Word came Tuesday that two important Dallas neighborhood groups took very tough stands on the re-writing of a new city gas drilling ordinance. The Dallas Homeowners League, a city wide alliance of neighborhood associations and civic groups. adopted the same Dallas Residents at Risk resolution outlining the Five Basic Protections that you can find on this page to your right. That's a major milestone in and of itself. Not to be outdone, The Old Oak Cliff Conservation League passed a resolution that demanded the Mayor and Council prohibit  ANY drilling within Dallas city limits. Go to each of these group's website. Both prominently feature headlines and pictures about the Dallas Drilling controversy. It's not just Downwinders and other environmentalists anymore. The sound you hear is this two-year struggle gaining sudden and significant momentum.  Read More

Frisco Unleaded's meet and greet turned into an impromptu town hall with Mayor Maso, at least two council members and City Manager George Purefoy showing up and fielding questions from a sometimes skeptical, sometimes supportive crowd of 50 or so residents who turned out to get an update on the fight over the Exide lead smelter. The official topic was the city's start and stop amortization efforts that began with a January vote by the Council to send the matter to the city's Board of Adjustment, then seemingly stalled, and then got jump-started by Frisco Unleaded's massive mailing to residents around Earth Day that prompted the city to announce a June 18th public hearing date. Local municipal attorney Jim Schnurr gave a presentation on the amortization process and how citizens should prepare for the June hearing. He also mapped out a strategy to plug any holes in the city's amortization case against Exide between now and June. But the discussion turned to other ways to get Exide out when Council Members Pat Fallon and Bob Allen spoke about the city's position. Although circumspect, from the language the councilmen were using, it seems the City is indeed exploring an aggressive "buy-out" of the lead smelter using a combination of bond money and economic development funding that would result in Exide ceasing operations within the next 12-24 months. That would probably be sooner than an amortization proceeding could close the smelter because of the length of time to hear appeals. But it would also cost more. With the rumor that the state and EPA have found a lot more hazardous wastes illegally buried at Exide, the expense of clean-up are still unknown but they're not going down. Purefoy did say that residents should see something happen within the next 60-90 days. The message residents sent the council on Monday night was that it was past due for a definitive resolution to get Exide out, and that they want all means of doing that aggressively pursued. If you're a Frisco resident, it's very important to keep the pressure on and show up on June 18th at the Board of Adjustment hearing and testify why you believe Exide's operations are a public nuisance to your health and/or property. This time last year the City of Frisco was negotiating with Exide over the conditions under which it would remain open. Now, it's haggling with citizens over which mechanisms to use to close it. That's progress and that's happened because of a determined group of people in Frisco Unleaded who haven't taken no for an answer. Stay tuned.   Read More

It's sure going to be crowded between the levees of the Trinity River in Dallas in a couple of years, what with the tollroads, and parks, and solar-powered water taxis. And they'll all have to dodge the new gas rigs, tanks, pipelines, separators, compressors and processing stations if gas operators get their way. A new map direct from Dallas City Hall staff shows practically the entire Trinity River bottoms from extreme Northwest Dallas to Downtown leased to just one fracking company, Trinity East. Look at a copy of the map accompanying this post. All that area in green with black stripes running through it has been leased for gas drilling purposes. Dallas Council member Scott Griggs asked city staff to start preparing maps of where all the city owned gas leases were located. This is the first. It was released to the press with the help of Dallas Residents at Risk, who produced their own map of gas leases on city land back in February (Channel 8 News coverage here; Channel 4 here) In addition to the whole of the river bottoms, the map also shows two pieces of park land in Northwest Dallas leased for gas drilling - the Crown Point baseball and soccer field complex and the proposed Elm Fork Soccer Complex. And all this is in addition to the LB Houston Golf Course lease site where the city is considering drilling next ti the park's golf course. This map is just the latest piece of evidence that Dallas hasn't really leaned anything from its past neglect and abuse of the Trinity River. When push comes to shove, it's still a dumping ground for the Powers That Be. To paraphrase the proponents only slightly, "It's already where we put landfills, so let's just keep putting crappy stuff by the River." Status Quo in 1964, even 1974 but unbelievable in 2012. The final round in this two year old fight to write a new gas drilling ordinance for Dallas begins at 9 am on May 16th at Dallas City Hall in the City Council Chambers when the Mayor and Council will officially receive the gas drilling task force recommendations and discuss where to go from here. We know it's a workday, but we must show strong public support for the most protective regulations we can get. We must send a message that even the Dallas City Council can't ignore.   Read More

"How often have you sat in a public meeting with a government representative at the front of the room responding to questions from the public with answers that make no sense? Maybe his answers are legally accurate (that is, they are doing what is required by law), but are they following the spirit of the law in involving members of the public in the decision-making process? Rarely does government engage the public as an equally or even as a partner. Have you ever wondered why it always seems to be this way? Have you ever asked why does the government do things the way it does?" We have a feeling a lot of you will be able to relate to that opening sentence of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice's review of retired EPA employee William Sanjour's new piece on how to reform environmental and public health agencies so that they, you know, actually protect the environment and public health. Sanjour, who retired in 2001 after a 30-year stint with the Agency helping to write regulations, provides the valuable point of view of the insider. His suggestions are not what you might think. They are neither typically left or right. He wants to break EPA's authority up and give it less responsibility while increasing the involvement of citizens in enforcement. These are Sanjour's four basic remedies: 1) Agencies which enforce regulations should not write the regulations. 2) The revolving door should be shut. 3) Whistle blowers should be protected, encouraged and rewarded. 4) To the greatest extent feasible, those who the regulations are intended to protect should participate in writing and enforcing the regulations. Anyone who's been frustrated with the lack of action from either the EPA or TCEQ will appreciate his Belly-of-the-Beast perspective. If you think there's no sane way to go about regulating polluters and pollution, you really should read both Sanjour's diagnosis, and his prescription.  Read More

Downwinders' affiliate Frisco Unleaded is having a public meet and greet tonight beginning at 7 pm in a back room at Matitto's on the Square in Frisco. It's the group's first public meeting since it sent out thousands of mailers to Frisco households about the dangers of continuing to let the Exide lead smelter operate in the middle of town. That mailer, along with the media attention it received, prompted the city to set a June 18th hearing date to move forward with amortization of the smelter. Local attorney Jim Schnurr will come and give an encore and revised version of his "Amortization 101" presentation that initiated Frisco Unleaded's first public meeting back in September. They'll also be a preview of the EPA/TCEQ "open house on May 21st, and a citizen's slide show of Exide that's ready to be shown in from of any interested group. Meanwhile, municipal election are May 12 and there seems to be unanimity among all four Council candidates that Exide has to go, although some are more blunt than others. From an anonymous tip over the digital transom comes news that that the TCEQ has found lots of hazardous waste in the Exide "non-hazardous" waste landfills. We're tracking this down and expect to have an update shortly. If true, this news ought to shore up the City's case for amortization, since no zoning has ever authorized hazardous waste disposal at the facility. And besides all this, is the city still trying to work a deal with Exide that "buys-out" the smelter? If it is, what impact will finding a lot of hazardous waste onsite do to the cost of such a deal? Digging up and re-disposing of a hazardous waste landfill or two isn't cheap. If you live in Frisco or know someone who does, you really owe to yourself to come out and find out what can be done to accelerate removal of the smelter and meet the brave citizens who are pushing the issues toward progress.   Read More

The Dallas City Council will be getting a briefing by members of the Dallas gas drilling task force about its controversial recommendations at the May 16th council briefing meeting. Things begin at 9am and take place in the Council Chambers on the 6th floor of City Hall. Besides getting a summary from Chair Lois Finkelman, each council member will be able to ask their task force appointee questions regarding the recommendations, so it could get interesting when Councilmember Davis decides to ask her task force appointee, Downwinders board member Cherelle Blazer, what she thinks. And will the Mayor have the gumption to ask his Parks Board Prez, Joan Walne why she voted to drill in city parkland? This is the first time gas drilling as been on the Council's agenda since the task froce was created last year. We know it's a work day, but if you can, you really need to make it downtown to be in the audience and show your support for a better drilling ordinance than the one being recommended by the task force, which rollbacked previously agreed-to protections at its very last meeting with any warning or public hearings. This is shaping up to be a very, very close vote. Your participation is critical in the most important environmental issue to face Dallas in the last 20 years.   Read More

Dallas Residents at Risk's road show on fracking in Dallas continues its tour with a stop at 7pm Thursday night, May 3rd, at the North Hills Prep School at 606 E Royal (near L.B. Houston Golf Course and the now famous drilling pad-in-a-park endorsed by none other than the President of the Dallas Parks and Rec Board). If you've seen the map of gas drilling leases on city owned land, you know that Northwest Dallas is a hotspot of activity. Along with West Dallas and Mountain Creek, it's one of the most densely leased areas of the city. Come see a basic explanation for why the activity is hazardous to neighborhoods, talk to some of the good guys who were on the City's gas drilling task force and find out what's being done to write a better gas drilling ordinance. Information is power. Don't be powerless.   Read More

This annual effort was released this week and relies on data from 2008, 2009, and 2010. In other words, it does not include last summer's horrific ozone season, the worst in five years, and the one that had Dallas taking away the title of worst air in Texas from Houston. Even without those numbers, air quality in the DFW metromess is ranked 12th worst in the country out of 277 metro areas, while Houston is ranked 8th. It also gives a pass to DFW on particulate matter, despite seeing levels that have been associated with strokes. This is because the metrics the ALA uses rely on federal standards - as long as you're above those standards, it gives you a passing grade. But now science tells us that those standards are not protective, so take these kinds of assurances with appropriate grains of salt. Look at the year-by-year charts for DFW pollution. The good news is that both ozone and PM levels started to fall dramatically around 2006-7 - perhaps as a result of the last semi-competent air plan that was implemented during this timeframe. Change is possible. We can find ways to clean the air when we want to. The bad news is that since that plan was adopted and carried out, there's been no follow-up by the state, and no attempt to reign-in the air pollution from the gas industry, which has almost doubled in the last six to seven years. This is why ozone numbers climbed last year and it's also why many of us predict that this summer will see no relief from our chronic ozone pollution. Next year's State of the Air report will not be as kind.  Read More

Let's see, last time we checked in at Frisco City Hall, the city was finally scheduling a June 18th amortization hearing in response to an historic map of Exide lead smelter contamination showing up in the mailboxes of over 30,000 registered voters' mailboxes and reporters calling for a response about what the city would do next after not doing anything publicly since January. This is a good thing, right? Citizens won, right? We wish we could shout a definitive "yes," but the answer is instead a definite maybe. The city has been half-hearted in embracing the amortization option, with the city attorney's office misleading the public and Council members over the history of its use in Dallas, and making it out to be more difficult to use than other municipal attorneys consider it to be. Now, maybe this is to cover-up for the lack of any real documentation the city has to prove Exide was a "non-conforming use in decades past," like a valid Certificate of Occupancy, we don't know. Whatever the reason, there is the public face at City Hall, pointing out that the Council has done all the mechanical things to set amortization in motion, and a private face at City Hall that takes every opportunity to dismiss the strategy. Based on recent events, the two faces have not yet reconciled into a unified cogent position by the city on amortization, and residents are still skeptical. When the City released its statement last week that contained the long-delayed hearing date, it also went out of its way to take shots at the position the residents group Frisco Unleaded, and Downwinders has taken on amortization. It didn't just tell reporters that a hearing date for amortization had been scheduled. It posted a specific response to Frisco Unleaded's flier. After a couple of days of digesting this, the leadership at Frisco Unleaded released its reply to the City's posting. Here the whole thing, and here's a sample that shows why residents still don't trust the city to do this the right way:  CITY:  Some maintain amortization is a simple process. It is not. There are many safeguards in place to assure an existing business is treated in a lawful and fair manner.  Failure to follow the law and treat the existing business fairly could subject the City of Frisco to other liability that could cost taxpayers if a judgment is awarded by a court against the City.  As such, it should not be assumed that all one has to do to close a business is set an amortization hearing and the case is closed or that speeding through the process is an advantage to the citizens of Frisco. FRISCO UNLEADED RESPONSE: Amortization has been made out to be more difficult than it is by a Frisco city attorney’s office that is biased against this legal strategy. What is our proof? Exhibit A: “The Postell Report.” After our initial criticism that the City of Frisco wasn’t taking this option seriously, Frisco city attorneys went to interview the attorney who pursued amortization of Dallas’ lead smelters in the 1980’s – Don Postell. Dallas had three lead smelters at the time. One closed before the city could take action. The second closed before its amortization was settled in court. The third smelter, owned by Exide, closed in 1990 as a result of being amortized, and its amortization was upheld by the Texas Supreme Court. Guess which example the Frisco report left out of its report on Dallas amortization? Yep, the smelter that was owned by Exide, amortized successfully, and had its amortization upheld by the Texas Supreme Court. So when the City of Frisco city attorney’s office wrote a report that described its meeting with the Dallas attorney who participated in the amortization of that city’s smelters, it didn’t contain one word about the Exide smelter that was successfully amortized. Does that sound like an objective fact-finding report on Dallas amortization to you? Moreover, the city attorney’s office has made several references in public to new legislation from the Texas legislature that supposedly makes it harder to amortize a business. No other lawyer familiar with this legislation that we’ve spoken to outside of the city attorney’s office shares this interpretation of the law, suggesting to us this is yet another smokescreen. We remain skeptical that the Frisco city attorney’s office is sincere about its commitment to amortization or has the legal expertise to pursue it successfully against Exide, but we look forward to being proven wrong.   Read More

About four or so years ago, Downwinders put out a nice little report that summarized decades worth of air pollution coming from all three Midlothian cement plants. For years, residents were told that the plumes they saw coming from the smokestacks of the kilns were " just steam." The point of the report was to prove that of course this wasn't true. You don't just emit steam and then report thousands of tons of air pollution to the EPA. So our report was titled "Not Just Steam" and you can download it from our "Cementpedia" page (look under "E" for "emission inventory"). Today some Colleyville and Southlake citizens, along with Oil and Gas Accountability Project organizer Sharon Wilson, released results from air testing they contracted a Richardson company to perform downwind while Titan Operations was fracking a natural gas well. Specifically, it was a time when the well operators were recovering the "flowback" from the well. Contrary to the recent claim from Chesapeake spokespeople that such gas well emissions are "just steam," this stuff was chock full of 26 chemicals, including Carbon Disulfide, a neurotoxin detected at twice the state level for short-term exposure, Benzene, a known carcinogen detected at 9 times above the state's short-term exposure limits, and Naphthalene, a suspected carcinogen detected more than 7 times above the state short term limit.  Carbonyl Sulfide, Dimethyl Disulfide and Pyridine were all also detected above safe limits for long-term exposure. In other words: No Just Steam. Here's the press release, at the bottom of which is all the technical information about the testing. Even though Colleyville prohibits "gases to be vented into the atmosphere or to be burned by open flame" this well is going great guns. It's also true that it's these very kind of drilling emissions that would have been stopped from new wells within the next 60-90 days under new federal rules as they were originally proposed. But they got changed by industry, so now they don't take effect until 2015. Old wells? Forgetaboutit. Why do we keep telling citizens that their environmental health is a do-it-yourself project? Because of situations like this where no government agency is keeping up with industrial abuses. There are an estimated 20,000 gas wells in the Barnett Shale.   Read More