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DUBLIN -- A new slate of officers were
elected in a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Middle Trinity
Groundwater Conservation District held on Thursday, September 21.
The special meeting had been called for
the purpose of removing the Board’s officers and electing
replacements.
The meeting room at Dublin City Hall was
packed with citizens, most of whom were apparently in support of
Waggoner.
At the Board’s previous regular meeting
held two weeks earlier, Chairman Boyd Waggoner apparently upset four
of the other five directors when he described the District’s rules as
“inadequate”. He stated his opinion that the existing rules prevent
the District from doing its job of conserving and preserving our
groundwater.
Waggoner, a Stephenville attorney, also
requested that a moratorium be declared on permitting water wells
until an assessment of permits already granted and a scientific study
of the area’s groundwater resources can be completed. He further
expressed his opinion that water wells need to be metered.
Following the earlier meeting, four MTGCD
Board members issued a public statement expressing concern that
Waggoner’s actions may have damaged the District’s reputation and had
the potential to cause needles consternation on the part of the
citizens of Comanche and Erath counties.
The statement noted that Waggoner had not
participated in the lengthy rules study, proposal, public hearing and
adoption process, undertaken before his election to the MGTCD Board.
The statement was endorsed by Rodney
Stephens (Comanche), Jerry Hinshaw (Stephenville), George Bingham
(Sidney) and Jerry Fronterhouse (DeLeon), the same four Board members
who requested the special meeting for Thursday.
On Wednesday, an e-mail alert was
circulated by an Erath County self-styled groundwater “watchdog”, Bill
Gordon, who invited all concerned about conserving and protecting our
groundwater to attend the Thursday Board meeting.
The e-mail implored the recipients to
“send a message to MTGCD board members that we want them to do what we
elected them for -- please protect and conserve our groundwater.”
Gordon’s email also implied that Boyd was
the only MGTCD Board member concerned with groundwater depletion,
contamination by oil and gas waste disposal wells and with prohibiting
sale of large quantities of water to oil and gas producers.
Board Chairman Waggoner opened the
meeting with a statement to the effect that one does not miss one’s
water until the well runs dry. His comments were seconded by many in
the audience. Waggoner then took up the first item on the agenda, the
removal of officers of the Board of Directors.
The vote to remove the Boards officers
was passed on a 4-2 vote, with the four members calling for the
meeting voting in favor and Waggoner and another Erath County
representative, Fred Parker, voting in opposition.
The next item on the agenda was to elect
new Board officers. By unanimous vote, the Board elected Rodney
Stephens president, George Bingham vice president and Fred Parker
secretary.
As the meeting was adjourned, expressions
of dissatisfaction were heard from the audience. Following the meeting
there were several audience members who asked pointed questions of the
four Board members and of the District’s manager, Joe Cooper.
Much of the concern seemed to center
around the growing oil and gas well activity where relatively large
amounts of water are required for drilling and production. There was
also concern regarding waste water injection wells.
Joe Cooper, along with representatives
from other Texas groundwater conservation districts, recently
testified before an interim Legislative committee regarding the need
to end the petroleum industry’s broad exemption from water use
regulations.
In a letter to the Stephenville
Empire-Tribune published Sunday, Waggoner noted the permitting of a
“water factory” on Highway 377 north of Stephenville which would be
allowed to sell out of the District to oil and gas producers an amount
of water annually that amounts to 14% as much as the City pumps for
its citizens.
Waggoner commented in his letter that the
only way the rules might likely be changed to prevent such undesirable
permitting would apparently involve the separation of Erath County
from Comanche County. He later suggested that the Middle Trinity
Groundwater Conservation District should be dissolved. |
