New water restrictions came in my mailbox yesterday–STAGE 3. These are the days I can water:
November – 10 & 24
December – 8 & 22
January – 5 & 19
February – 9 & 23
March – 8 & 22
Stage 3 has quite a few additional restrictions but I don’t mind conserving water. That’s why I put up two rain barrels and why I will install one at every down spout. Last week we got .14″ of rain and it completely filled a 55 gallon barrel.
What I do mind is that I am restricted on watering my itty-bitty, teeny-tiny yard while the Big Gas Mafia continues to ruin billions of gallons of water that will never be recovered for use. The Texas Water Development Board, a typical Texas agency that is way too friendly with the Big Gas Mafia, says that we will run out of water. Amy Mall recently blogged about our water woes and the news about what I call the “associated water usage” by the Big Gas Mafia–frack sand mining–is finally getting out there.
I’ve told you, Dear Readers–not once, but many times–that the Big Gas Mafia is just like the Big Tobacco Mafia. A recent Denton Record Chronicle editorial compared the Big Gas Mafia to a bunch of cockroaches.
But, as we said earlier, we’re not sure that this is an “all’s-well-that-ends-well” situation. In the first place, we don’t know how long this gas production outfit had been pumping cruddy water into the creek before it got caught. Our second misgiving is a corollary to a maxim delivered to us by a veteran pest-control man as he backed out on hands and knees from our kitchen pantry:
“If you see one cockroach, you’ve got at least a hundred.”
The cockroach comparison is in response to the discovery that an operator was intentionally discharging drilling waste into Hickory Creek. This was not the typical “Oops, we spilled something” that happens all too often in the Gas Patch. It was intentional, illegal dumping, which also happens all too often, that left the creek with contaminants over the legal limit.
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/wolverine/
I can’t disagree with Trimble’s comparison but I think the Big Gas Mafia is also very much like a wolverine, not the Wolverine.
A wolverine, also called glutton or skunk bear, is the largest member of the weasel family. It is a fierce carnivore and on opportunistic scavenger that likes to ruin what it can’t eat by spraying the leftovers with a stinky musk.
That’s how the Big Gas Mafia is like a wolverine–the water they don’t use up, they ruin.
Bloomberg is reporting today that there are some very minor water restrictions on the Big Gas Mafia in Texas.
“The rumblings have definitely started in the last six months,” said Chris Faulkner, chief executive officer of Breitling Oil and Gas Corp., a closely held producer in Irving, Texas. “It used to be, ‘Are you going to contaminate my water;’ now the concern is, ‘You’re going to use up all my water.’”
It’s actually both: what they don’t use up they will spray with stinky stuff so no one can use it. Either way, water drinkers in Texas are fracked
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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While water is certainly the primarily concern, let’s not forget that Industry also ruins a great deal of land. If you want to lease YOUR property, knock yourself out. When an irresponsible operator dumps/spills on YOUR property, then that’s one thing. You’ve been warned and warned, over and over again. If you choose to close your eyes to this possibility, that’s your choice. When that same spill/dump now runs off into a stream, river, or someone else’s property, that’s a real problem. That’s called trespassing. When you allow drilling on YOUR property, and an irresponsible operator does a lousy job of cementing the seal, and the aquifer that we all use for our water gets contaminated, well, we now have another problem, don’t we? And it’s not the problem you’re thinking of- the problem is that our children are drinking that water, and virtually no one is testing, our children may very well get sick or worse, and who is to be held to account? Certainly not the driller because they will say what they always do-There’s no PROOF we contaminated the water.
When that days comes, which is not too far off, when we completely run out of fresh water, I hope you’ll be happy with your royalties. I also hope you’ve saved a bunch of it, as you’ll need it to buy water, which will be much more expensive than the gas or oil that got sucked out of the ground.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-06/parched-texans-impose-water-use-limits-for-fracking-gas-wells.html
Bloomberg Business Week reported “Parched Texans Impose Water-Use Limits for Fracking Gas Wells” yet when you read the article they refer to Grand Prairie and so the title is misleading! Also misleading is that the city of Arlington caught and fined Chesapeake, when the reality was a citizen (XXXXXXX) caught them and THEN they were fined when pressure and all eyes were upon them. Big woop $2,000 fine for trucking Arlington water to Grand Prairie. It was sickening when the local news interviewed Mayor Cluck who acted like he just found out and was too upset to comment (but had two weeks of knowledge to compose himself-what an actor), but what really sux is the part in this article where they trucked fracking water 50 miles away….aaahh!!
Comment edited to protect the innocent.
here in bowie there has been a water truck filling up with city water, out of a fire hydrant, on my block, three times a day, monday thru friday, for two weeks now. i asked the guy, he said it was a 20 thousand gallon tank. they’ve got a meter they use but i wonder if they’re payin residential or commercial rate. the guy couldnt savvy that question. and he couldnt understand my question about using it for “frakking” or he didnt want to answer ’cause his english got REAL bad when i said the ‘F’ word. he unbuckled and rolled out fast after that and the next guy flat out said “no english” after every question. i even asked who his boss was all he wouldnt say nuthin just shrugged and pointed to the company logo on the door of the truck. nice. i would love to get u some pics to post if that would be ok.
I would love for you to send me pictures. You can click on “Contact me” in the menu bar under Bluedaze. You should ask the city how much they are paying. If they won’t tell you, I’ll help you do an open records request. I would bet they are receiving a big discount.
Back at home:
variable degrees of migraines,
kidneys aching,
dizziness,
unusual pains in my extremities,
soapy taste in my mouth,
So far, have smelled, sweet chemical smell, diesel fumes, today was melting crayons. Fell over in my yard yesterday while weeding…
Bubbly reverse osmosis water…
Going to hold a lighter to it later and see if I get ‘plastic’ on top, like the good ol’ days….
Hell, no I won’t take a shower in this place…
Spent a few hours in Dallas on Friday…the best I felt…it’s a shame they’re thinking about drilling the only place the air is fresh around here…
The irony…the air is fresher downtown Dallas than ‘in the country’…
Dallas, don’t frack yourself!