Dallas Turns Over Trinity River and Parks to Drilling

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.