Monday, April 14, 2014

Corn Valley Drilling Site ~ Drilled, Perforated, Hydraulically Fractured...*UPDATE: Question from P&Z Commissioner*



AND PLUGGED as of April 4, 2014  
(Confirmed by RRC, District 5 Office, Kilgore, TX)

Planning & Zoning Voted April 7, 2014 for a "Zoning Change" to Build NEW Homes on top of the same land that still holds the infamous FRAC Pond and is right next to the Corn Valley Drilling Site...

Seriously? 
Do you think we can put this genie back in the bottle?


Take a look at the paper below...seems industry pros are not so sure about the plug:

Excerpt (Page 12): 
Horizontal wells
  • The horizontal orientations introduce different gravitational effects compared with vertical wells. In a typical vertical well, where there is a large column of cement, some migration of the solids downward or the water upward does not cause a significant change in the cement properties. In a horizontal well, the solids migrating to the bottom of the section and the water migrating to the top can provide areas of the well that do not have a complete seal. If the water in the cement separates from the mixture before the cement is set, it can migrate to the top of the wellbore and form a channel along the top of the wellbore which can allow migration of formation fluids. If the solids in the cement mixture settle to the bottom of the cement before the cement can harden,the solids can cause the cement to not set up correctly and the weakened area along the bottom of the wellbore can fail under pressure during stimulation activities. (Salehi and Paiaman, 2009).


Well Plugging and Abandonment Paper from a National Petroleum Council Study (9.15.11) by Westchester Gasette

The long history of the Corn Valley Drilling Site seemed to be coming to an end after last Monday's 8-0 Planning and Zoning Vote. However, we were baffled when watching the re-play of the meeting...baffled as to why there was no mention from anyone about the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and Grand Prairie, TX MORATORIUM. And with some of the other statements during that meeting.

Here's a link below to the P & Z meeting.  Go to 39:51 to watch and see this discussion that never mentions the Moratorium. (We can't get the embedding code to work. It never has worked on the city's web site.)

Here's the link to the entire meeting ~ Scroll to 39:51: 

April 7, 2014 P&Z Meeting

As a reminder, this drilling site's well is 850 feet (literally across the street) from the Joe Pool Lake Dam and Spillway.  A 3,000 Ft. Exclusion Zone for drilling activities near USACE dams was in place since 1996, but it was ignored by Chesapeake. Or they didn't know about it. Or they didn't care about it. They told the city that USACE knew about their plans back in 2010.

That controversy has had many headlines over the years and yet this Planning and Zoning Commission made no mention of any of that.  Was the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) informed about the planned plugging of the horizontal gas well? Seems that is definitely a gas well drilling activity.  There was a workover rig on the site as you can see from our previous Westchester Gasette blog post, here.

So...this zoning change was approved so that a developer can build 55 homes right there in the shadow of the spillway and dam and atop the drilling site.  Interesting that this housing developer made a derogatory statement about our Westchester Association of Homeowners.  How very weird was that?  And more weirdness followed. Watch the meeting at the link above. Oh, what a tangled web. 

We'll have more about all of this and other developments, soon.  

It's always a doozy in gasland.

4 comments:

  1. Sounds like another Shale Experiment. So, how many square feet do guinea pigs need?

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  2. Just watched the P&Z meeting. So, this community also gets a cell phone tower??? Is this an added amenity? Wow. Talk about an environmental disaster. Perhaps they should just build the homes around the frac pond so everyone can enjoy a lakeside view.

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  3. Yes. Apparently for 30 years...agree that maybe they should leave the FRAC Pond in place as an amenity, too. Then they can have watch parties for the methane leaks that will surely happen and for any seismicity that can occur with all those millions of gallons of water sloshing around down there with a potential to cause earthquakes right next to the Joe Pool Lake Dam.

    What a party!!

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  4. I happened to watch the Grand Prairie City Council meeting last night. It seemed rather peculiar that one of the council members would ask the citizens who spoke in opposition whether they would prefer a housing development OR commercial on that site when neither is an acceptable option. That was the WRONG question since there is a gas well on that property. There will ALWAYS be a gas well on that property. The only moral/ethical thing to do with that damaged land is to leave it as a green space or perhaps set up a memorial so people can remember what a debacle the shale boom was.

    And Holy Cow!! Where did they find that developer ~ on Craigslist??? He didn't even have a clue as to the price of the homes he plans to build. What are his credentials? He didn't present any photos of his other homes or blueprints for this planned development. If he can pull off selling homes by a fracked, plugged gas well near a dam spillway and a telecommunications tower, then I've got some ocean front property in Arizona for sale.

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