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BARNETT
SHALE
NATURAL GAS DRILLING
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HOME TEXAS
REGIONS
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Fort Worth and much of north Texas, including
most of the D/FW Metroplex, have been enjoying a natural gas
boom. In more ways than one.
"As of 2007, recent advances in the technology of horizontal drilling have opened up the potential of the Barnett Shale as a major producer of natural gas. Horizontal drilling has changed the way oil and gas drilling is done by allowing producers to drill horizontally beneath neighborhoods, schools and airports. Since much of the gas in the Barnett Shale is lodged beneath the City of Fort Worth, this new drilling technology has created a boom for the city."
source:Wikipedia,
rest of article below
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click a thumbnail to view a
photo
The 'Boom' you see in the next 2
photos occurred March 12, 2007, billowing a plume of black smoke that
was visible from far east Fort Worth. Even though the natural gas
drilling related explosion occurred west of downtown Fort Worth.
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No one died in this explosion.
However, less than a year earlier, on April 22, 2006
in the Forest Hill area of south Fort Worth an explosion at a natural
gas well killed one worker and forced hundreds of residents out of
their homes.
Other notable recent explosions in the Barnett Shale
zone are a December 16, 2005 big boom in Palo Pinto County caused when
a drill bit struck a gas pocket, setting off a massive explosion
creating a 750 foot wide crater. No one died, one worker suffered
minor burns.
An indicator of the lax security surrounding the
drilling operations occurred December 16, 2006 in Springtown when a 14
year old boy died after he lifted the lid of an oil tank and dropped a
piece of burning paper inside. Yes, there may have been Darwinian
selection in play with this incident.
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June 8, 2008, while biking the Trinity
Trail near the Fort Worth Stockyards, we were surprised by a new
addition to the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historical District. I
would not want to be biking near this if what happened in the two
previous photos were to occur.
We
blogged about this last week after we got home.
And again today.
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Click here for
Video of a Barnett Shale Gas Well Explosion
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Click for
Barnett Shale Gas Drilling Videos
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November
2007----Dust from the Drilling Operation now blankets this Apartment
Complex
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Here we see several photos
showing how close the drilling operations are to densely populated
areas. We are looking at the Havenwood Apartment Complex, from the
Albertsons parking lot near the intersection of Interstates 820 and
30.
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Would you like one of these in your neighborhood?
The drill rig you see in
these photos is in far east Fort Worth, very close to the 820 Freeway.
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In addition to occasionally exploding the drilling
rigs are very noisy. Some people decide to move away from them and
find out no one will buy their house. At night the drilling rigs light
up like a Christmas tree.
Below are photos of the same location, taken during
the fracturing operation which fractured this neighborhood under a
cloud of corrosive dust.
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Satellite view of the gas drilling site a
short distance away from the above apartment buildings and houses.
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BARNETT SHALE
DRILLING IS NOISY, DUSTY, DIRTY BUSINESS |
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Here we see the road into this
Chesapeake Drilling Operation. It is now at the fracturing
stage, meaning scores of trucks hauling water to the site. At
times dozens of tanker trucks backed up on the public street.
The roadway into this site was covered with some sort of
crushed rock. We suspect there is limestone in the mix. As the
trucks come and go huge dust clouds spew in their wake, making
a mess of this densely populated neighborhood. |
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With cooler Fall temperatures dew
has arrived which turns the gravel dust into a sludge. It is
very sticky and difficult to remove. Many have given up trying
to keep their vehicles clean. |
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Were is the EPA? Where is
whatever branch of Fort Worth's city government is in charge
of writing citations to businesses doing damage of this sort
to innocent bystanders? |
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This is the worst case we found.
Before the dust storm began this car was kept shiny clean. The
owner has given up for the duration. The limestone dust mixed
with the water from morning dew makes a sort of concrete paste
that may never wash off.
The dust gets inside the vehicles
as well
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There is currently a warrant out
for the arrest of the driver of the car in the foreground. See
those stickers in the window? One of them is the annual emissions
test sticker. In 2004 the driver was late getting his sticker,
a cop saw the outdated sticker and wrote a ticket. The driver
appeared in court, thought the matter was taken care of. Now
in 2007 the driver received a rather bizarre letter in the
mail from the city of Fort Worth saying an arrest warrant had
been issued because of the tardy emissions test in 2004. Now,
this is a car that passed its emission test, never failed. Do
we need to point out the irony of the city of Fort Worth harassing
this citizen while corrosive dust clouds emit pollution in
Fort Worth, free from any arrest warrants being issued,
warrants that would seem in the dust polluters case to be well
warranted. |
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The local media, for the most
part, seems to ignore these minor results of the drilling in
the D/FW urban zone. And how it is affecting people. Some
allergy sufferers who live in this dusty area claim the dust
is making their symptoms much worse.
The dust also gets into the buildings. Due
to the noise and the dust several people have moved. Some have
resorted to desperate measures such as the screen you see in
this photo, a likely futile attempt to block some of the
dust.
There are pockets of resistance trying to
cause the local governments to do the right thing regarding
these outrages.
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Click for Barnett
Shale Gas Drilling Videos
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June
4, 2008 we Blogged about Tommy Lee Jones and the Barnett Shale.
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SCARY HALLOWEEN
NEWS --- OCTOBER 31, 2007 |
Fort
Worth Heritage Park Drilling
The Fort Worth City Council approved an
easement on a half-acre of Heritage
Park in north Downtown Fort Worth.
Perhaps this is the real reason the park was closed and
cordoned off by chain link fence. |
Sludge Leak
Southbound Texas 174 in Burleson was reduced to
one lane on Halloween Eve after sludge from a gas well leaked
from a truck hauling it to an unknown destination. Cleanup was
expected to be completed by mid-day Halloween. |
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A PLEA TO SAVE A
PARK FROM GAS DRILLERS IN NORTH RICHLAND HILLS |
I am a huge supporter of
reforestation in the DFW area and have worked on tree grant
programs when I lived in Fort Worth. I am very disturbed by
the decision by the North Richland Hills city council to allow
Natural Gas Drilling rigs on park property. There is a
gas company currently surveying and staking out a very large
section of Little Bear Creek Park in the northwest part of NRH.
They have flagged many, many mature trees for clear cutting.
Many of the trees are native breeds and a large part of them
are evergreens planted by the city over ten years ago!
The decision was made with virtually no notice to the public
other than what is required by law - posting a public hearing
date in the paper. Therefore not one resident spoke when
the issue came up to vote ... no one knew about it!
We are currently organizing, passing out flyers and getting
petitions signed before a drilling permit gets signed. I
have also been talking to John Pistick and members of the
Parks and Recreation department for NRH but nobody seems too
interested in stopping this activity. Is there anything
you can do to help us? Is there anyone in this area that
could be an advocate for our cause.
Thanks in advance for your consideration, if you have any
suggestions that would help us fight this please let me know!
Sincerely,
Barry Thompson
WE
HAVE ALSO BLOGGED ABOUT THE LITTLE BEAR CREEK PARK DRILLING... |
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On August 29. 2007 a full page
ad was placed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram protesting
Chesapeake Energy's planned destruction of a wooded area many
considered to be part of the Trinity River Hike and Bike Trail
west of Forest Park. A protest of this sort has been very rare
during our years in Texas. In fact, we can not remember this
level of civic activism over any other issue during our time
in Texas. No organized protests over the many abuses
of the eminent domain law, no organized protests over
seeming boondoggles such as spending millions to build
diversion canals and a lake in a supposed flood control
project on Forth Worth's Trinity River, while a few miles
north people have drowned in out of control flooding in Haltom
City caused primarily be development in far north Fort Worth.
The Army Corps of Engineers has had the Haltom City flooding
problem under study since 1974 with nothing being done despite
drownings and the destruction of dozens upon dozens of homes,
yet somehow the Army Corps of Engineers quickly signed on to
the Trinity River Uptown Flood Control project, to the tune of
millions of dollars, despite there not having been flood
damage in that area for over 50 years, not since a flood that
did do damage and did cause the Army Corps of Engineers to
build huge levees which have stopped high water from doing
damage for over a half century. But we digress, we started off
talking about Chesapeake Energy's planned destruction of an 8
acre stretch of the Trinity River Trail. The plan is to clear
about 2 acres of trees in order to drill under Colonial
Country Club and the Union Pacific rail yard.. Chesapeake
plans to drill up to 8 wells and keep the area around the
wells barren of vegetation for up to 50 years. The group that
is trying to stop this, trying to get the city of Fort Worth
to use its power to intervene has set up a very good website, www.trinitytrees.org
where you can learn more and see how you can help stop this
latest experiment in urban drilling. |
3 Photos
of the Controversial Trinity Trees Drilling Site |
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Channel 11 News Report about Barnett Shale Revenue....
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More and More Texans are starting to fight
back, fighting to protect their city, their environment and
their lives. The most prominent group of the Resistance
Movement is "FW Can Do!" (Fort Worth Citizens
Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance) "FW Can
Do!" has a very
good website with a lot of information about the ongoing
Urban Drilling Scandal, including 28 questions for the Mayor
of Fort Worth, questions that raise issues of conflict of
interest that would have had the mayor of most cities in
America in very hot water by now, questions the Mayor of Fort
Worth, Mike Moncrief, has not answered. Probably can not
answer, because if he was made to answer, under oath in a
court of law, for instance, he would finally find himself in
the well-deserved hot water he has managed, so far, to escape,
but just like a scandal of a bygone era, the Teapot Dome
Scandal, also involving drilling, corrupt politicians usually
eventually get their deserved justice. The only unknowns at
present are what will this scandal eventually be called and
how many people will die in the incident that elevates this
ongoing madness into an international shocker with follow-up
Congressional Hearings and trials with individuals like Mike
Moncrief seen on CNN in handcuffs. |
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All the Hazards of Gas
Drilling
2 letters to the editor from the 9/11/2007 Fort Worth
Star-Telegram
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As the number of
natural gas rigs and wells increases, so will accidents
involving the wells---like the one Aug. 29 in Acton, where
residents were left cowering under a toxic cloud. Will
someone---anyone---with regulatory authority (county commissioners,
the Texas Railroad Commission, city councils, the
Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Homeland
Security) please protect us! State and municipal regulations
so far do not! Increase the minimum distance of gas wells from
homes and schools to 1,000 feet, and abide by the
regulation---no waivers for sake of greed. We don't deserve to
live under the cloud of what the Railroad Commission so
casually calls "incidents."
Linda Yarbrough
Arlington |
Allan Saxe's Aug. 27 column
equated the Texas and Oklahoma oil wells of his childhood
memories to the Barnett Shale gas wells. That's like comparing
a BB gun to an assault weapon. The highly invasive practice of
fracturing shale was developed only recently. It requires
pumping millions of gallons of water loaded with chemicals
under high pressure into the drilling hole with enough force
to fracture the shale and release the gas. Saxe was correct in
saying the Barnett Shale drilling will bring a lot of money
into the area. But, sadly, most of that money won't land in
the bank accounts of average Texans. Saxe's argument that we
should endure the drilling noise and big trucks in an effort
to make our country "a bit more independent of nations
that wish us no good" had merit. But the only real
solution to our energy problems is to develop clean, renewable
sources, and we should do that sooner rather than later.
Sharon Wilson
Decatur |
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If you find it surprising
what is allowed near apartment buildings in the Dallas/Fort
Worth Metroplex, check
out the manmade disaster that destroyed scores of
apartment buildings and homes in another area of D/FW. |
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Meanwhile, in a gas fireball not
related to the drilling of Barnett Shale, around 7 a.m. on April 22,
2007 a natural gas transmission line belched out some gas and ignited.
This occurred about 2 miles south of the drilling rig you see in the
above photos. No one was injured in this incident and it was quickly
brought under control.
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Click here for
Video of a Barnett Shale Gas Well Explosion
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Barnett Shale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Some experts have suggested the Barnett Shale may be the largest onshore natural gas field in the United States. The field is proven to have 2.1 trillion cubic feet (59 km³) of natural gas, and is widely estimated to contain as much as 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources. Oil has also been found in lesser quantities, but sufficient (with recent high oil prices) to be commercially viable.
The Barnett Shale is known as a "tight gas" reservoir, indicating that the gas is not easily extracted. The shale is very hard, and was virtually impossible to produce gas in commercial quantities from this formation until recent improvements were made in hydrofracture technology (and recent price increases in natural gas prices made the technology economically feasible).
Operators, such as EOG Resources and Devon Energy, have stated in Public Reports (which can be found on their websites) as recently as Mid-2005 that they estimate that 1/3 to 1/2 of the land in these counties, including "hot" counties like Johnson and Tarrant, will get wells (It would logically flow that the rest of the land will either get pooled in a unit that will have wells, or get nothing at all if the land is in an especially complex area). There have been few dry holes drilled, however, because technology like 3D Seismic allows operators to predict faulting and karsting before they drill and avoid this bad acreage.
Future development of the field will also be hampered in part by the fact that major portions of the field are covered by development and will continue to be, since it is located in portions of the rapidly growing Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Some local governments are researching means where they can drill on existing public land (e.g., parks) without disrupting other activities so they may obtain royalties on any minerals found, while others are seeking compensation from drilling companies for damage to roads caused by overweight vehicles (many of the roads are rural and not designed for use by heavy equipment).
As of 2007, recent advances in the technology of horizontal drilling have opened up the potential of the Barnett Shale as a major producer of natural gas. Horizontal drilling has changed the way oil and gas drilling is done by allowing producers to drill horizontally beneath neighborhoods, schools and airports. Since much of the gas in the Barnett Shale is lodged beneath the City of Fort Worth, this new drilling technology has created a boom for the city. The new technology has brought in a tremendous number of independent producers both large and small, including Crown Exploration located in Carrollton, Texas.
Information
obtained from various sources, including Wikipedia.
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June
4, 2008 we Blogged about Tommy Lee Jones and the Barnett Shale.
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June
26, 2008 we Blogged about the Barnett Shale making an Azle,
Texas couple's life miserable. And a hellish hole in
Turkmenistan
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August
27, 2008 we Blogged about a New Chesapeake Hole in our
Neighborhood
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August
28, 2008 we Blogged about the Stairtown Texas Gas Explosion
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September
6, 2008 we Blogged about Yet One More Objection to Urban
Drilling
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September
8, 2008 we Blogged about Chesapeake Energy Being Sued
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comment about the Barnett Shale
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