohibited because they are located in floodplains and on city-owned park lands. Many compelling arguments were made as to why these SUPs should be denied, but the major issue came down to the fact that natural gas exploration and production is currently a prohibited activity in floodplains and park land under the existing city ordinance in Sections V, XI and XII. After extensive discussion that included at least 20 citizens opposed to granting the SUPs a vote was taken and the SUPs were denied. A motion was made, seconded and voted upon to deny the SUPs without prejudice on the grounds that the activity is currently prohibited and that the City Council should first amend the gas drilling ordinance to make the activity legal before the CPC votes on authorizing the zoning change.
That vote infuriated Trinity East representatives who protested that they would now need a super majority vote of the City Council to override the denials. Chairman Alcantar informed Trinity East representatives that they were out of order and then proceeded to adjourn the hearing. We were informed that the City Council would take up the matter at its regular meeting on January 23, 2013, and we began preparing to address the council to oppose granting the SUPs at that time.
It is important to note that throughout this process the gas industry has been granted almost unfettered access to our elected and appointed officials while citizens have been denied equal access. In the case of several City Council and CPC officials citizens have been denied any access at all. Government that is supposed to represent us is, instead, representing corporations that are not even situated in the City of Dallas or Dallas County. And, Trinity East Energy spokesman Steve Fort has claimed, in an interview with Leslie Minora and the Dallas Observer, that when the leases were being done in 2007, he was assured by unnamed city officials that the Dallas Development Code would be modified to remove the current prohibitions against drilling in floodplains and on city-owned park land - prohibitions that currently prohibit Trinity East's planned drilling activities at both the L.B. Houston Sports Complex and the adjacent Elm Fork Soccer Complex.
It has also been recently discovered that Trinity East plans to go far beyond building small lift compressors for the wells at its two northwest Dallas sites, but is instead planning on building a major compressor complex of three 3,200 hp compressor stations and gas refining plant that will process gas from Farmers Branch, Lewisville, Flower Mound and other well sites outside the City of Dallas and Dallas County, though the specifics of those plans have never been made public to citizens, the Dallas City Council or the Dallas City Plan Commission during any public hearing, or in any printed agenda for any public hearing. Trinity East Energy has intentionally misled and kept the public in the dark about what they really plan to do in city parks located within the Trinity River floodplain. |
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What Happens Next
On January 10, the CPC voted by 6-5 with one vacancy and three members absent to "reconsider" their December 20 vote to deny the Trinity East SUPs. The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, February 7, 2013, at 1:30 PM in the City Council Chamber at Dallas City Hall.
Following the CPC tour of Trinity East SUP locations of Thursday January 31, and the briefing by Lois Finkleman following the tour, the CPC next meets on Thursday, February 7 (this week) to hear public comments. According to what I was told by one Commissioner city staff has requested that the vote on the SUPs be continued to a later date so that the CPC can tour a drilling site and a compressor facility, and then be briefed by somebody from the city's Environmental Health Department, a gas inspector and Terry Welch on February 14.
It is possible, though not likely that a vote could be taken at the end of the February 14 briefing, but since that is not a public comment/voting meeting it is not likely (though possible) that would occur, and the vote would probably be taken on February 21. It is uncertain whether or not additional public comment would be allowed before a vote on February 21, but it is possible that would be a requirement.
In my personal opinion, a vote taken one or two weeks after the last public comments does not work well for our objectives because (1) the effectiveness of our presentations will be softened by the delay, and (2) it allows time for industry and city staff to lobby Commissioners to get them to vote for approving the SUPs without an opportunity for additional public comment.
Once we have determined when the vote will be taken we need to initiate an aggressive campaign of telephone calls and e-mails in which we each emphasize just one crucial point rather than barraging them with a bunch of calls and e-mails each commenting on several points. I intend to keep expounding on the legal problems of voting for something that is prohibited by current ordinances. Other critical issues to pursue are:
Compressor complex far too close to new soccer fields
Well sites will disrupt activities at golf course and gun range
Potential for flooding resulting in uncontrolled release of toxins, carcinogens and neurotoxins into the Trinity River
Potential for harmful or fatal releases of NOx and VOCs from drilling sites and the refinery/compressor complex
The primary role of the CPC is to administer proper land use. Each of these points is directly related to land use priorities. If we can concentrate our arguments on these five main points, then I think we have a better chance of successful final outcome. The only non-land use issue that might be argued effectively is that of water.
We should each send a series of e-mails to each Commissioner, and in each one address only one of the points above until we have covered them all. That keeps each e-mail much shorter and more focused. The main point is that we need a LOT of phone calls and e-mails to Commissioners in the final days leading up to the vote, and we have to assume that vote COULD possibly come this Thursday!
Let's get to it!
At issue in the Trinity East SUPs are several major considerations that merit special attention. These are:
Section V of the Dallas Development Code specifically prohibits drilling in floodplains;
Sections XI and XII of the Dallas Development Code specifically prohibit drilling on public park lands;
Children will be attending school at North Hills Prep School just a few hundred feet west of the pad site on Luna Vista Golf Course, and will be subjected to exposure to toxic, carcinogenic and neurotoxic vapors, silica sand dust and other airborne hazards that are common at gas drilling sites;
Children playing soccer at the Elm Fork Soccer Complex located a few hundred feet north of the pad site and compressor station east of Luna Road, which will include a huge compressor and major gas refining facility, will be exposed to potential explosion hazards as well as toxic, carcinogenic and neurotoxic vapors, silica sand dust and other airborne hazards that are common at gas drilling and gas processing sites;
Golfers playing at Luna Vista Golf Course will be exposed to toxic, carcinogenic and neurotoxic vapors, silica sand dust and other airborne hazards that are common at gas drilling sites, as well as truck traffic going across the golf course to and from the pad sites;
Shooters patronizing the Elm Fork Shooting Sports gun range will be exposed to toxic, carcinogenic and neurotoxic vapors, silica sand dust and other airborne hazards that are common at gas drilling sites, as well as truck traffic going along the narrow, unpaved road to and from the pad sites adjacent to the gun range;
Heavy truck traffic will be accessing all three pad sites via the very narrow Luna Road between Northwest Highway and Royal Lane, a road that is already in decrepit condition and that was never designed to handle large volume, heavy truck traffic which will restrict access to the golf course and the gun range, as well as possibly to the soccer complex.
There are other issues, as well, but these are the primary concerns that citizens and our elected and appointed leaders need to address in considering SUPs for gas drilling at and adjacent to the L.B. Houston Sports Complex and the Elm Fork Soccer Complex.
Citizen participation in local government is crucial to our development as a city where we are proud to live, work, play and call "home." Please make every reasonable effort to attend the CPC appeal hearing on February 7, at 1:30 PM, in the City Council Chamber of Dallas City Hall (Sixth Floor) located at 1500 Marilla Street between Akard and South Ervay Streets in downtown Dallas. Our city leaders are already giving an open door to industry. We need to make sure they hear from concerned citizens, as well.
How They Voted on December 20For the gas industry: Joe Alcantar, Chairman Tony Hinojosa Sally Wolfish Gloria Tarpley Bruce Bernbaum For Dallas Citizens: Paul Ridley Mike Anglin Michael Schwartz Ann Bagley Richard Davis Emma Rodgers Myrtle Lavallaisaa Not present: Liz Wally John Shellene How They Voted on January 10For the gas industry: Joe Alcantar, Chairman Tony Hinojosa Emma Rodgers Myrtle Lavallaisaa Bruce Bernbaum John Shellene For Dallas Citizens: Michael Schwartz Sally Wolfish Richard Davis Ann Bagley Gloria Tarpley Not present: Liz Wally Mike Anglin Paul Ridley |
