How flattering that two big guns from the oil and gas industry teamed up to respond to my Feb. 22 opinion piece. How ironic that their rebuttal appeared in the same issue that announced the injection well failure in Boyd.
I m sure that since Mr. Haynes and Mr. Sebree are concerned about the safety of Wise County s water they will want to click over to www.wisedems.org and write letters to the Natural Resources Committee supporting SB 714 which will eliminate oil and gas exemptions.
The fact remains that, according to the Texas Water Code, Section 36.117. EXEMPTIONS; EXCEPTION; LIMITATIONS, oil and gas is exempt from local control even by a groundwater conservation district (GDC). Any compliance by oil and gas would be purely voluntary. Just ask yourself why, if this were not so, there would be pending legislation to do the very thing that oil and gas fears most, eliminate the exemptions.
In regards to the disposal wells, the key sentence is this: Should an oil and gas operator be found responsible for a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act, that operator could be subject to both state and federal enforcement efforts.
Mr. Haynes, Mr. Sebree and I know that the system currently in place is pathetically lacking and easily manipulated. However, in case you need convincing, I know a few people in Panola County who would be more than happy to educate you.
Residents in Panola County can no longer drink or bathe in their water because it was contaminated by a class 2 commercial injection well. Although the contamination was proven in two separate tests by the EPA, in a private company test in a Railroad Commission test, and in several tests taken from the monitoring well at the injection site, one as recently as a week ago, the oil and gas company has required further testing.
Testing water for contaminants is prohibitively expensive and requiring repeated testing is one way the offenders can escape responsibility. Should an oil and gas operator be found responsible Few citizens have pockets deep enough to hold on without water and fight the oil and gas industry s manipulation of the system to prove culpability.
In the meantime, Panola citizens must use the few barrels of water they receive each week for all their water needs.
I sure hope that $100 permit to operate an injection well doesn t cut too deeply into all those hundreds of billions in profit made by the oil and gas industry. I sure feel better knowing about that thick industrial casing made of cement that protects our freshwater from contamination, except when it breaks or fails because the chemicals liquefy it.
How is that currently working for Boyd citizens with the recent injection well failure?
Admittedly, I know very little about how often wells are fraced, other than observing the wells I drive by every day and the rigs that move in and out when they are refraced. Because of my ignorance, I sought out one of the biggest names in the oil and gas industry, Halliburton.
From page 7, Petroleum Transfer Council: These completions averaged 17 fracs per well. This technology is also being used in horizontal wells with Halliburton noting Barnett Shale applications.
The day the oil and gas industry has the ethics to voluntarily monitor itself is the day man has evolved past greed. We aren t there yet.
Sharon Wilson is a member of the Wise County Active Democrats.
