August 25, 2011 MinutesCity of Denton City Council Minutes
August 25, 2011
Hold a discussion and receive staff and public input regarding gas well drilling and
production generally, and also including such activities in the City of Denton; consider
regulations in effect in Denton for gas well drilling and production (Phase I); and consider
proposed regulations for gas well drilling and production in Denton (Phase II).
➢ Welcome and Introductions
➢ General Drilling and Production Overview
➢ Recent Activities Within the City of Denton
➢ Phase I Amendments
➢ Phase II Topics of Discussion
➢ Public Input
The attached document represents the minutes as taken by the stenographer present at the
meeting.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
PHASE II
GAS WELL REGULATIONS
THURSDAY, AUGUUST 25, 2011
6:30 P.M. - 8:30 P.M.
CIVIC CENTER
321 EAST MCKINNEY STREET
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
1
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
(P R 0 C E E D I N G S)
MS. KAMP: My name is Pete Kamp, I'm
On behalf of everyone on the City
Committee members, thank you so much for agreeing to
serve and for putting your time and dedication into this
project. Most especially, thank you citizens for being
here. This is what the public process is all about. We
want and need your input.
I'm going to -- let's see, we have some
other City Council members here. If you would please
stand up so I can see you. We have James King over
here, Dalton Gregory, Kevin Roden, and Jimmy Engelbrecht
back in the back. Okay. And that does make a quorum.
This is a posted meeting. And what we
have to do, according to state law and to open meetings,
is what I'm going to do is I'm going to call a City
Council meeting to order. And during this entire
process, according to state law, council members may not
speak. We cannot ask questions. We cannot answer
questions. Again, tonight is all about the citizens and
this committee. If we do lose a quorum during this
time, it could be in ten minutes or it could be in three
hours, if everyone's up to that, then I will come up or
one of my colleagues will come up and adjourn the
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
2
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
meeting. That doesn't mean that it adjourns the meeting
for you guys or the committee members. Okay. So I just
wanted to make that clear.
Again, thank you so much. I know seeing
these faces I don't need to encourage a lot of you to
speak up because you do and we appreciate it very much.
I heard that snicker over here. Please do ask
questions, listen, take notes, and I think that this
will be a terrific process that we can get through by
listening to you guys.
And I don't have my glasses on either, of
course. I determine that a quorum is present. The City
Council of the City of Denton, Texas hereby convenes its
meeting this Thursday, August 25, 2011 at 6:37 at the
Civic Center, 321 East McKinney Street in Denton, Texas.
Again, thank you so much, guys.
This is our Assistant City Manager Fred
Green.
MR. GREEN: Welcome to this evening. We
appreciate you coming and we appreciate those of you in
the back. If you could work your way to the front a
little bit where you can certainly hear and see this
live presentation, we would appreciate it. It might
prove to your benefit. Let me just cover some things
that you probably need to know. We have water back in
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
3
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
the back here, cool water. If you need water, you want
to get a drink, just go back there and grab a bottle of
water. We'll give it to you and you can drink it during
the proceedings.
We also have our restroom right back over
here, and we have a Coke machine and a drinking fountain
back over here. So that's the location. There's
nothing behind me that will offer you any comfort, but
certainly those areas can give you what you may need
when you need it.
Let me talk a little bit about what we're
here for. And in a moment we are going to turn this
over to the Gas Well Task Force for you to provide
input, but there are some things that I think you need
to know. I want you to remember that you've been given
a white card. Those of you that do not have a white
card, please raise your hand and we'll see to it that
you get one.
This is your sign-in sheet with your name
and address and your e-mail address. It gives us the
opportunity to contact you and let you know what's going
on in the process as we develop this Phase II Gas Well
Ordinance. So please, please fill out a white card.
Now, you'll see on the card that there's
a place where you can write, I want to speak or no I do
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
�
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
not want to speak. If you wish to speak, write your
comments down that you want to talk about on the front
or the back. There is plenty of room. And when you're
ready to speak, when you feel you want to talk, raise
your hand and hold your card in the air.
A staff inember will come by and pick it
up and take your card to the chairperson who will call
your name. Now, she may have 10 or 12 cards in her
hands when that happens. So that then gives us the
opportunity to not forget you and keep you in the mix
for speaking to the Task Force.
If you do not wish to speak, if you don't
want to speak at all but you do want to make comments in
writing, please feel free to do so. But leave the card
with us. So that we can gather those cards and give
them to the Task Force so that they can review them. So
either way, we are going to get your comments. Either
at the microphone, or if you do not wish to speak, in
writing.
If you do wish to speak, and they call
your name and because you turned in your card, please
use this microphone in the center aisle and speak
clearly. Because we have a court reporter over here who
is recording every word. The minutes are being taken so
that we can see what was said and know everything that
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
5
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
transferred in this meeting between you and the Task
Force. So, consequently, please speak clearly into the
microphone. That will help us greatly in keeping track
of what was said.
We are asking you also to keep your
comments to three minutes. And we have a timekeeper who
will let us know by raising his hand that you have
exceeded three minutes, and at that point, you will need
to close it down. That will give time for everyone to
speak. So that kind of covers the white card. But
remember, if you wish to speak, just hold your white
card up and a member of the staff will pick it up and
bring it to the front for you.
We are going to -- and, incidentally, I
want to introduce some other members of the staff that
are here tonight also. You've seen the council members.
There are some key staff that are here. Our City
Manager, George Campbell, is sitting over here.
Planning Director Mark Cunningham over here. Darren
Groth, our new Gas Well Administrator. Dr. Kenny Banks
in the environmental department is over here. And John
Cabrales, our Public Information Officer, is here, also.
So they are here to observe and to take notes and keep
track of tonight's proceedings.
I would like to spend just a minute
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
�
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
telling you what we're here for. The Gas Well Ordinance
is a complicated issue, and the council chose to
approach a new Gas Well Ordinance in a very deliberate
way. That is to divide it up into two parts. Part one,
or what we call Phase I, of the ordinance is rather
simple.
It covers things such as permits, fees,
and inspections. It also established the new Gas Well
Inspection Division that is lead by Darren Groth. And
his people are responsible for investigating all
complaints and for doing inspections of the gas wells.
They will also be responsible for the inspection and the
review of Phase II ordinances. They will be responsible
for carrying out all of the responsibilities of the
ordinance that is finally adopted.
What we wanted to do though is that we
felt that we needed three things. One, we needed your
input to make this work. We need citizen input for the
complicated or technical aspects of Phase II. We wanted
your input. We also needed some broad-based expertise
to help us develop that ordinance. That broad-based
expertise should know -- come from a lot of disciplines
that can coach us and give us input to make Phase II a
viable ordinance. That's the reason for the Gas Well
Task Force that you have before you.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
7
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
They were selected by input from city
staff and city council who vetted names that they all
had and finally came up with these three that everyone
felt had a broad expertise and knowledge that can tell
us, the staff, how this Gas Well Ordinance should really
look and what should be included in that Gas Well
Ordinance.
We feel that their work is really
important because they're like consultants to us.
Fundamentally, what they are going to do is take your
input, combine it with their expertise as well as the
legal issues involved as well as operator issues as well
as state laws. All of which have to be vetted through
this process.
And they will provide for the city staff
what they believe to be the best approach and the best
elements to include in Phase II. The staff will put
that together in the proper form, vet it through legal,
and present it to the City Council. The City Council
will then take that ordinance and it will have public
hearings on the ordinance for you again to provide
input.
Now, this is not the only meeting the
Task Force is going to have. They're going to have
several public meetings to allow public input. But,
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
:
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
remember, this is not a question and answer meeting, and
it is not a meeting whereby you can -- it's not a public
hearing. It doesn't fit that criteria. What it really
is is a meeting where you provide them with input and
that's what they're seeking. They're looking for your
input, your ideas, your concerns to include in this
ordinance. Getting that will enable them to provide us,
the staff, with the proper kind of ordinance that we can
proceed forward with.
So consequently, you're here and they're
here, and we're ready to begin. Because tonight is the
beginning of Phase II, creation of the Gas Well
Ordinance, and it begins with you. We appreciate you
being here. We appreciate your input. As I said,
please keep your input to three minutes. That will
enable everyone else to talk. Please be sure that you
fill out your white card. That will enable us to have
all of your input if you choose not to speak. If you
choose to speak, we will have your card up here anyway.
Now, the agenda for tonight looks
something like this. We finished the welcome and
introductions. We're going to get into general drilling
and production overview that Darren Groth is going to
present that to you, activities within the City of
Denton that are currently underway, Phase I amendments,
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
�
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
10
Phase II topics of discussion, and then public input.
That's going to be the process that we're
going to follow this evening. We have this room until
8:30 tonight so we're going to have plenty of time to
hear you. If we run out of time for you to speak, be
sure you write your comments down and give them to us so
that we may have them for record.
Thank you very much for coming. I will
turn this over now to Vicki Oppenheim who will conduct
the meeting. She is the chair of the Task Force tonight
and we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you
again.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you, Assistant City
Manager and the staff and the City Council. I'm Vicki
Oppenheim. I'm very pleased to be here tonight. This
is an issue that's very important to me living in the
City of Denton. I've lived here since 1995 and I'm very
excited to see so many people here interested in this
topic. And we are going to do everything we can to get
your citizen input into the process.
I just wanted to read a little quote to
you. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better, it's not" Dr. Seuss.
And though it's a very simple idea, it's really true.
The crux of this process, the most important part of
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
11
this process, more than me sitting up here, any of us
sitting up here, is you being in this audience and
giving your input and telling us what you think is
important for this process.
I just want to say that we are all very
committed to it. We are not being paid to be here. We
are volunteering our time and we are willing to put in
the hard work it will take to revise the ordinance.
At this time, we'd just like to introduce
the three of us and give you a little idea of who we are
and why we are here. I've already talked about the fact
that I've been here since 1995. I'm an urban planner
and I happened to be working in Denton at the time when
gas drilling was just starting in the Barnett Shale.
Back in 2001 I worked for an engineering
firm and we had gas companies coming in the door every
day saying, we want gas well plats we want gas permits
for Denton. And none of us had really heard about gas
drilling in this area before. In fact, it was just
recently discovered that there was the Barnett Shale
here and that there were pockets of natural gas.
Then I was also told, well, there's this
new process. It's called hydraulic fracturing with
horizontal drilling. And so a boom started of drilling
here. And over the years the issue has evolved.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
12
At that time, I thought about certain
issues that might occur, spilling out grime water,
perhaps visual impacts, tree removal. But over the
years, the complexity of this issue has emerged. And
now we know there are possible air quality issues and
other issues. So the reason I'm here is because I still
think it's an important issue for the city.
I think there are great things going on
in the City of Denton. I'm very excited about what
we're doing here in the city, and I really want to be
part of this process. Now, I'll turn the mike to Tom
LaPoint.
MR. LAPOINT: Thanks, Vicki. My name is
Tom LaPoint. I'm a professor of biology, specifically
in environmental sciences at University of North Texas.
My wife and I have lived in Denton since 2000, and my
specific background in environmental science is in
aquatic toxicology.
Basically, I study where chemicals go in
aquatic systems and what they do to organisms once those
chemicals get there. So I've had an interest in water
quality, but also in water quantity.
And one of the reasons I'm interested and
very pleased to be on this task force is questions about
what happens to the water and the larger issues of water
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
13
use in hydraulic fracturing, particularly. So thank you
and I'll leave it at that.
MS. OPPENHEIM: And now John Sigmund.
MR. SIEGMUND: Yes. I need to start by
saying that many of you know that I have a long history
in the petroleum industry. And I need to point out that
I'm now retired and my interest is in quality of life
and not with the oil companies. But having said that, I
probably need to go briefly over the things that I have
done in the oil business and other activities that I've
been in.
I was born and bred in Texas. Actually, I
grew up on agricultural area in Gainesville. I attended
the University of Oklahoma. I am a petroleum engineer.
I was an officer in the U.S. Navy. I went back to
graduate school in Oklahoma and was hired by Exxon to go
to Peru. And that was a great time. I was just out of
school, and really enjoyed that. But I came back and
wanted to come back to the States.
I came back to do production research in
Tulsa. From there they asked me to go to Libya on a
one-year-long assignment. I spent 13 years in Libya for
Exxon.
I then decided I wanted to do something
else. And I left Libya and with the idea of operating a
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
14
commercial ranch that I owned on the Red River. And I
did that for a while. But then a friend of mine asked
me to be general manager of the Santa Fe operation in
Nigeria. And I did that up -- for a short period of
time because it was too interesting to turn down.
But I really wanted to run my ranch. So I
did that. I ran the ranch for about three years. I got
that out of my system, and I went back -- kind of missed
overseas. I went back overseas with Roy Huffington out
of Houston and Indonesia. And that was a great time.
We loved Indonesia. But I decided that I wanted to come
back to the States.
And I did that and organized Sigmund Inc.
Which was an oil field operation in Gainesville;
Sherman; Marlow, Oklahoma; and Greenville, Arkansas.
That was a bad time to get into that kind of business.
That was in early 1981. You probably remember what the
interest rates were at that time.
Anyway, I did that for about five years and
finally decided to shut it down. And I then became
branch manager of A.G. Edwards Wachovia -- what became
Wachovia and finally Wells Fargo & Company.
I retired from the financial business in
December of 2010. I'm retired. I live in Southridge
with my wife, Joy. And as I said at the beginning, my
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
15
interest right now is not with the oil companies. My
interest is quality of life, and that's probably the
same thing a lot of you are interested in and
particularly water pollution and so forth.
And, again, I very much encourage your
input to help us to do the best possible job in getting
a very usable organization set up to control and really
improve this area. Thank you very much.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you, John. I also
want to just before we get started, talk about the
meeting that Tom and I attended on Monday formed by the
Denton Stakeholder Drilling Advisory Group. Now, that's
not a group officially affiliated with us, but I just
want to point out, it's very important that citizens
find all different ways they can in getting informed and
educated on this issue.
Two different speakers talked about their
experiences on similar panels and task force. One was
from Flower Mound and one was from Ft. Worth, and there
were two important themes that emerged.
One was that, as I said, very important
that residents become informed and educated on the issue
so they can participate. And, secondly, it's a very
complex issue. There are many legal, environmental,
economic issues to consider. And not everyone's going
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
16
to get what they want. That was something they pointed
out. But if the process is good. And if we can get
everybody involved, in the end everyone will have an
ordinance that they like. So we're hoping we can have
the best possible process and have a variety of needs
for input.
Right now the City of Denton is developing
social media, and there's also going to be a page on the
web site that is -- the web site posted up on the screen
there. There's going to be a form where you can contact
us. And this information will go directly to us on any
issue that you may have with gas drilling or any other
question that you may have.
And we will do our best to get back to you.
We also plan on having numerous other meetings. We plan
on creating a survey based on what we find out tonight.
We plan on doing anything we can to get your input. So
we are open to ideas. And please send us your ideas.
Now I will turn the mike over to Darren who
will go over some other city information. Thank you.
MR. GROTH: Thank you, Vicki. I just want
to quickly -- as we pointed out on the agenda that Fred
showed you initially, right now we're just going to go
over some general drilling production. Kind of give you
an overview of why you guys are here and what Phase II
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
17
is for. It's really for the municipal regulation part
of it. And why do we want a municipal regulation?
What's the purpose of the ordinance?
Oil and gas drilling, it's kind of unique
land juice. And a lot of municipalities, as Vicki
mentioned, back in 2000 may not have had that ordinance.
So as you look to see what kind of regulations you want
to have in place, you're going to adopt those rules.
And through time they may need to be amended because
these industrial sites they undergo ongoing maintenance
and well activity that lasts for, you know, quite some
time. So that need to tweak that ordinance is there.
Once you do, what kind of aspects do you
want to have in mind? So you want to look at that
ordinance as far as what it's going to control. And
that ordinance really is designed to protect the health,
safety, and general welfare of the public and the
quality of the environment. So getting that balance in
regulation is what the purpose of that is. And we're
kicking that off with this meeting. And we can
encourage the orderly production of available mineral
resources.
This next slide kind of shows -- a little
fuzzy, I guess. The Denton Municipal Airport is on the
right side of that photo. And you can see as you go
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
And if you look at it, really just to give
you an overview, you break it down into four major
processes. There's a lot more and there's a lot that
goes into it. But if you look at those four, it's
broken down really into exploration, well development,
production, and then site abandonment.
So going through each one of these, you'll
see at first you go through the exploration. That's
when an operator will try to identify what's there.
What the mineral assets that they may have under the
ground. And the photo shows a vibrator truck doing a
seismic survey. That's probably a term you've heard.
It's a way for an underground map to be created. That's
the exploration part of it.
Once you know what you are drilling for,
you'll get into the development stage and that involves
the construction of one or more wells. What you will do
is prep the site. That will clear and grade. You'll
build access roads and post the signs that you need.
Then you go into drilling and also fracing of the site.
I got a couple of photos here that kind of give you an
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
:
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
19
example of what I'm talking about.
This photo will show a clear and graded
site before they really start. It's a level pad out
there. That's a cleared site. You have to build an
access road. You have to get to the site. You need to
post some signs there, making sure everybody is aware of
what's happening behind that access road.
And then moving and drilling. You'll see
this drilling rig. It's probably the most visible sign
you'll have at the location. It will be up there for a
couple of weeks, maybe two to three weeks, depending on
how long and what they are doing. But that's probably
what you'll notice the most.
Then they move to fracing. You'll see a
photo of fracing activity going on at the site. And
afterwards, if you drill, it may start producing. And
that, as you can see on the slide there, is the process
of extracting the gas or hydrocarbons.
And then you want to make sure that it's
separated and there is ability to bring that gas to
market so you can sell it. And there is additional
pertinences required to do that. So you will see the
well head located on that site. You'll see storage
tanks, the separators that are removing water and
separating the gas. You can see some additional
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
20
pertinences. There may be a lift compressor, some
meters, and other physical equipment on that site.
But once the production life ends, you can
move to the site abandonment phase. And that's the
plugging of the wells and restoring of the site. So
after the usefulness is over, there are some
requirements that the operator has to go through.
Currently in our ordinance we have some
provisions. Those four listed there say that the well
must be abandoned in accordance with the Railroad
Commission rules. No structures can be built over the
well after completed. P&A, that's plugged and
abandoned.
The operator must clean that site and
repair the property. And then there's a security
instrument that remains in place along with the
insurance. Those are the four stages that you really go
through.
And now I'm going to turn that over to Mark
Cunningham. He's the Director of Planning. He'll go
over the next phase of the agenda.
MR. CUNNINGHAM: Good evening. As Vicki
stated earlier, that back in the early days of 2000 or
so, drilling activities really picked up within the D/FW
area. And in 2002 the City Council adopted a Denton
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
21
Development Code which included Subchapter 22 which is
the city's drilling production ordinances.
In 2002 when this code was adopted, my
understanding is that Denton actually was one of the few
cities in the area that actually had gas well drilling
production regulations. From there on, other cities
adopted their own regulations.
But, as you know, as Vicki stated, things
evolved and we became outdated with our activities and
so forth. So in order to keep pace, in 2004 and 2005
Denton City Council did some updates. And our most
resent set of updates were done in 2010. And those are
the updates that are referred to as the Phase I updates.
In addition to the Phase I updates, we also created the
Gas Well Inspections Division. And Darren Groth is our
Gas Well Administrator.
In the back of the room, in the very back,
we have Chad Howard, who's our senior gas well
inspector. And we also have Raymond Hammon, who's a gas
well administrative assistant. We also have Jack
Molder, who is a gas well inspector who just is not with
us tonight.
So we do have an active gas well
inspections team here going out and doing inspections.
They're reviewing sites. They're reviewing site pads
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
22
and development plans and conducting site inspections
and issuing violation notices and citations whenever
such violations or citations are observed in the field.
At the bottom of the screen, you can see
the web site. Please visit the web side. There's a lot
of information on the web site. When we submitted our
Phase II amendments last year -- I'll just go through
very briefly what the Phase II amendments included.
They included fee assessments, which are on our web
site, currently posted. We lowered the permissible
noise level from 90 decibels to 75 decibels.
We require gas well production -- gas well
development plats within ETJ. And we also require that
before you can do a gas well -- get a gas well permit,
you have to do -- submit for review and approval a gas
well site plan for activities within the cities.
We reduced the life of the gas well plat
from two years to one year. We shrunk the life of the
gas well permit from one year to six months. You only
have six months before the permits will expire unless
you start -- unless you commence drilling activities.
We also increased our separation of distance setbacks
from 500 feet to 1,000 feet from protected uses, such as
residential, churches, libraries, and hospitals, and
those types of uses.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
23
Other types of uses that are considered
non-protected uses like industrial and commercial uses
can come within -- a gas well can come within 500 feet
of those uses. If property owners all agree and all
sign a waiver, you can bring a well up to 250 feet of a
protected use.
We limited the flaring activities between
the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. except in the case
of emergencies. We limit the height of storage tanks as
well as on site activity equipment to eight feet. And
during our gas -- Phase I amendments there was some very
complex and technical issues that we just didn't -- felt
that we could do justice to in a short time. The goal
of the Phase I amendments was to try to do some quick
quality of life fixes. So we deferred those Phase II,
more technical complex issues, to now.
As we started -- as we were going through
the Phase I issues, these are the questions or these are
the topics, rather, that we received -- that we
collected from the citizens. Included: Vapor recovery
or air quality morning; environmentally-friendly
completion; freshwater well pollution; prohibition of
city water for fracing; development permit process for
seismic testing and address explosive testing; use of
recycled waters during fracing; and also to only allow
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
24
chemical-free fracing; establish prohibitions against
gas well flaring; the use of close loop systems only;
and require operators to produce timelines for
operational events and to mail -- to let affected
parties know by way of some type of mailing
notification.
There is also the express that there should
be prohibition for compressor stations, collection
stations, tank farms, land farms within the city limits.
We want to continue on the Phase II portion
of our Gas Well Drilling Production Ordinance. And as
Fred said earlier, this is the -- this is the first
official step, so to say, where we are asking you to
provide your input. Provide your comments. To provide
any information that you think is relevant to our Gas
Well Task Force so that they can begin to get
information and frame creative framework of what the
Phase II ordinances will be.
So at this time I will go ahead and turn
back the meeting to our Gas Well Task Force just to
listen to your input and comments. As Fred said
earlier, if you have a card and if you do desire to
speak, if you would raise your card, myself or another
staff inember will come. We'll collect those cards.
We'll give the cards to the Task Force, and they will
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
25
call your name so that you can also provide your input.
Again, we ask that in order to allow
courtesy and opportunity for everyone to speak, we do
desire you to speak, and we ask that to the best of your
ability you limit your comments to approximately three
minutes.
And, again, we thank you for coming. And
we ask, please, even if you don't want to speak and you
do have a comment, that you submit your card and return
the card back to us. We want to be able to use the
contact information on that card to provide you with
information regardless of whether you speak or not.
Again, this is our initial process to get
your information and establish a dialogue and to
hopefully create a gas well drilling production set of
regulations that takes into consideration your concerns,
your inputs, and your comments.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much. I
have quite a stack of cards here. So I want to make
sure that everybody gets a chance to speak. So I'm just
going to call the names and do the best I can to read
the names. And I'll just start with Will Wooten. And
you can come up to the mike, please.
MR. WOOTEN: Hey, how are you doing today?
I live on 1508 Broadway, so I live pretty close to the
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Razor Ranch gas well that was put in a couple of years
ago. I was actually at public meetings about that way
back when the City Council voted to let it go in right
next to a hospital. Which I think is the reason why we
have these ordinances coming now. Which is a little
late for the hospital. I really feel like this is not a
complicated issue.
I was at that meeting on Monday or Tuesday
also and, yes, the ordinance is very complicated. But
that's just if you allow the gas wells to come in the
first place. I don't think we should allow them to come
into the city in the first place. I don't want this
meeting to go without someone saying the word "climate
change."
This is a big issue, and I don't really
expect the City to do much about it. But someone has to
got to say that we need to do something about climate
change. And we might as well start here and not wait
for the Feds to do anything.
I want you to do your best to raise the
insurance that -- I think Flower Mound raised it from
1 million to 25 million. I think that's really
important. Raise the environmental fees as much as
possible, and, basically, get every dollar out of them
that you possibly can to make it uneconomic for them to
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
27
come to the city. And another thing is, they said at
that meeting a couple days ago that 80 percent of the
wells don't even produce anything. So why are we
letting them come in the first place if 80 percent of
the wells don't produce and all we get stuck with is a
piece of land that we can't use ever again?
The waivers to 250 feet; you should try to
just get rid of that and get all the way to stay at
1,000. Because.
It's not just the people that live in that
area. It's the people that live in the entire city that
are important. So they're just getting bribed anyway.
They are getting money from the company to let them --
and they're saying, sign this waiver and we'll give you
a bunch of money. But then the gas well doesn't produce
anything.
And the last thing I'll say is that banning
the city water use, that's just putting the water
problem on someone else.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Okay. Thank you very much.
James Wall.
JAMES WALL: How are you doing? I'm James
Wall. I'm from Flower Mound, Texas. And we went
through this for the last couple of years in Flower
Mound.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
:
As a concerned citizen, I got involved with
gas drilling and ordinances and things like that. But
like every other town in North Texas, we were a little
bit unaware with gas drilling and we got behind the
ball, actually. Right now we've got more wells in
Flower Mound than I'd like to see. But that's just what
happened to us. You're starting from a place where you
Back when we started, there wasn't much
What we knew when we first began was what the industry
had told us and it was all, you know, flowers and roses.
At any rate, a couple of things that we
have learned -- what we were doing in Flower Mound
ordinance -- we've got a pretty strong ordinance now in
our town. But one of the things that I picked up on,
you know, fairly recently is the fact that the approval
process that we go through.
Right now we have administrative approval
where, you know, if they meet criteria on a petition,
they just get approved for well sites. And then once
the site gets approved, they can pretty much expand that
site without too much other review. So when you start
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
29
same pad. And nobody knew that was coming.
So one of the ways to kind of control that
is through both zoning and special use permits. If
you're changing zoning in a particular area, like --
these are all very industrial sites, by the way.
They're not rural.
So when you put one of these things in and
approve the permit for it, there should be, like, a
special use permit or SUP. So that that can also entail
public hearings like this one where people actually can
come and give some input on a change that's going to be
made at one of these sites.
Even after the permit has been approved, if
there's going to be a change where they're going to add
other wells to that particular pad, someone in the
community should have a say-so in that. And so I think
if you can change your ordinance or amend it to include
special use permits for doing that, that would be a good
thing.
And just a comment, too, I saw the map that
he showed with all the well sites --
MS. OPPENHEIM: Time is up, but.
MR. WALL: I saw that he showed all of the
well sites next to the airport here in Denton. And you
see how it's all just pocketed out there. And it's just
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
30
such a shame because you'll never be able to build a
neighborhood there or a shopping mall or any expansion
at all because you cannot build on pipelines or wells.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much for
coming tonight. Hatice Salih.
MS. SALIH: A huge thank you for everyone
including the Task Force and the City of Denton staff
for allowing us to do this tonight. I would like to
speak to the issues that we all seem to be interested
in. And that is public health, public welfare, and the
environment.
The good news is that we are not the only
kids on the block who are doing this. And, in fact, I
would like to speak to some of the ordinances that
Flower Mound has already passed. They're considered to
be the gold standard and should be included in our new
drilling ordinances. I only wish to touch upon bonds,
letters of credit, insurance, environmental pollution
reliability coverage. And I will read a little bit
about the newest one.
The bond: The bond shall be executed by a
reliable bonding or insurance institution authorized to
do business in Texas acceptable to the town. The bond
shall become effective on or before the date the oil,
gas, or combined well permit is issued and shall remain
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
31
in force and effect for at least a period of six months
until the expiration of the permit term or until the
well is plugged and abandoned and the site is restored,
whichever occurs first.
Letter of credit: The letter of credit
shall be issued by a reliable bank or other financial
institution acceptable by the town authorized to do
business in Texas and it shall be effective on or before
the date the permit is issued.
Insurance: In addition to the bond or
letter of credit required pursuant to this article, the
operator shall carry a policy or policies of insurance
issued by an insurance company or companies authorized
to do business in Texas.
The most important one, please.
Environmental pollution reliability coverage: Operator
shall purchase and maintain in force with the duration
of the oil, gas, combined well permit insurance for
environmental pollution reliability applicable to bodily
injury, property damage including loss of use of damaged
property or of property that has not been fiscally
injured or destroyed, clean-up costs, and defense
including costs and expenses incurred in investigation,
defense, or settlement of claims all in connection with
the loss arising from the insured site.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
32
Coverage shall be maintained in an amount
of at least $10 million per loss with an annual
aggregate of at least $75 million. And the last thing I
would like to say is, we need to be mindful of the fact
that we're all mortal and we need to remember that we
have to leave that planet as intact as we can for the
future generations. Thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much. We
now have a letter that was presented to us by
Representative Myra Crownover, and Tom will read that as
part of this record.
MR. LAPOINT: Thank you, Vicki. The
Honorable Myra Crownover sent this today and requested
it be read into the record. So we want to make sure to
do that so I'll take the time to if you don't mind.
It's dated August 25, 2011.
"As the Vice Chair for the Texas House of
Representative Energy Resources Committee, I've seen
firsthand what can be accomplished when government
officials, affected citizen, and industry work together
to solve problems. Two years ago I authored and passed
House Bill 2259 to protect landowner rights. House Bill
2259 requires oil and gas companies to clean up surface
equipment and plug older, inactive wells.
Also, during the most resent legislative
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
33
session, I joint authored House Bill 3328 that requires
gas drilling operators to disclose the chemicals they
use in the fracing process. House Bill 3328 makes Texas
the first state in the nation to require disclosure and
is now a model for the nation. The passage of House
Bills 2259 and 3328 would not have happened without
years of hard work and collaboration between all
affected parties. In fact, I know neither piece of
legislation would not have passed if all parties had not
worked together.
In that spirit, I would like to commend the
City of Denton for forming this Task Force and I would
encourage everyone involved to find ways to work
together to ensure that any action taken by the City
protects the interests of all affected parties.
Sincerely, Myra Crownover."
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much. Next
is Benjamin Kessler.
MR. KESSLER: Hey everyone. My name is
Ben. I'm a student at UNT. I study philosophy and
economics. So there's only a few students here, but I'm
going to go ahead and speak for all students and say
that we're not really into this kind of, like, going to
a public meeting and talking about, like, this ordinance
and that ordinance and this whole, like, huge list of
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
34
regulations.
And, you know, we're in our 20's. And it's
kind of -- it's kind of almost a game to us that you
can't win. And what we want is no fracing anywhere in
Denton or really anywhere close to any of us. But we
see how this works. And so if you can make it so that
fracing is, basically, impossible through this big list
of regulations and make it expensive in all sorts of
various ways.
Make them buy insurance, increase the
setbacks, a mountain of permits. All of that is great
and, you know, you don't have to say "ban fracing" in
there, but that's what we want.
So, again, you may not see us come to these
meetings all the time and engage in the nitty-gritty
details of this kind of process. But I can say that
we're going to fight this. And any fracing that does
end up happening -- because we know if the regulations
are good enough, people are going to frac.
We're going to get sick. It's going to
destroy the land. And it's going to be -- it's going to
be all fraced. In a short amount of time, it's going to
affect this county for a very long time. And we're
going to resist. And I just want everybody to know that
and, hopefully, that will help you plan your -- the
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
35
regulations that we are trying to do here. And make it
easier for all of us and our children and their children
and so forth. Thanks.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank vou verv much.
Phyllis Wolper.
MS. WOLPER: Thank you. I'm Phyllis
Wolper. And I'm a citizen of Denton and I own my own
business here in Denton. I'm a Realtor, so I'm very
concerned about property values. It is the subject that
I always speak about.
Basically, when you have a well, a fracing
site, that's the last use of that site for, basically,
anything. It's ruined for anything else. The city can
collect a lot of money off of it while it's happening,
but afterwards where is it going to get the tax dollars.
And in light of this causing losses in
property values, is this city prepared for reduced
property tax base, possible cost of clean up of multiple
super fund sites near our schools, churches, parks, and
hospitals, and the cost of replacing the huge amount of
fresh water that's lost in the fracing process?
Basically, is gas drilling best and highest
use of this land? And, frankly, I don't think so. But
I'm a realist. I know this is going to happen. So what
I would like to ask is that all well sites be considered
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
36
heavy industry and only permitted by special use
permits. And keep decisions in the hands of the
Planning and Zoning Commission.
Require recycling of all the fraced water
and not allow these companies to use our fresh water
supplies. We're having a drought and we do this every
few years. So water is very, very important. And have
all chemicals -- or require that all chemicals used must
be open for inspection as part of the permit. And if
any fracing company claims a trade secret chemical that
they -- excuse me, they have to go to court and
declare -- have a court judgment. Because we need to
know what's in there.
If those chemicals land near my house and
there's two or three other different fracing companies
or drilling companies around me, how am I going to know
which one polluted my property unless we know exactly
what's in there.
So I want to also ask that they be required
to put tracing chemicals in there so that we can prove
who did what. That they must be required to state
everything that's in there. Thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Steven Forde.
MR. FORDE: Thank you for inviting us. I
would agree with most everything that everyone has said
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
37
here today. The list that you first put up there of
proposed Phase II regulations, I would endorse all of
those including the need for zoning. And we should
control this by zoning. Apparently, that's a way of
doing it. But I attended, along with some other people
that I see here, the forum a couple of days ago that
Professor Adam Briggle put on that was very informative.
I think the City should retain James
Bradbury as legal council. He was there. He had very
useful information about what the cities legally can and
cannot do. But my main point is the industry is going
to threaten the City with lawsuits on the basis of
taking us. That is, the regulations are too strict.
They will say that you're, basically, robbing us of the
use of our property. And, actually, Representative
Crownover's reference, the property rights was the
rights of the industry as well as the surrounding
homeowners.
I think though that given what Phyllis
Wolper just told us -- the point is that their activity
on this well site is a massive taking of the property
values of everyone around it. So I think, basically,
what the City needs to be prepared to do is to push back
on these takings argument because a well is a massive
taking, too.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
It reduces property values drastically and
permanently in the immediate vicinity. It makes that
site unusable for anything, I guess, as our friend from
Flower Mound told us. There will never be a house
there. There will never be a shopping mall, if you want
a shopping mall. There will never be a park there.
So, essentially, they can sell the land or
whatever happens to it and, you know, it's more than
just a matter of them being deprived of their right to
use the land. They're taking that out of circulation
permanently. I don't think that the surrounding houses
and homeowners should be able to sign a waiver, someone
said this earlier. Because, again, that means they're
signing away not just their rights, but the rights of
any future owner of that home.
We don't allow those people to instal
substandard electrical work or plumbing, even though it
would harm no one but them. Because it's the future
owner that might get stuck with this massive problem.
We should not allow them to waive the length
restrictions either.
I mean, the point is that this kind of
activity has future consequences that all amount to
takings. So what I'm doing is sort of proposing
arguments that the City can use to push back against
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
:
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
39
this takings thing.
And there's also a big problem that these
well sites are drilled by company number one. By the
time it's up and running, it's been sold to company
number two. By the time you have any problems, it's,
you know, five companies down the road. Are they
liable? They are all going to argue that, you know,
it's not us. I don't know how you solve that problem,
but that does need to be solved.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much for
your comments. Sue Smith.
MS. SMITH: Sue Smith. I live at 1819
Crescent. I like to breathe fresh air and I would like
to drink clean water. With fracing process, I don't
think that's possible. I would like to encourage you to
press the City Council to lobby the state legislature.
I think that's where the main problem lies.
When this first came up, everything was
raised -- well it's a state law. Oh, it's a state law.
We can't do anything; it's a state law. So if you can
lobby our legislature, that's pie in the sky, I realize.
But try to impress upon them the importance of what this
stuff is doing to us.
In the meantime, please make the
regulations as strong as the law will allow considering
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
.�
the health of us, our parents, our children, and our
grandchildren. Think of your mother. Would you want
this well in your yard?
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Ben Claybour.
MR. CLAYBOUR: Yes. My name is Ben
Claybour. And I would just like to encourage the Task
Force or the Council to strike some sort of balance
between the needs of the citizens and the needs of gas
companies and mineral owners. I think in city
government or -- there's other aspects where you don't
want to be known as the city that is discouraging
business.
We can argue that Wal-Mart is bad for city
business or bad for local communities. But, on the
other hand, I don't want the City to try and keep
Wal-Mart out of my community. I don't think that's
appropriate use of city government.
And the landowners -- Mr. Forde was
discussing the landowners and the takings. The gas
companies are not the ones that are -- they're in the
middle. The people that are losing their property
rights are the mineral owners like the Razors. It's not
-- the gas companies don't really have a call in that.
The gas companies are not the ones that
benefit one way or the other. They don't own the
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
41
property. So this talk about takings and stuff like
that, that's between the mineral owners, which is the
Razors and the Robsons. And you have to balance these
needs between the other things.
I don't think most of the people that I
work with have a problem with most of these regulations.
But we need -- we don't need to have a constant revision
of the rules. We don't need to have this SUP for every
well site. We need to come to some sort of conclusion.
And then the companies can make rational decisions about
whether or not they want to do business here.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Okay, thank you. Devin
Taylor.
MR. TAYLOR: Devin Taylor, 2710 Eagle
Drive. I just want to reiterate what's already been
said and add a little bit to the zoning requirement.
Gas production is a use of land that is
wholly inappropriate to be near residential or
commercial uses. It is an industrial use. It
permanently destroys the land in a way that it can no
longer be used for residential or commercial use. And
it needs to be buffered from residential or commercial
uses. It is industrial areas. It is not inappropriate,
but it needs to be rezoned in order to use those land
uses.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
42
Currently, there are gas wells in Denton in
rural zoning districts and in neighborhood, residential
zoning districts. And if you look at a zoning map,
there will be this perfect 500-foot square of
residential NR-2, NR-3 land that, but that will never be
residential. And it's deceptive and it's surrounded by
neighborhoods and this is -- this could be handled by
zoning law. By making a requirement that gas wells only
be placed in industrial zoning.
If you want to put a gas well off Teasley,
rezone the gas pad site to industrial. Create proper
buffering for the surrounding land uses. Because even
30, 40, 50 years from now, that site will never be
appropriate for neighborhood or residential use. Thank
you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much. Joyce
Poole.
MS. POOLE: Thank you for hearing us this
evening. We think it's important to be participants in
this process. I am going to be one of the people who
have been the living horror story of the oil drilling.
Because prior to all of your current regulations, or the
ones developed, they developed a well and wells behind
my home. And I live on North Bonnie Brea. There are
currently three wells there. There are -- luckily, we
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
43
got 600 feet between my house and the well site. In the
process -- and this was in 1997 when they first started
drilling.
And about 2000 they were drilling another
well. And they had the open pit with all the chemicals
and dumping stuff in it. We had a terrible rain
whatever year that was. I apologize I didn't research
that tonight. But I can go back and get those records.
The well -- flushing of all of that well drilling,
backfilling, chemicals, everything. The wall broke on
the dam or on the well.
It flushed through my property and my
neighbor's property, who was an organic farmer. She can
no longer be an organic farmer. We had white/gray
sludge in our lawns and in her cow pastures and it just
was a mess. It ruined tires on heavy equipment that
cost them a lot of money to replace.
So we have lived through the horrors of
prior good zoning. I would say that a minimum of
1,000 feet between residence, churches, schools, etc.,
as you have it, but nothing closer than 500 feet. I
don't care where it is, nowhere.
We have air issues that we suffered through
because they flared that well. They also -- in the
process of drilling, there is a vapor that comes off of
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
..
the compressors, what have you. And on my roof to this
day is a black film from when the wind changes direction
there is a black film that comes in and lands on your
roof. It looks like Chicago. And I used to live in
Chicago, so I know what that looks like.
The things that I would recommend from my
past experience would be that closed loop system and no
aboveground storage wells. Because we have wells back
there that are about 25 -- or storage tanks that are
about 25 feet high or higher. Three of them on that
hill. I do have a question that I am not sure about the
answer. Everyone has said that no future development
will be on areas where there has been a well or if there
are gas lines running under it.
Well, with all of the horizontal drilling
that's going to be interesting to track all of that
since no one, including the Railroad Commission, even
knows where all of those underground lines are. The
Cole Ranch that is west of town I understand is just ant
hilled with underground gas lines. And if they cannot
drill on that, I would like to know. There have been
four --
MS. OPPENHEIM: Time is up.
MS. POOLE: -- four owners since then of my
well.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
45
MS. OPPENHEIM: Okay. Thank you very much.
Cathy McMullen.
MS. MCMULLEN: Just for the record, I'm
calling for a moratorium, again, until we can get some
more substantial ordinances in place. We need the gas
well inspectors to monitor wells and drilling sites in
the City. They should be permitted to enter into
facilities to instantaneous check readings for
hydrocarbons. And the gas well inspectors should
inspect all the wells within the City every six months.
The operator must install and maintain
equipment on-site to collect and recycle all flow-back
and produced water so the amount of wastewater injected
in disposal wells is reduced. When a water shortage has
been declared, it shall be unlawful to use water from
the City's water system for oil and gas drilling
operations and production. That's a Colleyville
ordinance.
No water well permit shall be approved in
the City for water for oil and gas well drilling.
That's Colleyville. Pennsylvania recycles 100 percent
of its drilling water related to multiple episodes of
contamination. All operators must use a closed loop
systems with no waste within the city limits; South
Lake; Highland Village, and Bedford.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
.�
A zero emission plan, acceptable to the
City, specifying the operators plan for operating
without any substantial release of hydrocarbons in each
phase of the drilling operation, fracturing, completion,
and production. That's Lewisville. Vapor recovery
used and seal them in a container with labels clearly
indicating the site, date, specific well bore,
perforation section, and the fracture stage. The sample
must be deposited with the oil and gas inspector or a
certified laboratory acceptable to the City; Lewisville.
The operator may be exempted from this
requirement if they agree to use a non-toxic tracer
compound such a boron carbide or similar non-naturally
occurring chemical or isotope in amounts suitable for
detection should fluids escape the target formation.
Use light colored paint for tank batteries or other
equipment. All tank batteries and equipment cannot be
taller than eight feet, and they should be 1,500 feet
from public parks, religious institutions, hospitals,
and schools.
The following should not be allowed in the
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
47
treatment facilities. Electric motors -- electric prime
motors shall be used for all purposes of pumping wells.
No electric power shall be generated on location, Flower
Mound. Require approval for a pipeline summary during
the permitting process. Existing businesses, homes, and
infrastructure should be given primary consideration to
avoid the future destruction of property related to
eminent domain.
Require the gas companies to place a notice
in the local newspaper 72 hours prior to each drilling
event. That's Grapevine, Colleyville, Southlake.
Require a written timeline account of all
planned operational events associated with the permit.
Must be updated weekly and thoroughly describing each
event.
Screening structures shall be installed
completely around the well site and all fencing will be
sufficient to screen from view the structures sought to
be screened. It shall be installed within 30 days after
production.
It shall be -- and the need to -- the
operators really need to open up an escrow account and
put that in an escrow account so that we can access that
so that we're not in that cycle they are at Rayzor Ranch
where they've gone and left us down there with nothing.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
.;
The escrow function shall be equal to the total cost of
purchasing and planting vegetation to include irrigation
systems.
Require special use permit for any gas well
within the city limits. No drilling within a 1,000 feet
of a floodplain. The setback of 1,500 feet for
residences, churches, hospitals, nursing homes,
concentrated gathering of residence to include apartment
complexes and shopping centers. This is a Flower Mound
ordinance and a suggestion from a high density
population lawyer from Fort Worth.
Blowout prevention equipment must be used
on all well sites. No flaring or venting of natural gas
wells within the city limits; Flower Mound. The
drilling companies must hire an independent cleanup
company of the City's choosing if a spill occurs, and we
must require green completions; Flower Mound.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much. Ed
Soph.
MR. SOPH: Thank you for your time and work
in this issue. I would ask that you consider using an
established regulatory policy called the precautionary
principal as a framework for your deliberations and
decisions. A very brief definition of the principal is
called the wingspread statement, which was written in
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
..
1998. It is, "When an activity such as gas well
drilling, processing, and transporting raises threats of
harm to human health or the environment, precautionary
measures, such as ordinances, should be taken even if
some cause and effect relationships are not fully
established scientifically."
Rather than asking how much harm,
pollution, or environmental degradation is acceptable,
we must ask how much harm pollution and environmental
degradation can be avoided. Drillers must establish
that their processes are safe. The burden should not be
placed upon the public to prove that the processes are
harmful. If the drillers cannot prove, then they must
provide safe alternatives to hazardous activities. And
if they cannot provide safety alternatives, the activity
should be prohibited.
And I agree. There should be a moratorium
on drilling in Denton until the new ordinances are in
place. There are simply too many unknowns at this point
to allow it to continue. Thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Steven
Friedson.
MR. FRIEDSON: Steven Friedson, 2044 West
Oak. I want to encourage the commission, and I want to
thank you for your volunteering for this important task,
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
50
to consider requesting from the City, as has been stated
before, an environmental lawyer that is an expert in
these issues. I think that there -- as far as I know,
there is no one on the staff that is specifically
trained in this field, in environmental law.
I know that you are going to get pushback
that's going to say, you can't do it because it's
illegal. The state law trumps what goes on in the city.
And I think we've had plenty of examples where that is
not necessarily true. We heard many things on Monday
night about suits that were not successful. So I think
we have the opportunity to push back on some of these
issues. And I'm hoping that you will agree to do this.
I'm also concerned about this issue of
taking and working with a good faith partner in
negotiations. We heard from I believe the woman that
was on the federal bank in Dallas, this recent article
in the New York Times that they're claiming, the gas
companies, much more gas in -- that they can recover and
the money they can make than is a reality.
So if they're talking about taking -- if
you, like, increase to 1,500 feet or 2,000 feet, I think
there's an opportunity to question what kind of taking
that actually is. We need in this complex issue
somebody that's an expert. Thank you.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
51
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Gilbert Horton.
MR. HORTON: Thank you. My name is Gilbert
Horton, and I represent Devon Energy. And I do
appreciate your willingness to volunteer with this task
going to Phase II. I appreciate the opportunity to
speak and present to you this evening.
First and foremost, I would like to say
that Devon Energy has a record of safe, responsible
drilling, fracing, and production activities in the
areas that we operate. We are one of the first ones to
drill well back about 10, 11 years ago here in the City
of Denton.
And we are currently the largest producer
not only in the Barnett Shale and not only in Denton's
regulatory jurisdiction, but also we are the largest
taxpayer in Denton County. Economic development of the
Barnett Shale and environmental protection are not
mutually exclusive.
As evidenced that they do and can coexist,
one only need to look at the drilling and production of
hundreds of gas wells not only by Devon, but others in
the City of Denton over the past decade.
Denton's current regulations contain
numerous safeguards and standard and an extensive
permitting process that do protect the citizen's health,
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
52
Devon strongly encourages that the City
encourages the Task Force to make no recommendation that
would cripple the role that Shale gas development plays
in the wellbeing of the citizens of Denton taking into
account the economic impact in addition to health,
safety, and welfare. Be careful of what your
regulations and what overregulation may do to the
economic benefits of oil and gas drilling.
Now, as the City begins this process, we
would like to be engaged with the City, the staff, and
the Task Force to help educate when needed, to give
recommendations so you can develop recommendations that
are adequately balanced and, again, fact based.
I think one of the things that you need to
do this is to include representatives on your Task Force
from other disciplines, including operators who are
within Denton or other industry experts such as the
Barnett Shale Energy Education Council. These type of
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
53
practices. Again, thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Riki Young.
MS. YOUNG: Good evening, my name is Riki
I work for the Federal Emergency Management
I was looking at purchasing another house
because the City of Denton might take mine because of
the expansion of Mayhill Road and they're annexing me.
They don't want to provide me water or sewer, but they
want to charge me more taxes.
I'm going to read something to you guys
because I don't want to misquote it. This is a valid
study that was recently done by the fire department here
in the county. "Recent gas well drilling in the Barnett
Shale is believed to be the cause of several minor
earthquakes in the North Texas area. The possibility
exists for an earthquake caused by gas well drilling
operations to trigger an earthquake in the active
geological fault located in the area of Lake Ray
Roberts. Such an earthquake could result in the
catastrophic failure of the dam.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
54
"Should such an event occur, we will not be
prepared. Our resources will be overwhelmed. The
communities located to the east would be unable to reach
Denton due to the loss of Highway 380, Highway 455, the
Lake Lewisville toll bridge, and Highway 121. Those
cities to the south of Denton would likely be dealing
with their own high water issues and be unable to spare
additional resources."
I find that particularly disturbing. There
is documented evidence that this type of drilling causes
seismic activity and Lake Ray Roberts -- I mean, it
would be awful. I mean, forget about land. I mean,
everything would be destroyed. I mean, there would be
nothing left. And, Ms. Joyce, I appreciate what you
said from your personal experience. You mentioned the
horrible rain that we had. I believe that was the
federally-declared disaster in May of 2007. Was it
earlier than that? Okay.
Well, that was the only one that I knew of.
The national flood insurance program is -- I mean, I
could go on and on and I know I only have three minutes.
But what she said struck a cord with me because we need
to be prepared for -- mitigation. Let's look at
mitigation and planning ahead and making sure that if we
do this -- if we continue to do this, that we are
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
55
prepared for the consequences. I recognize that we are
one of the only counties in the nation that has jobs and
most of them are a result of, guess what? Natural gas
drilling, right. Everybody wants money.
But I agree with you, sir, quality of life.
We have things in this town like the universities that
have kept us going long enough. And nobody yet has
mentioned the Haliburton loophole. I mean, I know that
some people, from the suggestions that you had in your
slide, mentioned let's do it chemical free. But they
can't disclose the chemicals.
I'm hoping that we can set a precedent for
the rest of the country when it comes to this and
because we're in a unique position. They want our
stuff. Because it means money for them and it means
money for us, too, because jobs and all that. I
recognize that. But, shoot, make them pay for
something. Plan. Plan ahead, you know.
Let's make it to where we can still live
here if something happens. And what she was saying
about the water and how it -- and the horizontal
fracing, I mean -- Big Spring, Texas, I don't know if
you guys are familiar with them. But they ran out of
water. Guess what? There was a company that bought
water rights and some property in that town and they
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
56
sucked the whole town dry.
Now they have no water. You know, just
because you have a small piece of land that you
designate and say, okay, this is what you can do with
it. Tear it up. But they can go right under the whole
freaking county.
I mean, I don't know how far that stuff
goes, right. I know, I think I'm yelling. I'm just --
I'm particularly passionate about this because I believe
that water is liquid gold. And our air is gaseous gold.
What are we going to do when we ruin it?
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much. Cindy
Spoon.
MS. SPOON: Okay. Hello. My name is Cindy
Spoon. I live on 2228 Lookout Lane, which is about a
block away from a gas well on Windsor in between a big
park and a church. And I am also here representing the
student force in Denton. On August 21st, so four days
ago, in the Denton Record-Chronicle they reported that
earlier this week air quality monitors detected a
carcinogenic chemical EDB -- I believe it's ethylene
dibromide -- a carcinogenic being used at fracing sites
that has been banned for 25 years.
Why is this in our area? It's been banned
for 25 years. So I want to ask, why should you trust
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
57
these companies to even abide by regulations? And I
want to ask the Task Force to enforce strict enough
penalties that if the site is caught, it makes it too
risky for these companies to even drill here. I also
want to express my, again, disappointment with the City
Council for selling out our health like this. That's
all.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is there anyone
else who wants to speak tonight? We don't have any
other cards at this point. Thank you, Mari Metzgar.
MS. METZGAR: Good evening. And I wanted
to thank you -- thank the three of you for serving.
This is such an incredibly-important issue. And for you
to take your time and devote it to this topic and to
helping the citizens of Denton and Denton County. We
really appreciate it. One of the things that I think --
everything that's been said about, what should we do
during the permit process and what should we do as we
let the drillers, if we let them come in, I think those
are all important.
But what I want to reiterate and one of
things that Ms. Joyce said, that the wells near her land
have been sold four times. So I think what's really
important is that as we go forward in the future that we
develop a process to follow the changes in ownership
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
because they have to be held accountable. Whether it be
whatever the restrictions, whatever the requirements
that we hold forth, the insurance, maintenance, closing
down the site. If ten years later and ten owners later,
how do we follow that trail? So I think that's very
important that we put that process in place. Thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is anybody
else?
MS. GARRETT: Hi. I'm Sarah Garrett. I
just wanted to mention a couple of things.
One, can we add oil to the ordinance?
Right now it says gas. I just wanted to clarify they're
also doing oil fracing. So they probably need to have
gas on there, as well. Also, there probably needs to be
a little bit more depth added to the production side. A
lot of times -- well, I mean, Darren can probably speak
to this. In my neighborhood they had a pump replaced.
And so it would be nice if there was some type of way of
tracking what type of activity happens. I think some
people have mentioned that, but just for the benefit of
the neighbors to know.
Other thing, I guess I'd like to just
reiterate what everybody said about bonding. That's
probably really important to have a high enough market
rate bond for the type of activity that's happening, a
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
:
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
59
good security. And I look forward to contributing my
written comments later.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is there
anybody else? Martin Garza.
MR. GARZA: My name is Martin Garza from
Dallas, Texas. I'm an attorney and I've been working on
these ordinances since the first ordinances were drafted
in 2002. Actually, I started working on them in 2001 on
behalf of the industry. And I've seen how these
ordinances have developed and changed over time. I've
also monitored and worked on ordinances around North
Texas over the past ten years. And I just wanted to
highlight some things that I've heard this evening.
One of things Mr. Green talked about was
having the legal issues and operator issues and state
law addressed. And I would encourage the City to add
involvement within the Task Force to flush out legal
issues, operator involvement, and the state law. We've
heard some references to state law tonight, the legal
issues.
As an attorney and somebody who has been
following this, they're really important. This is an
ordinance. This is not architectural guidelines or
engineering plans. It's legal issues. It's an
ordinance. It's something that needs to be enforced.
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
.1
And those that are being imposed upon need
to understand what exactly is being said. So I would
encourage the involvement -- if the City is going to
have its attorneys involved, getting a history of the
attorneys involved, as well. Because misunderstandings
do lead to lawsuits, do lead to takings claims.
And one clarification on takings, it was
mentioned tonight that the idea of takings of other --
someone puts a well in and takes property values from
others to press that takings claim.
Takings, as one of examples brought to
light, is a road being expanded taking the house next to
it. That the City would have to reimburse. Takings is
a governmental concept. I can't privately take
something away and call that a takings claim. And
notions like this need to be dispelled because when it
all comes down to it, this is an ordinance and legal
issue. So we need to be very clear about what's being
proposed.
Another comment tonight was about the
eight-foot storage tank. That was something that was
put into the ordinance and you have to understand what
unintended consequences are. If I take a, let's say, a
20-foot storage tank and you require me to put an 8-foot
storage tank, there's still going to be an amount of
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS
AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
61
water going there. All you've done is made me have to
put, say, three storage tanks there. Is that really
want you want? Three storage tanks and not just one
storage tank. You have to understand what the industry
does and what the industry needs to be able to -- to
allow for the development.
One of the slides put up earlier shows two
things; health, safety, and welfare. Item number two
was to encourage orderly development. Encourage orderly
development not discourage it. And there needs to be a
balance. There needs to be a cost/benefit analysis,
realistic regulations, and realistically allowing the
orderly development of the mineral resources here. So I
hope that the City welcomes all views. But in doing
that, it really needs to be all views. Legal issues,
the operator issues, state law issues. And not such a
narrow focus like I've heard this evening.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is there anyone
else? Rhona Love.
MS. LOVE: Like others, I want to thank the
three of you for serving in this capacity. I'm
certainly no expert in this. But Ben, the student, I
was very much taken by what he had to stay. You're in
your 20's saying that this whole process doesn't mean a
lot. I'm in my 60's. I had my career in academia. I
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
62
know what this is about. I don't like it anymore than
you do. But it's critical. I'm sure you appreciate
that.
So we heard a lot about technicalities, but
I want to say this one thing. What we really need, I
believe, is city councilors who are going to have the
courage and the integrity and the information to do the
job we elected them to do, which is to protect interests
of the citizens of Denton. And I imagine that after
hearing this tonight, they know a number of us are
watching and we're going to continue to watch. And I
hope that they do the kind of job that would make us
want to vote for them again. Thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you very much.
MR. ENGELBRECHT: I just wanted to say
we've lost a quorum and I'm hereby adjourning the City
Council meeting, not this the informal part. But the
formal portion of having a City Council meeting is
hereby adjourned. Thank you. You can continue.
MS. OPPENHEIM: John iverson.
MR. IVERSON: I'm John iverson, and I live
at 804 Sandpiper not too far from a producing gas well
down on the south end of town. There have been an awful
lot of good ideas offered tonight. And what studying
I've been looking at recently on gas wells, it sounds
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
63
like there is some technology that is new, more
expensive, but could be brought into play that would
help control any emissions that may occur either in the
development process or production process.
But I think one of the things that I
haven't heard is that we passed ordinance and we have a
well inspector. Those results of inspections need to be
made -- I would implore the Task Force to put the
requirement in that those inspection results be made
public, published in the newspaper on a weekly basis.
Put them on the City's web site so that the citizens can
look at the ordinance that's been passed and say, is it
working? As well as the City officials. And I
appreciate the opportunity to speak to this Task Force
and thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is there anyone
else who wants to speak tonight?
MS. WOLPER: I'm stealing my husband's
time. I just want to again thank you for serving on
this committee. I know how much dedication all of you
have to it. And I do believe you will do what is best
for this citizens of Denton.
But what I want to say to the City Council,
the Mayor, and to everyone here: Which one of you would
drop a gas well within only 1,000 feet of your own home?
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
.�
Your child's school? Next to your church? Who is
willing to do that? Unless you are willing to have it
in your backyard against you and dealing with the
consequences of it, then I urge everyone to do their
utmost to make sure this doesn't happen to any citizen
in Denton. Thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is there anyone
else?
MS. POOLE: Again, I'm Joyce Poole. I
didn't have time to say this last little point. But I
noticed in some of your presentation prior to the
meeting was that you require upon a closedown of a well
that the site be returned to original state or so on.
But on an active drilling portion I live in where the
wells are -- and, yes, the pad site, in itself, is kept.
But the area where they had had the pit.
And dug up the well or, you know, dug out the pit and
after it collapsed, they just took all of the rocks and
topsoil and left the topsoil at the bottom and left the
rocks on top. And so it needs to go back to having the
topsoil recommendation deep enough that will allow for
-- in my case, it's a farmer that has that land. He
can't put a crop on there again because it will tear up
all of his equipment. Thank you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is there anyone
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
65
else?
MS. SALIH: I don't think anyone has spoken
to this. I'm not only concerned about the quality of
our ordinances, but I think that everyone needs to give
equal time to how they are going to enforce these
ordinances. Are we going to be in the position to? Are
we going to be willing to?
And I think that it's really important if
we look very carefully at the letter of credit, the
bond, and the environmental insurance. I think if we
ask these production companies to be responsible and
accountable, I think we'll be in a better position to
enforce our ordinances, as well. And thank you to the
three of you.
MS. OPPENHEIM: Thank you. Is there anyone
else who wants to speak? Well, I guess that's it for
tonight.
It's not the end of the process, by any
means. We've just started. And so please look out for
the page on the web site. Contact us. We are open to
ideas and suggestions of how to go forward. And we'll
be letting you know about another meeting probably in
about another month or so to give you an update and get
more input. Thank you.
(End of proceedings.)
PHASE II GAS WELL REGULATIONS AUGUST 25, 2011