So you own land in Texas and want to make money without planting a seed. Here is a step by step, sure way to get rich with the help of the TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION! Yes, you did read the “TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION”.
STEP 1: Call Kevin Howerton, with XTO ENERGY in Ft. Worth, Tx. (817-228-0762) He will get with you to explain how he can help you start a “LANDFARMING BUSINESS”. When the Gas Companies drill their wells, they produce a lot of hazardous drilling fluids, cuttings & chemicals from Fracing the Wells, millions of gallons. They have to dispose of it in a LANDFARM, somewhere off the lease.
STEP 2: Kevin & XTO Energy will pay you approximately $1,200 per acre for your land as a lease. They will take care of all the State regulations. Kevin will submit MINOR PERMIT APPLICATIONS to Carl Gardner, District Engineer, District 5, Kilgore, Tx. with the TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION. A MINOR PERMIT (State Wide Rule 8) is issued for small quantities of waste. A COMMERCIAL OR CENTRALIZED PERMIT is required if the LANDFARM ACCEPTS WASTE FROM MORE THAN ONE DRILLING SITE OR COMPAINIES, OR FOR WASTE TO BE STORED BY ONE COMPANY IN A CENTRAL OFF-LEASE LOCATION. By issuing a MINOR PERMIT, a plat is drawn on as many acres as needed and divided into CELLS, with the name of the well and county where it is located. EXAMPLE: 100 aces divided by 3 acres = 33 MINOR PERMITS. 100 acres x $1,200 per acre = $120.000.00. Not bad for not planting a seed!!
STEP 3: After the permits are issued, usually the same day as submitted by email, you can then NEGIOATE with Kevin and XTO for additional services, such as you can do the landfarming yourself. You can be paid by the TRUCK LOAD DELIVERED. No one checks to see if the rules are being followed. The TEXAS RAILROAD COMMISSION AMITS THAT IT HAS NEVER DONE ANY ON SITE SOIL TEST FOR NORM RADIATION, OR UNSAFE CHEMICAL THAT MIGHT POLLUTE THE AIR OR WATER. They don’t have to NOTIFY your neighbors, because it is not required under SWR 8. It is ALL LEGAL under the Texas Railroad Commission. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has no jurisdiction over the Railroad Commission!
STEP 4: Just sit back and start collecting your money. XTO Energy sells to CHESAPEAKE OIL, DEVON ENERGY, CARRIZO OIL and other drilling companies, the right to dump their HAZARDOUS WASTE ON XTO’S PERMITS.
One small addition:
Step 5: Save some of that $120,000.00 because every taxpayer in Texas will end up paying for all the consequences from this reckless endangerment of human health and safety.
PS: Step 2: certainly seems illegal to me, but at the least, the TRC is enabling industry to follow the path of least resistance while sacrificing human health and safety.
Step 3: That’s just plain stupid and reckless.
Step 5: That’s nothing new. In the US and particularly in Texas, industry profits while taxpayers pay.
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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I pray that you and all of your family can live without oil and gas because that sure seems to be what you are asking for. I personally know Kevin and the work he does (have seen his locations) and think he does an outstanding job. I dont think Kevin has ever personally told anyone to "get rich landfarming"! I cant state what I would like to or it will not be posted so I will blog on my very own site about how stupid this all sounds!!!
I pray, Martinez, that YOU and YOUR family can live without clean air and safe water! I pray that YOU and YOUR family won't have to breath the contaminated dust from one of Kevin's OH SO NICE landfarms!
No one here is claiming that we can do without METHANE, the dirty fossil fuel, at this time but we do want them to DRILL RIGHT in Texas!
Mr. Martinez
What is you BLOG?
Do you live 50 feet from one of Kevin's mudfarms? Do you have to breathe the toxic dust from his mudfarms every time the wind blows or they plow? Do you have livestock that graze on pastures covered in his toxics dust? Does your house have his radioactive dust on your furniture?
You might want to do some research on what WATER BASED DRILLING FLUIDS CONTAIN, BEFORE YOU BELIEVE WHAT ANYONE TELLS YOU. OR, BETTER YET, TELL KEVIN HE CAN MUDFARM YOUR LAND, SO YOU CAN SEE FIRST HAND WHAT IT IS LIKE.
Mr. Martinez
I don't understand why you are defending Kevin? My comments said nothing about Keven doing anything wrong! He is simply the person to contact for mudfarming.
Maybe you are concerned, because you feel this isn't right!! If this is so, then I suggest you look at the photo's of his mudfarming, and then make your decision.
As an adjacent landowner to a 40 acre land farm in Hill County I was apprised a permit had been applied for. The downside being the overall tone of the information packet. The warning was requisite per the text and the overall implication particularly the implied outcome should I elect an arbitrary course of action were akin to being relieved of your lunch money by the class bully. Upon consulting the TRRC website pertaining to landfarm permitting, regulations and watchdog entities vary widely on the type permit applied for … so notification may or may not be warranted
TITLE 16. ECONOMIC REGULATION
PART 1. RAILROAD COMMISSION OF TEXAS
CHAPTER 3. OIL AND GAS DIVISION
16 TAC §3.30
The Railroad Commission of Texas proposes amendments to §3.30, relating to Memorandum of Understanding between the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC or Commission) and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).
The memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the TCEQ and the RRC was last updated substantively in May 1998, and since that time, each agency has gained experience implementing the MOU; has had changes to its statutory authority; and has undergone administrative reorganizations, all of which contribute to the need to revise the MOU. For example, in 2007, the source material recovery program was transferred from the Department of State Health Services to the TCEQ by Senate Bill (SB) 1604 (80th Legislature, 2007); in 2009, SB 1387 (81st Legislature, Regular Session, 2009) was passed concerning the regulation of carbon dioxide injection wells with respect to geologic storage and specifically calls for an MOU between the TCEQ and RRC. The current MOU was amended in 2003 to make non-substantive changes to reflect the agency name change from Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission to Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Items that went to the office of The Sec. of State for filing 3/29/2010concerning ,TRRC,TCEQ and dispensation of NORM,special waste seem peculiar.
Interested parties should view the entire MOU on the TRRC under pending rule changes
Mr Ross and TXSharon,
Your website here contains plenty of false information about landfarming. Please get your facts straight before making such accusations as these. The rantings of older gentlemen sitting at coffee shop tables full of misinformation is what I see here.
Okay then, enlighten us with your brilliance. I can hardly wait.
First let me say I just LOVE your sarcastic tone, it makes you sound “brilliant”. Secondly, If I’m not mistaken (i drive by this landfarm Mr. Ross refers to everyday, which is why i am NOT mistaken) that particular site was not planted with a crop until the soil WAS tested, and it has had several crops planted since dumping has ceased, which was early 2009. The most recent crop was so abundant, healthy and beautiful I even took pictures of it. I also know for a fact that the first crop of corn did not take a year and it was a healthy crop as well. The RRC DOES require tests of the soil. I live near this site as well and I can say for a fact, my paint on my house is not peeling, our animals are perfectly healthy, and my family has not suffered any rashes, headaches, burning eyes, or any other issues Mr Ross claims to have in his 2011 interview with the Denton Record Chronicle. I wonder if Mr. Ross calls TxDot when supply18-wheelers roll past his house (which is maybe 20 ft from the road) or is he just calling about these particular trucks. The other landfarm he speaks of IS REGULATED and the soil IS TESTED (I have personally witnessed it). Furthermore, nobody is “getting rich landfarming” but at least the 15 different families that are involved in the other landfarm Mr Ross speaks of are not in the unemployment line and are able to feed their families. Which these days is harder and harder to come by.
I would love to see the testing results because we did open records requests and the RRC DOES NOT have any test results–I have documentation to prove this. If you can produce some, I would love to see them. Without the test results what you wrote is completely meaningless.
Meaningless to you maybe…to others, not so much.
Thanks for your time.
peace
Nope, J. Unless you can produce some actual test results showing that what you claim is true then you have NOTHING. What we have is research and testing from other areas and lots of water contamination. Click on the landfarming link if you really want to know.
question…did Mr Ross test the dust he claims is radioactive on his house and furniture?? without those test results your website and his claims are meaningless
Use some common sense. We have tested drilling waste. It is toxic and contains many contaminants!
He asked the RRC to test it but they claimed they “lost” their Geiger counter.
Empirical research has shows that landfarming contaminates water. Ask Arkansas where they discontinued allowing the landfarm operator to do their own testing.
Ask New Mexico where they ended up with hundreds of cases of water contamination.
Or, take your chances. You wouldn’t be here if you weren’t questioning it.
I have questioned and found my answers.
#1 The centralized landfarm outside of Itasca that exists now is tested and logged by an INDEPENDENT 3rd party. Each AND every truck.
#2. Those results are then sent to RRC quarterly.
#3 This site has someone monitoring it 24 hours a day
#4 Soil samples are taken AND tested regularly by an independent lab.
#5 I repeatedly see these workers monitoring the outer perimeter during heavy rain for possible breeches.
#6 I and many of the other local people around this site currently have NO ISSUES or COMPLAINTS. And when someone has had a complaint or question it has been resolved or answered.
No system is perfect. You breathe toxic fumes when you pump your gas. There is a sticker on the gas pump itself stating “do not breathe vapors”
So on that note I am assuming you ride a bicycle or walk to work. You also don’t own a TV since they produce radiation, or own a microwave, or a cell phone, or lap top since the batteries contain mercury.
P.S. Why would Mr Ross ask the RRC to test his furniture if they are in the pockets of the oil co and don’t care? Wouldn’t Mr Satterwhite just lie and say it was ok? If this man is so concerned and this is sooooo awful, why wouldn’t he focus his efforts on testing it himself? Sounds like he just has a bunch of empty accusations.
I wish I had a dollar for every time someone went straight to the industry for answers and spouted the same old bull.
“#1 The centralized landfarm outside of Itasca that exists now is tested and logged by an INDEPENDENT 3rd party. Each AND every truck.”
Show me the tests and I want to see tests from the beginning. I have a letter from the RRC saying they do not have the tests.
“#2. Those results are then sent to RRC quarterly.”
Then is should be really easy for you to get copies of all tests going back to the beginning of the landfarm. She me. Please, PLEASE prove me wrong.
“#3 This site has someone monitoring it 24 hours a day”
Fox guards hen house!
#4 Soil samples are taken AND tested regularly by an independent lab.
Show me the tests and go back to the beginning of the landfarm. I have a letter from the RRC. They don’t exist.
‘#5 I repeatedly see these workers monitoring the outer perimeter during heavy rain for possible breeches.”
So, I guess the pictures I have showing serious runoff where not real?
“#6 I and many of the other local people around this site currently have NO ISSUES or COMPLAINTS. And when someone has had a complaint or question it has been resolved or answered.”
Well that proves it then. Oh wait! How many people smoked and died for those safe cigarettes?
Here is a little reading material for you. http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_landfarming_0331.23836361b.html
And
http://www.fwweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3374:tilling-in-toxins&catid=30:cover-story&Itemid=375
Look, I really don’t care what you believe. Seriously! I’m way to busy for this nonsense.
Dear J,
Now that you have received answers to your questions from the fox that has the keys to the hen house, I don’t expect to see you here again. But in case you do return, this might interest you.
If drilling waste is so dangerous that workers should be protected from it, what about people who live near where it is deposited?
The EPA also flagged health risks to workers close to wastewater and other potentially radioactive materials, like the large amounts of soil and mud unearthed by drilling. “At a minimum, the human health risks to the site workers from radon and its decay products should be assessed along with the associated treatment technologies such as aeration systems or holding for decay,” the agency wrote.
Source
If the filters from the waste are too radioactive for landfills, and if the liners that hold the waste are too toxic for dumps, how can it be safe to apply the waste directly to the land? Oh yeah, the companies that generate the waste and profit from cheap disposal of the waste get to test the waste for toxicity and we just have to trust them. Have you seen those tests yet?
You do realize, of course, that waste too toxic to landfarm requires disposal at a special facility and is more costly to the operator that generated the waste.
According to the API, drilling generates 1.2 barrels of solid waste per foot.
TXSharon,
I had my answers before i ever found your site. The only reason I found your site was from a friend of mine who is not from the area asking why this crazy lady is saying these things, so i read your posts, watched your videos, and even read the “reading material” you suggested all before making a single comment on here. Anyone is entitled to there own opinion, that’s the beauty of the internet, but that means you have to sift through the BS. you are on here stating facts but then you admit you don’t have answers. You are so quick to take Mr. Ross and HIS story at FULL faith as if EVERY word is true. but when someone comes along to refute it or says something YOU don’t agree with, you insult them.
I found my answers when all of this started and have learned along the way as well. Maybe my approach was better then yours since you can’t seem to find what your looking for. The thing I am most upset about is your youtube video “Barnett shale landfarm”. It is HIGHLY misleading. You have spliced about 4 different things together and made it look like it’s all one video. like i said, sift through the BS. Thankfully I am from that area so I know it’s false, however others are not and wouldn’t know any different.
As per your last post to me:
I asked questions from numerous sources, not just from industry folks. I did my homework. I understand that they call it waste disposal, and yes, it poses certain risks. So does a landfill, so does a nuclear power plant, EVERY single source of energy has SOME impact in SOME way. Should we not use wind turbines because of the threat it poses to birds and other flying creatures? DUH
You call it the fox watching the hen house….but yet, to you, even the RRC or any other regulating agency is corrupt, so who do you suggest should be the one regulating it? Waste disposal is NOT cheap, as you say, so who is going to pay to test all that waste and work these sites? The reason the operator is responsible is because it is usually (not always) the operators land, and if anyone wants to keep it up to par it’s the person with the biggest investment, and the most to lose, the landowner. Do you have any idea what soil sampling costs? Should the tax-payers foot that bill? Because if the RRC or the EPA does the testing thats what will happen. And if the RRC is corrupt (according to you) then why would you take a statement from the EPA as truth? They are a government agency too. What, they don’t lie?? Really??
Its obvious that natural gas and oil aren’t going away anytime soon, so where SHOULD they dispose of it? According to you, NOT in a holding tank, NOT in a lined pit, NOT in a landfill, NOT in a obscure rural area over large acreage where residents are few. So whats left?? Where else can it go? Do you have a better solution? Cause I haven’t seen a SINGLE thing out of ANY of your postings that contains a viable solution to solving this issue. You just want to complain about it. Which to me says your not for “drilling reform” your for “drilling abolishment”. And that’s just not going to happen. Its obvious that you really do not understand how this all works, probably because each company is different in their own procedures. I’m not saying that it’s a perfect system, accidents, human error, and some not so wonderful things are bound to happen. but in my old age I have come to terms with the fact that NOTHING is perfect. All you can do is the best with what you have to work with. And from what I have seen in my area, that’s EXACTLY what is going on. But then again, i am just another opinion on the internet.
peace
I see you failed to produce any test results. Until you produce those, all the way back to the beginning, you are just blowing a bunch of hot air.
You have only looked at a very few of my posting.
If, as you say, Dick Ross and I are lying about this landfarm and the general lack of oversight of all landfarms, what about the FW Weekly and the Denton Record Chronicle? Both papers did investigative reports on this landfarm and confirmed what Ross said. Are we all liars?
What about those tests? Come back when you have some tests.