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Members of the Middle Trinity Groundwater
Conservation District board of directors met in regular session,
Thursday, October 4, with five directors -- George Bingham, Ed
Dittfurth, Rodney Stephens, Jerry Fronterhouse and Fred Parker --
present. Jerry Hinshaw was absent.
Also present were MTGCD Manager, Joe
Cooper; Sharon Mainord, administrative assistant; and Wes Burris,
field technician.
Although there were no participants in
the “Public Comments” portion of the meeting, Wes Biglan, of Dublin,
was on the agenda at his request.
Biglan began his remarks by expressing
his dissatisfaction that so many people had withdrawn their protest
letters in reference to a non-commercial waste injection well, the
Golightly 1, SWD, near Clairette, in Erath County. Hundreds of people
successfully protested a commercial salt-water injection well recently
in Huckaby, also Erath County, including Biglan and the MTGCD.
But with the Clairette well, once the
applicant, Infinity Oil and Gas of Texas, signed an agreement sent
them by Joe Cooper (on behalf of the District) agreeing to
specifications such as monitoring wells, all but a few opposition
letters were pulled. Biglan and Elaine Smith, of Worried About Water,
still have concerns.
“Just think about it logically,” Biglan
said, “if injection wells that are commercial are a risk to us, then
this well over here, using the same technology, and the same people
drilling it, will provide the same risk for our aquifer. If you
believe the oil companies, they say that everything’s going to stay in
that one area, that nothings going to migrate off, we’re not going to
have any mistakes by the drillers. We all know they’re not perfect...
There’s just too many risks.”
After discussing the potential problems a
bit further, Biglan said, “Either you’re going to fight all these
injection wells, and protect our aquifer, or you’re not. And I need to
know what you are going to do, because if you’re not going to fight
for them, then we need to make some changes. We need to fight against
all these injection wells, I don’t care who puts it in.” Biglan then
discussed what he believed to be a suitable alternative to the wells.
“We need to go to recycling,” he said,
“and it will happen one day. But oil companies and energy companies
don’t want this, because it’s going to cost them a few bucks, but in
the end, it’s what is going to need to happen, because the aquifer, at
some point, is going to get contaminated. You can’t put this many
holes in the ground, and have every one of them be perfect. Materials
are not going to always be perfect, guys drilling are not going to
always be perfect, so you’re going to have contamination. And when my
water gets contaminated, who am I going to come to, you guys? When we
went to the hearing down there, and I asked the vice-president of
Infinity what he would do if one of these wells showed contamination,
he said, ‘We will shut down the well.’ That’s fine and dandy, but what
about my water being contaminated? Who’s going to help me? Who’s going
to fix it. This is the only water I’ve got.”
Biglan went on to say that if the
drilling companies are to be believed, there really isn’t any reason
to protest any of the wells.
“If the drilling companies are right, and
these wells are safe, then there’s no need to protest any wells,” he
said. “Not the commercial wells, not the salt water injection wells,
not any of them. If you believe that, that’s fine, but I don’t believe
that for a minute.”
Biglan summed up his statement with a
question, “Are you going to stand up and protest these wells?”
Cooper responded by explaining that the MTGCD does protest all
injection wells.
“We oppose every one of them,” Cooper
said, “right up front. When we get the legal required notice of an
application, we fire off a letter to Susan Moore, with the Railroad
Commission, and we tell her that we don’t support this permit
application because we feel like there are better places to put these
things than in the recharge zone of the Trinity Aquifer.”
At Biglan’s comment that there was a
better solution, seemingly referring again to recycling, Cooper
stated, “But I’ve just got to do the thing that I can impact.”
Continuing on to describe the District’s
adopted policy, Cooper said that they then send a letter to the entity
that’s making the application for the waste injection well, telling
them if they will do benchmark testing, and provide the District with
samples of the water, then they will remove their letter of objection.
“And that’s what we’ve done in this
Infinity case,” Cooper said.
Biglan still had concerns, noting that in
this particular case, all the monitoring wells are upstream from the
injection wells.
After Biglan spoke, Elaine Smith, of
Worried About Water, stepped to the podium, and addressed a few other
areas of concern. She suggested that Cooper change the letter of
protest, and subsequent agreement, making it more “firm.”
“It would still give them the option to
do right,” Smith said, “so that the District can withdraw the protest.
I’m not going to, but the District can, if all these conditions are
met.”
Smith then presented her suggestions for
change.
“The first would be changing “...up to
four wells...” to “at least four water wells surrounding the disposal
well in all directions, with emphasis on the south and southeast,
within a one mile radius,” Smith said.
The second change was “testing will be
performed annually,” instead of “testing will be performed every five
years.”
Smith also suggested inserting a point
stating: Monitoring wells should be identified and written agreements
of ingress for the oil/gas company and the MTGCD should be obtained
for the required water quality testing. If no existing wells are
within the defined area, monitoring wells should be drilled with
approval from landowners and the district and withing the rules of the
MTGCD.
“Only after all this is satisfied should
the protest be withdrawn,” Smith said.
After some discussion, Chairman Rodney
Stephens said that at the next meeting, he would like to see Cooper’s
original letter of opposition, and then one that implements Smith’s
suggestions.
In other business, Directors:
• Approved minutes from the September
meeting.
• Approved payment of bills.
• Reviewed Income/Expense Comparison.
• Heard the “Manager’s Report” from Joe
Cooper, in which Cooper reported on possible ground water
contamination at the old Rayloc building in Stephenville, and the
on-going investigation and public hearing scheduled for November 6, at
Stephenville City Hall, at 5:30 p.m. Cooper said he didn’t believe
people near the affected area should be overly concerned at this
point, (initial reports are encouraging) but they should let the
“process play out.”
• Reviewed quarterly report on investment
of public funds.
• Approved the reconvening of the Real
Estate Committee, to investigate the possibilities of purchasing, or
constructing, new MTGCD offices.
• Heard the “Quarterly Drought
Assessment” from Cooper, in which he noted that “The Palmer Drought
Severity Index was updated on August 18, and the whole state is in
pretty much very wet conditions. The prior three quarters we’ve been
“very wet”, “severe drought” and “moderate drought”, respectively, so
it’s gotten better. The Drought Probability Predictions, which is
another way to look at this, it’s done by National Oceanic Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), was updated September 20, and it’s projected
through the end of December, and it does not predict any drought
concerns for our area.”
Just prior to the regular meeting, a
brief permit hearing was held, with two permit applications being
approved. |
