"Containment is enforced by the Texas Railroad Commission. It says all sites are required to have secondary system, in case storage tanks leak. Laws say rainwater runoff is only a problem if the water contains elevated chlorides. That would prove contact with oil and gas waste.
The Railroad Commission didn't say if it tested the water from this site.
The company did not return calls from News 8, but a manager at the site showed us how standing rainwater was pumped into those same haulers. Once collected, it was then dropped into the trough with the fracking waste.
The manager said there was never a breach in the earthen wall, but from Dunlap's property and inside the wall, one can clearly identify new gravel filling a gap in mud and grass.
Dunlap has hired a private lab to test water samples on her property.
"We know that creek goes into Joe Pool Lake, which is one of the main water sources for North Texas," she said. "I know I would not want to have that lake contaminated."
See BlueDaze's story here.
Google Earth Kimbrough Farms at 2828 Chamber St in Venus TX 76084.. I think that is the site from the WFAA video. So sad. More pics of this on Chris oss home page
ReplyDeleteYes. Chris Koss took some good pictures of Kimbrough Farms in the summer of 2010. The tab "Around Town and Out of this World" at the top of this website's page shows Kimbrough Farms signage. It's the last picture in the slide show from 2010.
ReplyDeleteJust got this email from the RRC today......Ms. Feil,
ReplyDeleteYour email was forwarded to me for a response. Railroad Commission (RRC) rules do not require routine testing of flood waters that may flow over or through oil field facilities. However, such testing may be necessary if flood waters are known to flow over and come into contact with oil field waste. It appears that one of your concerns may be that an unreported spill may have occurred prior to a flood event. RRC rules include notification requirements (Rule 20), and environmental rules such as Rule 8 and 91, to assure that leaks are reported (if they exceed reporting requirements) and cleaned up (in all cases). Inspections can then be performed to look for violations. The public also may use the complaint process to notify the RRC of problems if they see them. Based on inspection, a site-specific cleanup plan (including environmental testing) can be developed and implemented. I have provided below internet links to the above reference rules:
http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=16&pt=1&ch=3&rl=20
http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=16&pt=1&ch=3&rl=8
http://info.sos.state.tx.us/pls/pub/readtac$ext.TacPage?sl=R&app=9&p_dir=&p_rloc=&p_tloc=&p_ploc=&pg=1&p_tac=&ti=16&pt=1&ch=3&rl=91
Please let me know by reply to this email if you have further questions.
Best Regards,
Peter Pope
>>> Kim Feil 1/29/2012 7:36 PM >>>
Regarding when oil and gas drill sites are flooded by a rain storm and where the RRC investigators initially respond and take a chlorides test for signs of a produced water spill, I am compelled to write to you to ask you to review that process which logically is inadequate to detect fracking chemicals, toxins in drilling mud, NORM or heavy metals.
Lab testing is appropriate so as to not put the public or the environment at risk should there be toxins that do not show up in a chloride test.
Checking for a sheen or for an odor is also not conclusive that all is safe to release into the environment.
If the site is flooded, and a valve leaked, any investigator looking for discolored dirt or discolored water will have a compromised area that is now covered up and diluted.
Each phase of the life cycle of an oil and gas site needs to have a flood plan water test for each phase that the site was in when the flood occurred.
If it is cost prohibitive to lab test and recover those costs through an enforcement action should they driller be found out of compliance, a safe protocol would be to order ALL flooded sites to be vacuumed up and sent to an appropriate injection disposal site.
Please let me know what step you can take to bring this idea to fruition to the RRC.
Also, anytime I see front loader or bulldozer pushing dirt around a site, I worry they are covering something up. How can we know they are doing grading and not doctoring?
Sincerely
Kim Feil
It's so interesting how they refer to "oil field" facilities when it's these shale formations that are causing so much of the problem. They are stuck in the past. Clearly.
ReplyDeleteGood to have another "name" to contact when we call down there to Austin with our concerns. We like that. Thank you for your comment and for sharing this e-mail correspondence.