The fracking of Denton

Nearly five years ago, I started working with residents in Denton to get a better, more protective drilling ordinance. The citizens of Denton have come a long way and learned much. The comments given last night at the Denton Council meeting were some of the best I’ve ever heard.

Cathy McMullen moved to Denton to escape the fracking that moved in around her Wise County home. She bought and restored a beautiful farm house in Denton unaware that only a few blocks away Range Resources was planning to drill five wells.

Cathy and I have been through a sh*tstorm, literally and figuratively. I’ve lost count of the hours spent in the Denton Council Chambers, the speeches delivered to the mayor and council members, the citizen reports, the endless emails sent.

That’s why it was a bitter pill several weeks ago when the mayor told residents that the drilling and fracking would only last about 10 days and then it would all be over. Has he been sleeping through the past 5 years of council meetings? Did he forget that stuff like this happens all the time? It was another bitter pill last night when the mayor and council tried to rewrite history and dodge responsibility for decisions they made.

Adam Briggle made a video about how Denton got fracked.

I’ve been blogging about Denton for almost 5 years. There are some messy bits:

• They imported Arlington’s drilling friendly gas will administrator who sides with industry.
• They stacked the deck with the drilling task farce.
• They passed a drilling ordinance that is full of holes.
• They covered up the blowout and blew the illegal water dumping.
• I don’t know what to say about the standstill agreement that threw a couple of neighborhoods under the bus.

The history of how Denton got fracked matters little to the families who are living the realities and making the nightly news.

Here’s a video I took yesterday. I also took video with the GasFindIR video but, you can easily see the flowback vapors without a special camera. Cathy has taken video everyday.

So, what’s the big deal about flowback?

It can be lethal. Deadly flowback vapors killed 21-year-old Montana man

It can make you sick.

Flowback vapors are what were sickening Arlington residents but Chesapeake Energy assured us it was only steam from hot water. (photos and video HERE)

Flowback vapors are what Colleyville/Southlake residents tested but the city’s consultant claimed there were no harmful vapors during the mini frack.

This is a sad story, but it’s not over yet.