Someone running for Flower Mound Council Place 1 wants to put a well site in your backyard to keep it out of hers.
Explore use of new long distance drilling methods to unify mineral owners and surface owners
This does not bode well for Flower Mound neighbors–Flower Mound residents profit while you pay.
Creepy!
I am so sorry! I guess I should have added in the statements made to the Dallas Morning News. They are posted in the comments.
Here is the bottom line: Shoving the drilling out one mile or two miles just to make mineral owners happy still creates a situation of environmental injustice. If you do a “dog whistle” don’t be surprised if some show up. If it is a “plan” then it needs to be thought through better. Are you going to buy out all the people who live within a certain radius of the pad site? That might work. I do not know anywhere one or two miles away where someone won’t suffer.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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Hi Sharon,
Have you spoken with Kendra Stephenson regarding her philosophy?
If not, can you do so and then confirm that you still think that your comment is correct/appropriate or revise your comment.
Thanks from an FM resident!
What new long distance drilling methods? Very horizontal hydraulic fracturing? And unify owners how?
Fracking is causing problems at 3000 feet why would it be any safer at 5000 to 10000 feet?
In Flower Mound, if you go 1 to 2 miles, which direction. You would have to drill near someone. To the south is Grapevine apartments. To the South east is office buildings, or some other homes. To the west is Lake Grapevine. To the north are more homes.To the east is numerous homes and schools.
This statement doesn't make sense unless you are trying to ride the fence to get votes. Trying to bring the drill baby drill crowd and the concerned about drilling crowd together won't ever happen because you would have to have a cure for greed. Unless she has a magic wand, this is just BS.
Yes!!! I would rather have pad sites moved away from from our homes, schools, and churches!!! Flower Mound does not need pad sites in the CENTER of town!!
Anon 9:20, So, let me get this straight: You are perfectly fine with putting pad sites by someone else's home, school or church outside Flower Mound as long as it's not inside Flower Mound.
Anon 11:11 It is the job of the person running for office to make their position clear not for me to run him/her down and try to figure out what he/she means.
Let us not forget that half of her support is coming from a group of people this blog helped "unelect" just a short year ago! Thanks Sharon for cutting through the clutter as you always do.
Sharon,This is a complete misrepresentation of Kendra Stephenson's position on gas drilling. I know this candidate and she believes drilling must be kept away from ALL homes, schools, churches and public areas–including surrounding towns. Secondly, the early methods of long distance drilling are already happening in Flower Mound with 59 wells. If you look on the town's Web site–there are maps showing the spider web of laterals. The Hilliard site, which Kendra believes was not properly approved, will have the longest lateral yet in Flower Mound. The increased set backs by the O & G board and supported by our town council of 1500 feet—-will require long distance drilling methods to be implemented. Ms. Stephenson is simply trying to deal with reality of drilling in Flower Mound and Texas. The message put forth by the "group slate" is that Kendra is encouraging these practices be adopted, when it is already taking place in Flower Mound. Kendra has actively advocated for the use of best practices such as vapor recovery , air quality monitoring and well casing quality monitoring to ensure all drilling is done safely. To imply she wants to "kick the can" to surrounding communities is a lie. Don't allow yourself to be used for political purposes, especially when the information is false and the stakes are so high.
From a big NFL Supporter who believes in telling the truth.
Anon 11:16, this candidate should clarify her position. I simply copied and pasted what is on her website. So, please do not accuse me.
If you want to run for a political office, you need to be clear about your positions and not cry foul when someone questions something that is written in black and white.
I do not have a dog in the FM race but I work with people who live within the "long distance drilling methods" areas.
She should go ahead and put the FOR SALE sign around her neck.
Kendra made statements supporting long distance drilling in the Dallas Morning News Voter Guide, too. Not only that, she also expressed concerns about legal expenses the town might incur if it doesn't "find common ground" — otherwise known as compromise — "with large mineral owners." READ FOR YOURSELF WHAT SHE TOLD THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS in answering the question, "WHAT ARE THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT ACTIONS YOU WOULD TAKE IF ELECTED?":
http://www.thevoterguide.org/v/dallas11/endorse.do?id=220492166
Kendra Stephenson was in a position to make an impact while serving on the FM oil and gas board of appeals and she quit. That alone goes a long way in helping me make my decision on who to vote for in the Place 1 election.
Quit blaming " The message put forth by the "group slate". Your candidate made the statement and people are forming their own opinions. Sorry your tactics are backfiring.
I don't usually get involved in politics but gas drilling has been a big issue. I have spent time in the past month really researching FM political scene. Couple of issues here.
First Anon, why should Sharon have to call Ms. Stephenson? She stated this in 2 different publications I read. Are you saying her own words don't state her real position?
Drilling 1 to 2 miles away from the center of Flower Mound? This still puts this in Flower Mound in some areas and our neighboring cities in others. I live here but I don't think anyone should suffer so we don't. In her Town Council speech this Monday she used Hilliard Field as an example. Anyone look at what is within a 1 to 2 mile radius of that area? As stated above a lake, businesses, apartments in a neighboring town, schools, homes, more businesses, more homes, more schools in neighboring towns!!!
Next issue in her speech she mention legal battles. The only one I know that has actually been heard in court that has to do with any site that was denied by the Oil & Gas Board was River Walk. The judge threw it out and said the Board had every right to deny. Reading the minutes from the O & G meeting back a few years, not one of the members denied it because there would be an alternate site a 1000 or even 5000 feet away that could access the minerals. That is only one criteria they can use. So that blows the legal justification. Oh yeah guess who the mineral owner that sued with River Walk was? Yep Mr. Roy Moriss, Ms. Stephenson has her sign on his property apparently in the same spot the old Mayor and gas drilling supporter, Jody Smith, had hers last year (I am new to town so correct me if I am wrong). Mr. Moriss recently testified in Austin for a bill that would take municipality authority away when it comes to Oil & Gas regulation.
Ms Stephenson needs to own up to her statements. It is not our or Sharon's problem if she doesn't communicate well.
NFL was voted into office in Flower Mound in May 2010. They did not do everything they could to stop the permit approval for Hilliard Field at the entrance to FM right next to schools and homes. This is despite the mandate they were elected on. They did not get another lawyer to provide another opinion on the variance requirement.
And now we are supposed to believe that their endorsement of Jeff Whittaker will protect FM residents from drilling better than Kendra Stephenson will? C'mon, give me a break..
I don't usually get involved in politics but gas drilling has been a big issue I have spent time in the past month really researching FM political scene. Couple of issues here. First Anon, why should Sharon have to call Ms. Stephenson? She stated this in 2 different publications I read. Aer you saying her own words don't state her real position? Drilling 1 to 2 miles away from the center of FM? This still puts this in FM in some areas and our neighboring cities in others. I live here but I don't think anyone should suffer so we don't. In her Town Council speech this Monday she used Hilliard Field as an example. Anyone look at what is within a 1 to 2 mile radius of that area? As stated above a lake, businesses, apartments in a neighboring town, schools, homes, more businesses, more homes, more schools in neighboring towns!!! Next issue in her speech she mentions legal battles. The only one I know that has acutally ben heard in court that has to do with any site that was denied by the Oil & Gas Board was River Walk. The judge threw it out and said the Board had every right to deny. Reading the minutes from the O&G meeting back a few years, not one of the members denied ti because there would be an alternate site a 1000 or even 5000 feet away that could access the minerals. That is only one criteria they can use. So that blows the legal justification. Oh yeah, guess who the mineral owner that sued with River Walk was? Yep, Mr. Roy Moriss, Ms. Stephenson has her sign on his property apparently in the same spot the old Mayor and gas drilling supporter, Jody Smith, has hers last year (I am new to town so correct me if I am wrong). Mr. Morris recently testified in Austin for a bill that would take municipality authority away when it comes to Oil & Gas regulation. Ms.Stephenson needs to own up to her statements. It is not our or Sharon's problem if she doesn't communicate well.
@Janis, you hit everything right on the mark. You may be new, but you've got a real good handle on what is going on and who is really trying to defend this town.
While the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem have made several trips to Austin defending us against lawyer and urban gas developer wannabe Roy Morris, his best bud, Kendra, is proudly displaying her signs on not just 1 (but 2 properties, the Riverwalk property and @Chili's) while she attacks the current Council and continues to refuse to denouce her association with him or at the very lease say she doesn't agree with him on taking away Municipal authority to regulate gas drilling.
NFL was voted into office in Flower Mound in May 2010. They did not do everything they could to stop the permit approval for Hilliard Field at the entrance to FM right next to schools and homes. This is despite the mandate they were elected on. They did not get another lawyer to provide another opinion on the variance requirement.
And now we are supposed to believe that their endorsement of Jeff Whittaker will protect FM residents from drilling better than Kendra Stephenson will? C'mon, give me a break..
Why should the town of Flower Mound have to pay for another Attorney to get an opinion? By reading about the dismisal of the lawsuit on the River walk, the town Attorney must have some idea of what will hold up in court and what won't.
I am sick of NFL getting the bad rap for something that was in the works before they were even elected.
Vested interest! It applied to Hilliard. Period.
Sharon,
you must mean NFL&H because they are they ones that have put these pipelines in the works to ship the sludge and gas all across our town without regulations – this would send waste and other items into Argyle and Lewisville via their CCF.. must have been part of the Williams settlement.. should ask the council.
Anon 2:34, You raise some good points. In FM, NFL and H clearly did not have the courage to go up against the town lawyer and get another opinion on the need for variances. This is why you need Kendra elected into office.
If a situation like Hilliard were to happen again, having Kendra on the town council would be a better bet any day.
@Anon 2:34 PM – Are you sure NFL is not doing something behind the scenes that maybe you are not privy to and that has not fully panned out yet? Rome wasn't built in a day and defeating bad drilling practices will not happen overnight.
@ Janis; You are correct. But in terms of law suits, you left one important one out. Ginger Simonson sued the Town of Flower Mound. Jenny Rogers was involved with raising funds for this law suit.
Anon 4:41, The fact is that NFL & H could have placed a moratorium on May 8th for gas wells like it was done for CCF's. That was not done. One hears that three applications got in just a day before the moratorium for gas wells was eventually put in place. How convenient !!
Secondly, one hears that the Oil & Gas advisory's board's hands have been tied by the Town attorney and that NFL & H were not able to get past that and get opinions from other lawyers. Adding a few more feet to setbacks is not going to cut it and if that is all the change that is going to happen, then the advisory board was perhaps just a waste of everyone's time. Southlake seems to be faring better than FM.
About doing something behind the scenes, guess what, Hilliard has a permit from the town now and FM is going to get a nice big gas well at the entrance to town that isn't going away.
The Rome wasn't built in a day argument sounds like a losers argument to me and that is why we need Kendra on the town council, so we don't end up with excuses like these to console ourselves.
Hi Sharon,
I am the anon that asked whether you talked to Kendra. A lot of people rely on you as an expert. An offhanded comment that you made without exploring the true intent shows that I cannot rely on what you say. I am sorry to say that I am disappointed. I truly thought that I could rely on you for a thoughtful, well researched opinion. I now believe that I cannot. You have lost my trust.
FM resident.
Thank you anon 5:28! If Kendra gets on council she won't be able to do crap. It might be good for her ego, but won't be of much help to anyone in the town. It sure would have been nice if all of that energy would have gone to fighting the operators and not on fighting the residents.
I suspect from the response so far, Sharon hit the nail squarely on the head, once again. That's the problem with riding the fence, you end up pissing off BOTH sides. Mineral owners don't want to "unify" with surace owners, Ms. Stephenson, they want to run over them. Once you understand that, you won't make such statements.
I wonder…if the words copied and pasted and questioned were from Ed Ireland's website, would anyone at all be asking TX to call up Eddy to give him the opportunity to clarify his message?
This was mishandled. Instead of jumping on TX and playing the victim, why not simply say something like this: You're right, that is not clear. Here is what I meant. I'm sorry for not being clear in the first place.
Someone seeking public office who can take responsibility is a good thing. Someone seeking public office who plays the victim and blames others is not so good.
And why we sit here bitching and moaning, we could be putting our money where are mouths are and running for government and doing our own research. Instead of relying on other people to do our dirty work for us.
That's exactly how we all got into this mess to begin with. We all believed what the Gas Companies and the Politicians were telling us.
How we get change is by being active in our community.
Until we are willing to stand up and make change, we should just sit quietly and idly. It's a waste of energy to complain when we should be doing something actively about it.
I have dumped hours and hours and hours, and thousands and thousands of dollars into this fight to help my community become educated about the air and the water. There are not many people who are willing to make sacrifices like that.
Whomever thinks TXSharon has eluded any facts when all she does is cut and paste from other sources, and adds personal commentary on occasion, is ludicrous.
Without Sharon, there is no fight, or coming together of US or even truth of the reality of how bad this $hit is.
Meanwhile the air is so bad in Flower Mound, I call it Toxic Alley because I get so sick there. I can't even stand going over there any more, and I regret every time I do. It's hard for me to say…it's worse then, Argyle-Bartonville. And last time I took a shower over there…I won't go into those details…burning, burning and sores all over my body.
I can't even get the city to answer my questions as to where the water comes from. They elude and tell me things, like surface, Dallas water blah, blah, blah. Not one time, have I been given a clear cut answer. I've tried 4 times.
How many times have you called the city to find out if they use surface water or well water?
They don't know.
That's why I can't get an answer.
I can tell you this, the water is jacked up in Flower Mound now. Has been for 3 weeks, and I don't even live there.
-FrackingCrazy
No matter where you put the pad site, even if it is 50 miles away, still someone suffers.
And, what about the water???
Sharon,
You are entitled to read and interpret my statements as you choose. However, as you have such a wide audience, I would ask that you interpret my statements in total including those on the Voter Guide, Flower Mound Cares and my website. I have made many statements that explain my position that have been put out over the course of this campaign.
If your readers would like to read my positions and ask questions, they may do so at http://www.kendraforfm.com. The DMN voter guide can be found at http://www.thevoterguide.org/v/dallas11/race-index.do.
Kendra
Thank you for your response, Kendra. As you know, I work directly with the people who are suffering health affects, loss of enjoyment in their property and decreased property value. In many cases, decisions were made to move the drilling from one area to another–theirs. Surely we can come up with a better plan.
There is a cost for our energy and as long as we continue to use fossil fuels the price for those in the gas patch is too high.
Flower Mound has huge energy hog homes. Keep your drilling in your own town!
Just to clarify something: Although Lewisville has approved a CCF, it will not be accepting any waste from any sites in Flower Mound or anywhere else. Their specific-use permit will not allow it.
Good to know Steve. Thank you for sharing.
To read the part from the kick-the-can email that got the kendra campaign all riled up, go to:
http://stopthedrilling.blogspot.com/2011/04/info-on-candidates-for-flower-mound.html
You'll see that only facts were in the email, no accusations or disparaging remarks. On top of that, she wasn't even mentioned by name!
I just got done reading the thread on FMC about this email. It is clear that Ms Stephenson's group sees it as an attack and not opinion. So let's break this down.
"that at least one opposing candidate supports exploring the use of new long distance drilling methods in Flower Mound?"
Ms. Stephenson isn't mentioned by name and she says she is for "exploring" not wants drilling
"While moving the well-head just two miles away may satisfy those who disapprove of urban drilling for aesthetic reasons, it does not negate the risk of proximity to the well-head – it only moves it to another bordering community. That community may not have as strong an ordinance as Flower Mound’s, but it still has homes and schools and, to my knowledge, does not have a glass bubble around it that would stop contaminated air from coming right back to Flower Mound. This kick-the-can-literally-2 miles-down-the-road-approach doesn’t even protect Flower Mound! The risk of fracking under our feet would remain. The shale under our homes would become forever permeable and the risk of gas and fracking chemicals migrating to the water table or surface in Flower Mound would remain unchanged."
Sounds more like an opinion from a resident that has done some research and feels this to be true. Don't we all have the right to agree or disagree with a candidates position based on our own research?
"How comfortable would you feel knowing that fracking was going on directly underneath your home? I worry about a candidate that would seek to find common ground by offering this unacceptable compromise to gas interests. I say NO when my family's health and safety are at risk!"
This sounds like a person who is asking if people feel the same. Not even asking if they are comfortable with long distance drilling but with fracking all together. Seems like a valid question.
Ms Stepheson's statement from her site.
"Explore use of new long distance drilling methods to unify mineral owners and surface owners"
It sounds nice but will never happen. Yes, but to achieve this, there would have to be COMPROMISE. Plus as someone said on another blog, a cure for greed. Ms Stephenson, that is okay to say you want to compromise. It is also okay for people not to agree with it.
Ms. Stephenson's supporters have to stop nit picking the opinions of her opponents supporters. It is beginning to sound like whinning or you are trying to make people feel sorry for Ms. Stephenson. As a politician, there will be people that don't agree with you and they will share those opinions with others. Look at the past and see. There will always people that loved and hated the old council and loved and hated the new council. I am sorry but if Ms. Stephenson can't handle the negative stuff, then maybe she doesn't really have what it takes to be a politician.
Whew sorry this is so long. I just had so much to say.
Happy Easter everyone.
If the Kendra campaign had put half of their effort into helping the people trying to help them, we wouldn't be infighting, because the gas operators would have already left. Try focusing your anger on the people who have caused this issue, not the ones trying to help you fight it. You will be way more productive.
I thought you worked at UNT?
Huh? You are coming to this conversation awfully late. What does where I work have to do with it?