TX State Senator Kelly Hancock says, "Wow! It's a Liberal Runaway Train!"

Trinity Boulevard has collapsed and is closed west of Bell Helicopter, per @DFWScanner pic.twitter.com/WoI0HAc92x
— Bud Kennedy (@BudKennedy) March 16, 2014

Kelly Hancock, Grand Prairie and Westchester's Republican representative in the Texas Senate (at least portions of it) (District 9) (see the map below) is apparently alright with some name calling with the "L" word.

A road collapsing very near or in Mr. Hancock's district (hard to know by looking at the configuration of the weirdly-drawn Republican district) inspires him to criticize those who dare discuss this bad news.  

So, Mr. Hancock, we say, "Wow." We think our "Wow" makes more sense since we thought your job was to make Texas laws to protect us from infrastructure failures.  

Once again, "WOW!"

And the Winner Is ~ Mayor Dr. Bob Cluck is the Best of the Worst in North Texas!

We don't fully understand all the upset about bike trails by these Arlington, TX residents.   

But we do understand being upset by time limitations during Public Meetings.  

Any North Texas Mayor who proclaims, 
"I'll Smile If I Want To!"   
deserves the Prize and All the Kudos.

Therefore, Mayor Cluck is the Winner! Hands Down.

Beginning in the summer of 2011, it seems the Arlington, Texas City Council and especially the Mayor went off the tracks. Click on over to the Fishcreek Monitor to see some more of that derailment. In the world of public administration, this is probably a textbook version of what you don't want to happen. But it did. And it's a lesson in politics. People like to be heard no matter what their viewpoints. If politicians in America don't want to listen, maybe they need to do something else. Or move to another country.

If you haven't already voted early, be sure to vote this Saturday, May 11, 2013!  In Texas, it's now one of the few things we own that can't be taken by private industry via eminent domain.  

Hold on to it with your dear life. 

Vote!

Official Notice for the Grand Prairie, TX Municipal Elections:

Grand Prairie, TX Official Notice of Election by Weschester Gasette

Precinct Locations.  VOTE!

Grand Prairie, Texas Precinct Locations May 11, 2013 by Weschester Gasette

Amen.

Residential Uses: Gas Drilling as of Oct. 23, 2007 (Arlington, TX) **Update**

Thank you for this video, Fish Creek Monitor.

Residential ZONING

Gas Drilling

Arlington, TX

 

We're wondering how that vote went down? Did all City Council members (at that time) vote FOR this Amendment to the Ordinance?? Stay tuned...

Click on the Links below for More Information:

• Zoning Information/Definitions for City of Arlington, TX
• Overall Zoning Ordinance for City of Arlington, TX
• City of Arlington, TX Gas Drilling Ordinance (Specific to Gas Drilling)

From the comments...So, now we know. Thank you, Fish Creek Monitor!

**Update** ~ Click Here to Read the Shocking Results for How It All Went Down.

Oh, Seismicity. Wherefore Art Thou?

3.0 Irving, TX Earthquake January 22, 2013

*Click on the Map to Make it Larger*
Many Gas Well Pad Sites Surrounding DFW Airport showing Multiple Horizontal Wellbores Per Padsite
(Railroad Commission of Texas GIS Maps)

Click Here to See the United States Geological Survey Event Page.

For more facts about it...Click Here.

"In some areas, seismic activity, better known as earthquakes, can occur as a result of oil and gas production. In this article, we review the modern history of human-induced seismic activity, and present the findings of a recent project to monitor injection- and production-related seismicity. Scientists in Russia, in a cooperative project with Schlumberger, are analyzing the seismic energy recorded during these events to extract information about the reservoir, to more fully characterize the state of stress in the field and to optimize the recovery of reserves."

And then there's this: Click Here.
 

City Council to Approve Padsite, Only??

Constructing a pad site that may never have drilling??
Seriously??!

 The Dorchester Levee, Grand Prairie, TX

Click Here for Page 183 of the Grand Prairie, TX Agenda Details for the January 15, 2013 Meeting:

AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF GRAND PRAIRIE, TEXAS ALLOWING FOR
PADSITE DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION AT 2200 LOWER TARRANT
ROAD TO NEWARK E&P OPERATING, LLC.

Click Here for Page 191 of the Agenda Details:

 Attachment A Special Specifications

 – Newark E& P Operating, LLC. –

Race Partners Padsite 

1. Since this drill site is proposing to include horizontal drilling that crosses beneath the Dorchester Levee, the City is requiring third party geologic and geophysical review to ensure the integrity of the existing levee. The information below and third party review will be required prior to any drilling activity. The cost of this review will be the responsibility of the applicant. 

2. Prior to drilling, the applicant will provide any detail geologic, seismic and geophysical data and information in the subsurface of the vicinity of the well and laterals that will allow a third party evaluation of any subsurface fracture (e.g. faults and fractures and their potential for being reactivated and generating earthquakes) as part of this drill site. At a minimum this information shall consist of bore hole logs, hydraulic fracturing parameters, geologic and hydrologic characteristics of the rock above and below the fracture zone and seismic and geophysical survey data.

3. Prior to the initiation of any construction activities that are governed by federal floodplain regulations, the applicant shall provide the City copies of valid U.S. Corps of Engineer permits, a Corridor Development Certificate, and obtain a City of Grand Prairie Floodplain Development Permit that covers any planned activities.

Last we heard, there is a Moratorium in place on drilling operations within 3,000 feet of ALL water retention facilities owned and/or operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the City of Grand Prairie, TX.

Click Here to Read About that Moratorium.

However, it appears that the Dorchester Levee is owned by the City of Grand Prairie, TX??  So, we suppose it's OK to drill/frack under it?? Or to put down the concrete just in case!?? 

C-R-A-Z-Y and Dangerous!! Amen.

Click Here to Read About Dallas County, TX Levees and their "intense scrutiny."


And Click here to read about Earthquakes/Seismicity in the Gas Patch. They Are NOT a Myth!!!

Happy New Year!

Pending and Permitted Shale Gas Well Pad Sites Grand Prairie, TX (December 18, 2012) Grand Prairie, TX Shale Gas Pad Sites and Well Information Updates (12.18.2012)

To find the location for the documents above you need only go to the City of Grand Prairie, TX website.  Click on the tabs as shown below:

  Departments & Services/Services A-H/Gas Drilling.  Yes. That's it!  
And you can find it in alphabetical order between  
Garbage Collection and the  
Graffiti Hotline.  Click on over there and see for yourself. 
 It's a BIG Yee Haw!

City of Grand Prairie, TX Website

Welcome to Fort Worth

And We Hear They're Not Finished, Yet.

Boone Pickens Sells His Water: Update

I guess Mr. Boone Pickens sees the writing on the wall for shale gas drilling?  Or maybe he just realized everybody knows he owns all that water and that's not necessarily good for one's legacy.

Still, he's going to make 103 million on this sale!!  Not bad. 

The preliminary $103 million deal between Pickens' Dallas-based Mesa Water LP and the Amarillo-based Canadian River Municipal Water Authority for the water rights to 211,000 acres in Roberts County in the Panhandle promised to end long-held concerns in the region that he would sell the water to downstate interests.

Link

UPDATE:  Here's a good explanation of the story behind this story from a Washington Examiner August 21, 2008 story. Not sure if our local papers ever reported it quite this way. Pretty sure they didn't.

Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens is about to make a killing by selling water he doesn’t own. As he does it, it will be praised as a planet-friendly wind project. After he pulls it off, the media will deride it as craven capitalism. In truth, it is one the most audacious examples of politics for profit, showing how big government helps the biggest business steal from the rest of us. The plotline behind Pickens’ water-and-wind scheme is almost too rich to believe. If it were a movie script, reviewers would dismiss it as over-the-top.

Read more at the Washington Examiner

Josh Fox Gives A Good Speech

"Civil Disobedience is the Opposite of Terrorism."

~ Josh Fox, Director of "Gasland" 

(Pennysylvania Speech in early November, 2010)