Fracking
More Gas Drilling Smog in Rural Wyoming Leads To More Doctor Visits
The higher the smog levels in Sublette County Wyoming, the more people go to see doctors. Sounds about right. Unless you know we're talking about a very rural area in the middle of the wintertime. Thanks to waves of new gas drilling, lots of ozone is now created by the winter sunlight reflecting off snow and photochemically changing the voluminous Nitrogen Oxide and Volatile Organic Compounds into ozone, or smog.
According to a new study from 2008 to 2011, for every 10 parts per billion ozone rose in Sublette County, respiratory-based visits by residents to doctors rose 3 percent.
Kerry Pride, a Centers for Disease Control epidemiologist assigned to the Wyoming Department of Health, said the study’s results are in line with what the department expected. Similar studies around the country and internationally have indicated similar trends.
Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality has rolled out a plan to reduce the pollution with a deadline of 2015.
Irving City Council Passes Resolutions Opposing Dallas Drilling; Dallas Council Member Reverses Position
Opening up another official front of opposition, the Irving City Council unanimously passed two resolutions at their regular monthly meeting Thursday night that puts the city on the record against Dallas' plans for park and floodplain drilling.
Besides rhetorically taking a side, Irving opposition could be important because Trinity East Big Cheese Tom Blanton told the city's officials last month that, although the controversial wells and refinery the company wants to build on the banks of the Trinity will be within the City of Dallas, the lateral drilling from those wells are actually planned to go under the City of Irving. They'll put the straw down in Dallas but Trinity East wants to really drink Irving's milkshake
One resolution was aimed at opposing the three Trinity East permits themselves and a second one was aimed at opposing drilling in, on or near Irving city parks. Since both were on the Council's "consent agenda," there was no discussion so we don't know if there's a second shoe that's going to drop in terms of denying mineral rights to Trinity East outright. That might be complicated by the fact that there are already at least two wells near the University of Dallas (in Irving) that the company drilled on behalf of itself and others, including the City of Irving.
Irving's opposition comes a week after the revelation that Dallas City Council member Monica Alonzo, in whose district all three Trinity East wells are located, now "opposes drilling anywhere in the city," a U-Turn on the subject, since just last year she was reported as salivating at the prospect of royalty money from the wells. That could also be critical, because council members often defer to their colleagues when it comes to zoning matters within each other's districts. Of course, there's one way to prove her new-found conversion – sign-on to the internal memo that Council members Scott Griggs and Angela Hunt have circulated asking for five signatures to bring the matter up for an immediate vote by the full council.
The Day Delia Got Her Drilling(s) Mixed-Up?
The Dallas Morning News' Jim Mitchell, the lead writer for the paper's editorial board on gas drilling, has all the hilarious the sit-com details.
A Breather’s Guide to Voting in Dallas City Council Races
In it's recent Dallas City Council questionnaire, The Dallas Monring News asked this question: What is your position, for or against, allowing gas drilling in Dallas and the city's attempts to regulate it?
Here are the answers:
Council District 1:
Delia Jasso (incumbent):
I am most concerned with safety for all the citizens of Dallas as gas drilling relates to clean air and clean water. At this time, I would not like to comment on being for or against allowing gas drilling as there may be future legal issues involved with this issue.
Scott Griggs (incumbent):
I have studied this issue extensively and I oppose gas drilling, fracking, refining, and production within the City of Dallas adjacent to our neighborhoods, schools, and parks. I am opposed to surface gas drilling operations in our parks. Under state law, we must have a gas drilling ordinance and I look to cities such as Flower Mound and South Lake for best practices.
Council District 2:
Adam Medrano:
I do not believe gas drilling has a place in high-density urban areas like Dallas.
Herschel Weisfeld
The Citizens of Dallas deserve the right to have a clean safe environment to live and work with guarantees that our air, water and playgrounds can be protected for generations to come. It is the City Council's responsibility to make informed decisions that are guided by the best information available and by Council Members that are willing to do homework outside of the traditional briefing in order to answer the hard questions that demand alternative evaluation with respect for the best interest of our Citizens and the entire North Texas Region.
Vernon Franco
I am against drilling anywhere in the city that could present a danger to public health and safety. Our civic leaders have an obligation to design, implement and enforce local ordinances that protect the health and welfare of our residents. With our current city efforts to encourage Green building and a transition to cleaner burning CNG-powered vehicles, it is imperative that we make public safety number one as we move forward.
Ricky Gonzales
The City of Dallas has made a spectacle of it's self when it comes to this issue. I have not participated in the gas meetings because Dallas has no right to agree to drilling while they are accepting fees only to deny the actual process. I agree we have to utilize our natural resources in the appropriate manner, but the method should have been scrutinized way before we accepted any funds from the gas industry.
Council District 3
Vonciel Hill (incumbent District 5)
Claudia Meyer
I have spent over three years intensively researching the pros and cons of gas drilling on our air, land, and water. Based on the research, and input of residents, I support passing a more protective gas drilling ordinance which prohibits surface drilling in park land, keeps it out of floodplains, and is kept at a minimum of 1000 feet from homes, schools, parks, dams and hospitals. The decision by the City Plan Commission to deny the pending Trinity East permits should be upheld by the City Council, and any new permits applied for should be processed under the new, more protective ordinance.
Michael Connally
I am for drilling but only if the highest standards for safety and a clean environment will be met. Gas is a resource. It's value can only be realized by tapping the resource. Untapped, the resource remains and will likely appreciate in potential value. We can afford to take the time to get it right.
Kermit Mitchell
Gas drilling should be allowed in the city. Environmental concerns must be respected. The regulatory prohibitions should have been cleared before the RFP was publicized. This is a grievious mistake at the staff level of the City Manager and the Council. The City of Dallas is obligated to regulate such drilling to protect the citizens, the environment, and control the competition for the projected profits. The City of Dallas needs the resultant tax revenues to improve the city quality of life. As Councilor, I would explore the possibility of the drilling site to move to an industrial area, such as the warehouse for the beer distribution in South Dallas, and look to give the residents of South Dallas payment for oil and mineral rights as the oil is drilled in a slant or horizonal pattern underneath their properties. There is acreage in District 3 that might be developed in a similar manner.
Council District 4
Dwaine Caraway running unopposed
Councl Diistrict 5
Jesse Diaz
I am a person that believes in clean energy, protecting the environment and a green economy. Having said that, I consider myself a pro-business individual. As a Council member I will review the proposal of drilling and listen to proponents and those against drilling. I will not be afraid of asking tough questions and making informed decisions in this and other topics.
Bruce Shaw
I am against drilling at this time seeing how North Texas already has a serious air quality problem. Also,the long term effect on environment in this region is not known.
Rick Callahan
I am for it. Dallas needs the revenue. However, the City of Dallas has an obligation to regulate the drilling activity in a safe, efficient, environmentally responsible way. The City leadership, staff, particularly the City Attorney's office has a duty to make sure that all city ordinances are obeyed to the fullest or change them to reflect the will of the people or majority. That includes, but is not limited to prohibiting the surface drilling in parks.
Yolanda Williams
I can not offer my position at this time. In the future , I recommend the city to be more transparent and educate the citizens. Seek their input.
District 6
Monica Alonzo (incumbent)
I cannot support an application until after the council has had the opportunity to debate and vote on the task force recommendations.
Raymond Salinas
The Dallas Morning News did not receive a response from the candidate prior to our deadline.
District 7
Carolyn Davis (incumbent):
Until we have much better information about potential public health and safety impacts, I am opposed to gas drilling in Dallas. Our city is a densely populated area and this is an environmentally sensitive issue that we need to move slowly on. I want to see adequate protections for neighborhoods. We need to do some more work, and clearly define how and where gas drilling can safely occur with minimal risk to public safety.
Ona Marie Hendricks:
I digress.
Council District 8
Tennell Atkins (Incumbent):
I voted to allow drilling on sites voted upon by the city council, which excluded park land.
Subrina Brenham:
The plan commission is a quasi-judicial board established to provide an indebt view of city's land view policies. Therefore, I have some concerns that Atkins demanded his appointee to the CPC to change her vote to support the Trinity East fracking on parkland. Sure we need money. I have not been convinced of the negative impact on our natural resources.
Council District 9
Sheffie Kadane running unopposed
Council District 10
Jerry Allen running unopposed
Council District 11
Lee Kleinman
I will not take a postion at this time because the issue is far to complex to evaluate in the midst of a campaign. The Task force spent 9 months on this issue and I personally know and respect a number of its members. The Council has yet to adopt its recommendations and it will take a much deeper study of the facts before I can take a formal position.
Ori Raphael
I am currently for allowing gas drilling in Dallas as long as it is deemed safe and not in a public park, case in point next to a soccer field. A major concern is the fact that the city has already spent the money that the gas companies have paid for their leases. What is to come if and when they request their money back? In the end the tax payers have to fit the bill in legal and other unforeseen costs. The situation was not handled well and the City Council should have made a clear decision on this issue from the very beginning.
Council District 12
Sandy Greyson – running unopposed
Council District 13
Leland Burk
As an oil and gas investor, I know both the risks and rewards of drilling. I am against gas drilling on park land, or any land in the City of Dallas.
Jennifer Staubach-Gates
I do not support gas drilling / fracking in or near neighborhoods. I think there are very few areas in our City where drilling could potentially be allowed. These opportunities should be considered on a case-by-case basis with careful consideration to protecting our air quality, water usage and other environmental concerns.
Jacob King
A lease does not always guarantee that drilling will occur, and the city must consider all possible means to generate revenue without levying taxes on the residents of Dallas. I beleive leases should be limited to park land that is not open for recreation purposes as it is, and I do not believe any recreational parks should ever be closed for drilling.
Richard Sheridan
The Dallas Morning News did not receive a response from the candidate prior to our deadline.
Council District 14
Bobby Abtahi
We need to tighten our regulations and recognize an evolving technology. Locating intense uses on city parks is not appropriate and we need to be consistent. I was one of three City Plan Commissioners to vote against allowing a concrete crushing operation to locate near a park. The City Council later reversed the majority of the Commission and denied the request. We also need to keep a critical eye on the Legislature to ensure that our oversight capability is not diminished.
Phillip Kingston
I oppose gas drilling, fracking, and refining within the city limits of Dallas. These activities are inconsistent with my focus on improving residential quality of life, but they will also do long-term damage to Dallas’s ability to attract economic development. I believe our air quality, specifically our EPA non-attainment status, is already limiting Dallas’s growth. As businesses and high-skill workers have more and more choices in where to locate in the future, air quality will factor into their decision making.
David Blewett
I support the City's ability to allow gas drilling in Dallas. However, the city's attempt to regulate it has been inadequate. I do not believe we have done enough to educate our citizens about the potential risks involved (particularly in the flood plain and parkland) and that until we do, we should not be drilling. We must have community input and involvement from the start, no matter the issue, without any back room deals.
Kevin Curley
In Dallas, the potential for natural gas development is only a viable option for a small part of the western perimeter. In 2008, recognizing the economic benefit to other cities, Dallas sought out and entered into lease contracts for drilling and accepted $34 million in lease payments from companies wanting to drill. There are still issues that need to be addressed before drilling in Dallas should move forward. I would support increasing the setbacks for specific uses. I would not arbitrarily support drilling in parkland, but I would support discussions about drilling in remote and undeveloped parkland that included a master plan for development. A good example of how drilling and land use development could work is a former drilling site in Burleson that has been converted to baseball fields and a green for a golf course. Drilling can and has been done prudently in many other areas and with tremendous economic benefits and hopefully Dallas can realize some of its reserve potential. But my first priority would be to assure we have established guidelines that protect the environment, the safety of our residents, our property values and the future development of our park areas.
Chuck Kobdish
Fracking has created a great deal of wealth for municipalities, businesses, and property owners alike. It is highly regulated and so I am for fracking when conducted responsibly. It is safer than burning fossil fuels and that is often overlooked. I am opposed to drilling on land designated as public parks. The equipment creates an eye sore and noise and therefore affects our quality of life.
Judy Limatainnen
Gas drilling is a very difficult subject. If you are talking about the drilling that is one subject. If you are talking about the compressor station being built also ajacent to the part that puts a whole new spin on it. I think that the city of Dallas needs to look very hard at any contract going forward on public land to make sure the public is protected, the environment is not damaged and if drilling occurs that the city benefits financially at the best rate possible. I don't think a compressor station should ever be put that close to public/park land.
Jim Rogers
I am opposed to “fracking” within the City of Dallas. The primary obligation of the City of Dallas is to protect Dallas’ citizens and Dallas’ assets (water). Without question the city must regulate drilling in the city limits including on city parkland. I am absolutely against drilling in Dallas parks or near homes or businesses We know that drilling operations are disruptive to surrounding property owners and have the potential to damage property values. In addition, it is essential to protect our water supply.
Can Obama’s EPA Save Us From TCEQ’s “Clean Air Plans”?
It's only a proposal, but the Obama Administration's plan to cut sulfur in gasoline is aimed primarily at drastically reducing smog-forming Nitrogen Oxide, Volatile Organic compounds and Particulate Matter, the major pollutants that causes DFW to have such bad "ozone seasons." Would it reduce it enough to finally put the region in compliance with the Clean Air Act? Good question.
Sulfur content in gasoline would drop from the current standard of 30 ppm to 10 ppm by 2017 – one year before the compliance deadline for the tougher 75 parts per billion national ambient air ozone standard. That's not a coincidence. The EPA hopes that this initiative is going to drive urban ozone clean-up throughout the country, even in stubborn dirty air hot spots like DFW, which hasn't been in compliance with a smog standard since it was created over 20 years ago.
Along with new stricter emission standards for cars that have already been implemented, the pollution from cars will be coming down over the next decade to historic-per-vehicle lows. Since forever, the state of Texas and local officials have put almost all the blame for DFW's poor air quality on cars. So does this mean that we might actually have a chance to breathe safe and cleaner air, by say, 2020?
Maybe.
First, there's the question of continued growth. If per-car emissions go down, but you're importing 120,000 more cars every year into North Texas, the decreases in emissions are being canceled out to some degree. In this respect, DFW has been its own worst clean air enemy. By attracting new residents year after year and, for the most part, not creating successful transportation options other than private vehicles, the Metromess dooms itself to more total car pollution.
Then there's the climate. Everyone knows how unbearably hot it can get in DFW during July, August and September. That heat and sunlight is one reason we have a smog problem – it chemically transforms the Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) into ozone. What if it gets hotter, and drier? When the ground can't cool off at night and you start out with high morning temperatures that will only get worse by 5 pm, you know it's going to be a bad air day. The more days like that, the harder it's going to be to have safe and legal air despite the changes in engine design and fuel specs. So climate change could rob us of some of those automobile reductions.
If the last couple of years are any indication, you also have to wonder how much of those vehicle changes will be lost on DFW because we live in the Barnett Shale. 16,000 gas wells that are relatively short-term air polluters are being supplemented with more processing infrastructure like compressors, refineries, and pipelines that are year round polluters. Last year's Houston Advanced Research Consortium study estimated the impact of even a single compressor or flare to be as much as 3-10 ppm within five to ten miles, something it would take thousands of cars to accomplish. Even if those cars aren't there anymore, or their emissions make them less of a clean air threat, you have these decentralized major sources taking up the slack. This is one reason why the state itself told EPA that last year there was more VOC air pollution coming from oil an gas sources in North Texas than all the area's on-road cars and trucks, and a large contributing cause to why air quality has been getting worse in DFW over the last two years.
It's not just the number of these facilities but their physical location as well. The more the gas industry moves eastward, the more of the DFW core urban area is "downwind" of these sources, the more the pollution from these facilities combines with car emissions and other urban sources, and the longer they take to leave the now 10-county "non-attainment area," meaning they linger, exposed to sunlight and heat, and have more opportunity to create high levels of ozone. If you have more flares and compressors within 1 to 3 miles of one of 18 or so state air monitors – you will probably begin to see higher ozone readings as a result of their operation – as you have the last couple of years. Most of these pipelines and processing facilities have come online only since 2006.
And that's just in the North Texas area. There's evidence to suggest that the gas industry's building-out to the southeast – or upwind – of DFW is also affecting our air quality. In the same way that Houston's air pollution is said to make our initial "background" ozone levels higher, so too the 60-100 compressors in Freestone County, about 90 miles southeast of Dallas also feed their under-regulated "Standard Permit" pollution into the DFW urban mix. As does the Haynesville Shale gas play itself, as do the remaining east and central Texas coal plants and so forth. If sources to the south and east continue to increase their emissions, it means DFW starts from further and further behind, so that even if cars get cleaner, they might not get so clean so fast as to compensate for this imbalance.
Then there's the "fire hose" effect of the three Midlothian cement plants sitting so close to one another as to create one large super plume that's usually pointed toward the DFW urban core most of "ozone season." Because of citizen efforts, those cement kilns are substantially cleaner in 2013 than they were as recently as 2008. All but one wet kiln is closed, and that one is due to shut down next year. None are burning hazardous waste. But they're still the largest stationary sources of pollution in North Texas – including emitting copious amounts of NOx and VOCs – and they can still impact monitor readings miles and miles away. It's unclear what impact the burning of newly-permitted "non-hazardous" industrial wastes like car parts and plastics in the Midlothian kilns will have on the formation of smog-forming pollution.
EPA estimates an 80% drop in VOC and NOX pollution from cars as a result of its new low-sulfur fuel rule. That's steep. Remove that amount of pollution from all DFW's cars and trucks, and you'd expect to see a substantial improvement in air quality. That's what you'd expect. But, depending on a lot of other variables the state and federal government may or may not be interested in fixing, it could take more than this proposal to bring DFW into compliance with the new 75 ppb ozone standard that is now the federal definition of safe and legal air.
Dallas Drilling Scandal: Act 3
See what happens when you show up?
Last Thursday's razor thin vote by the City Plan Commission to deny the Trinity East gas permits – for a second time – was proof that Dallas environmentalists can marshal the political muscle it takes to beat City Hall on a critical issue of public policy, even when the system is scandalously rigged against us. Can anyone else remember the last time that happened? This is one of those turning points in the maturity of the city's green movement and the city itself.
By showing up in record numbers for the third meeting in as many months, you won the latest round in "one of the biggest zoning fights Dallas has ever seen" according to the Dallas Morning News. Plan Commission members remarked they had never seen the kind of crowds that turned out for the gas permit fight. Congratulations and thank you very much.
We know it's hard for you to take off work or home responsibilities and come down to City Hall for the day. But this was time well spent. By recommending to deny the permits, the Plan Commission forwards them to the entire City Council for a final vote that by rule will require a "super majority" of 12 council members to overturn. By our math, there is currently no such super majority in favor of the permits, although the margin is whisker close again. So where does that leave us? How do we finally kill the Dallas zombie gas permits?
A FINAL COUNCIL VOTE – BUT WHICH COUNCIL?
The very first motion made at last Thursday's City Plan Commission meeting was by permit supporters and it called for postponing a vote until June – after a new city council is seated. That should be your first clue. Trinity East supporters must believe they stand a chance of electing a more pro-drilling city council than the one now seated.
Angela Hunt, Sandy Greyson, and Scott Griggs are steadfast opponents of the permits. Carolyn Davis is believed to be against them. Those are the four votes that can uphold the CPC denial of the permits and deny the supporters their 12- member super majority to overturn.
But it takes five council members to bring an item to the agenda for a vote. And there is no deadline for action by the Council – the CPC decision could lay out there for an indefinite amount of time with no follow-up by Council necessary. If supporters don't think they have at least 12 votes now, they can wait until they think they do…in June.
Rumor has it that Hunt, Greyson and Griggs are trying to find a fourth and fifth council member to help bring the Trinity East permits up for a vote now – in April or May – and uphold the CPC denial. We support this strategy, and have an easy way for you to help make it happen. Our "Featured Citizen Action" has a new and direct message to all 15 members of the Dallas City Council: VOTE NOW AND VOTE NO. As always, you can add your own message as well. Be the first one on your block to send yours.
THE FIGHT HAS ALREADY MOVED INTO THE VOTING BOOTH
Look again at that list of the four council members who most observers believe make up the current firewall of opposition to the Trinity East permits.
Angela Hunt is term-limited. She won't be there in June. Her hand-picked successor is Phillip Kingston, a solidly anti-Trinity East permit candidate who faces a very well-funded pro-permit candidate. Environmentalists are backing Kingston, but he's not a shoo-in.
Scott Griggs is being forced to run against fellow incumbent Delia Jasso for a new North Oak Cliff district, which is also shaping up to be a tight race. If their attitudes regarding the revelation of City Manager Mary Suhm's secret agreement with Trinity East are any indication, Jasso is a permit supporter.
If both anti-permit candidates lose, and the rest of the current council remains the same, chances are very good the permits would have their super majority and breeze through in June. If you want these gas permits denied, you need to work and vote for Kingston and Griggs.
That's also why the Claudia Meyer vs Vonciel Hill race in District 3 in Southwest Dallas is also so important. It's the only city council race that features an over-the-top supporter of the Trinity East permits running against a longtime grassroots opponent. For environmentalists, it's the same kind of proxy war over drilling in Oak Cliff that took place two years ago when pro-drilling Dave Neumann lost – only now its even more important that the good guys win. This race could provide the margin of victory needed to make sure the CPC denial is upheld.
THE NEW FRONT IN IRVING
One of the largest contingents to show up last week in Dallas were the Irving residents who are just now waking up to the fact that they live only a short distance downwind of all of the Trinity East sites. This is the residential piece of the opposition puzzle that was missing until recently – a built in constituency.
Want to see the kind of cross-examination that Trinity East should receive in Dallas, but never has? You have to tune into Irving City Hall TV, where the day before the CPC vote, Councilwoman Rose Cannaday got to ask company president Tom Blaton lots of interesting questions about its intent with regard to those Dallas wells it wants to drill so close to the Irving city limits. One thing we learned was that although the company is drilling straight down in Dallas, it's making a lateral turn to the Northwest that takes all the wells under Irving. Funny thing about that – Trinity East doesn't have a contract with Irving to take its gas yet. So the company appears to be gambling everything on pursuing three Dallas permits before it even secures the gas rights it needs to exploit them.
It's unclear if Irving alone could or will stop Trinity from being able to do what it wants in Dallas. But what's apparent is that this is now as big a political issue in Irving as it is in Big D, or bigger.
By successfully pushing back last week, Dallas environmentalists have upped the ante. Now you have to follow through. If you're not already volunteering in one of the local council races that could make a huge difference in a June Trinity East permit vote – please do so this week. The election is May 11th and early voting begins April 29th. This is where the front lines of the fight are right now.
And don't forget to send your new message to the current city council: VOTE NOW AND VOTE NO.
We're in Act 3. We can write the happy ending. We can paint the picture. But we have to show up.
Want to Send Dallas City Hall a Message? Claudia Meyer For Dallas City Council
As hard as it is to believe, despite everything that's happened, Dallas could wind up with a more pro-drilling City Council in May than it has right now. Angela Hunt is term-limited. Scott Griggs is being paired with another incumbent, Della Jasso, and one of them won't be back. That's two out of the three major drilling opponents. Only Sandy Greyson is safe.
That's why it's important to look at the only Dallas City Council race that pits a grassroots environmental leader of the drilling fight against an over-the-top supporter of more drilling – Claudia Meyer vs. Vonciel Hill in District 3, a new district that includes much of Griggs' Oak Cliff and Southwest Dallas turf along with precincts from Hill's old District 5.
You know Claudia, even if you haven't met her personally – because she's one of you. She's a 20-year Dallas resident, who along with her husband Ed, was there at the very beginning of the Dallas fight four years ago. Like so many others, curiosity about a proposed well near her neighborhood initialed research and activism that continues today. She attended every single Dallas Gas Drilling Task Force Meeting. She's a co-founder of Dallas Residents at Risk. And if that's isn't enough bone fides for you, she's also an original Downwinder, a veteran of the TXI hazardous waste fight of the 1990's.
Vonciel Hill is a two-term incumbent who enthusiastically supports gas drilling and has shown a propensity for cronyism in office.
Most recently, you might remember her from her February 27th rant comparing City Manager Mary Suhm to Christ for having to suffer through Angela Hunt's cross-examination of Suhm about the circumstances of the secret agreement between Suhm and Trinity East over their pursuit of gas drilling permits in Dallas. The Dallas Observer's Jim Schutze wrote a column about it the next day headlined: "Vonciel Hill: City Council Member, Prophet, Theologian and Sell-Out:"
Yesterday in a Dallas City Council debate over gas drilling on city parkland, Hill compared council member Angela Hunt to Haman, the killer of Jews and symbol of all evil in the Book of Esther.
Not done yet. Next, Hill compared Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm to Jesus Christ. She predicted that Suhm would one day rise from the dead and enjoy her own personal version of Easter.
Council member Hunt had questioned City Manager Suhm sharply over a deception Suhm pulled on the council in 2008, promising to fight against gas drilling on parkland, then secretly signing a deal with a gas company saying she would win them permission to drill on parkland, then taking a $19 million check from them, on behalf of the city, in return for the deal that she hid for years from the council and from the public until Hunt and council member Scott Griggs got onto it recently.
"Recall in the story of Esther how Haman built the gallows for Mordecai, but it was Haman who hanged on the gallows. Those who affix the gallows for you may themselves hang on those gallows.
"And then reach forward from the Hebrew scriptures to the New Testament scriptures, where those who said of Jesus Christ on Good Friday, 'Well, he's done, he's dead, we've got him now,' wait three days, because Easter will come and there will be the resurrection. And those who pierced him on Good Friday are no longer known, and their names are not around, but two thousand and some years later, the name of the Christ is still ringing forth.
"Miss Suhm, this is a Good Friday moment, but I guarantee you from the faith well into which I reach, your Easter is coming, and you will sail forth."
One last thing about this. Since Hill is the one who chose to put the gas drilling debate on these terms, I think it's fair for me to turn it around and ask her a question on the same terms. And this is not a joke.
If Jesus Christ had signed a secret covenant with the Romans agreeing to look the other way while they screwed over the Jews, would we remember his name today? Really? Or wouldn't he have been just one more forgotten cheap politician who took on all sorts of cheap gaudy religious airs in order to pump up his profile? Like you, Ms. Hill. Exactly like you.
So many people were disgusted by her performance that day that Claudia was overwhelmed by requests to run against Hill. At the last minute, Claudia said yes.
This race is now the necessary next step in the Dallas Drilling Fight. The stakes are very high. If Claudia runs and doesn't win, it not only sets the cause back, but residents could very well have a Dallas city council that will be more pro-drilling than now.
Claudia starts out in a familiar place: underfunded and overworked. That's why she's asking for your help. She's requesting that you please go to her website contribution page right now and send her some needed cash. She needs to raise $9,000 by the end of the first week in April to be able to run the campaign she needs to run to win. Do this today if you want to send City Hall a message that you will continue to fight its drilling plans.
Claudia also needs volunteers to help block walk and make telephone calls, and deliver yard signs. She needs the same army that shows up at City Hall to show up in District 3 to carry the day. Send an e-mail to elect.claudiameyer@gmail.com and let them know you want to volunteer for the campaign. Do it today please.
Remember how you're always saying you'd really like to work for a candidate you believe in? Remember saying how you wish you could send those so-and-so's down at City Hall a real sign of how you feel? The time is now. The opportunity is an e-mail away. In these campaigns, every day is like a week. Don't waste any time. Don't put it off. Or come May, you may find yourself with a City Council that wants to Drill, Baby Drill.
Be There When The Picture Is Painted Today
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
– Frederick Douglass
"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself"
– Andy Warhol
"You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized."
– Emmeline Pankhurst
"The only place you can truly be universal is in your own back yard."
– Dietrich Bonhoffer
'Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals."
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
"The important thing is to be there when the picture is painted."
– John Minton
Today, Thursday, March 21st
Dallas City Plan Commission
Vote on Trinity East Drilling Permits
1:00 pm Press Conference
1:30 pm Meeting Begins
Dallas City Hall
6th Floor
Dallas Park Driller Was Former Haz-Waste Handler Forced to Shutter California Plant for Violations
The President of the company at the center of the current Dallas drilling controversy was Vice-President and General Counsel of a hazardous waste disposal firm that was forced to close its California plant site after a long history of environmental violations.
Thomas Blanton is President of Keystone, the parent company of Trinity East, which is applying to the City of Dallas for three gas drilling and production permits in the Trinity River flood plain near Irving. But in the 1990’s and early years of this century, he was a leading officer of the Board of Directors of US Liquids, a large broker of hazardous wastes that had its California facility ordered shut by the state’s California Department of Toxic Substances Control.
From 1999 to 2003, US Liquids owned Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation. Romic’s Bay Area operation received hazardous wastes from throughout the country, “blended” them on-site, and then shipped the toxic soup for use as “fuel” for cement plants like the TXI kilns in Midlothian.
Records show that from 1999 to 2004, Romic was slapped with 28 separate environmental violations by the State of California, which resulted in penalties of $849,500. The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (CalOSHA), discovered 57 violations at the plant from 1988 to 2004, totaling another $163,360 in fines.
Romic closed in 2007 on orders from the state of California as part of a legal settlement stemming from a series of environmental violations. The state and EPA ordered a clean up and closure of the facility after extensive soil and ground water contamination was discovered over most of the site. According to the EPA, the contamination is primarily attributed to the spills, overflows, flooding events, and other accidental releases around the “central process area.” The primary contaminants were volatile organic compounds such as trichloroethene (TCE), a solvent used to clean metal parts. Toxins migrated as much as 80 feet below ground that borders San Francisco Bay tidal marshes.
All three sites that Blanton’s company wants to drill on are located in the Trinity River’s 100-year flood plain; two are also on City of Dallas park land. Opponents have warned about probable contamination from surface spills, which a 2011 UT study concluded were more frequent with fracking than conventional drilling.
It was recently disclosed that a Trinity East sister company experienced a casing failure at an Irving gas well it tried to drill in 2009, although the extent of any environmental damage caused by the incident remains unknown.
“Does Dallas really want hand over its park land to a businessman who has a history of contaminating and threatening soil and water resources?” asked Gary Stuard, Chair of Downwinders at Risk, a local DFW clean air group that’s been battling the Trinity East permits.
After denying Trinity East’s permits once last December, the City Plan Commission is scheduled to vote a second time on them at its meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Stuard was critical of the lack of due diligence city staff had performed on Trinity East and its owners and said this new information was another example of residents doing the job themselves. “There’s never been a review of the company’s track record by the City. It had gone completely unexamined until Dallas residents took it upon themselves to do the research. What else don’t we know because the City isn’t doing a routine background check?”
Back in California, the first phase of the EPA-ordered clean-up at the Romic site ended in 2010 with clean-up of surface and above ground messes. A second phase is addressing the remediation of below surface soil and groundwater contamination. The estimated cost for closure and cleanup of the facility is $2.5 million.
Dallas Morning News Says Enough is Enough: Deny Gas Permits
Win, lose or draw at Thursday's City Plan Commission vote, there is no question that, slowly, but surely, residents have built a consensus of public opposition to the Trinity East permits. For the latest proof, look no further than Wednesday's lead editorial in the Dallas Morning News advocating denial. It's the first time the paper has taken such a position. We know some of you can't get over the DMN paywall, so as a public service, here's the whole peice.