What you can do:
click this link if you live in CS:
One strategy includes appealing to our various government representatives to protect the air, water, health, roads, property values and quality of life of those of us living in the Brazos Valley to make sure the costs of fracking are paid by the frackers, instead of our community.
1. We need immediate baseline testing of our air and water. Baseline testing is often required to prove harm and collect damages.
2. Frackers are drilling through our aquifer to reach the Eagle Ford Shale. Industry studies reveal a 5-8 percent immediate failure rate of wellbores, with a 50-60% failure rate within 20-30 years. Failure of wells drilled through an aquifer will result in contamination of the aquifer.
We need adequate testing of all wells drilled through our aquifer and also timely and adequate testing of our aquifer’s water.
3. Fracking just one well in our area is estimated to use over 5,000,000 gallons of water OR MORE per fracking and most wells are fracked multiple times.
We need an immediate and thorough analysis of the impact, quantity and quality, that fracking is having now, and will have, on our already stressed water resources to ensure that we have sufficient water for the future needs of our community.
4. Fracking wastewater is extremely toxic - filled with fracking chemicals and often radioactive elements and other toxins released from underground.
We need regulations to ensure that fracking wastewater is completely segregated from the water cycle (on, under, and above ground water) and stored so it can’t release toxic fumes into our air and can't contaminate our water or land.
We need to understand where fracking wastewater is being stored or disposed of - injection wells, storage tanks, holding ponds, etc. These sites must be inspected on a regular basis to ensure our air, water, and land are not being contaminated.
5. Air pollution created by drilling, fracking, and transporting oil and gas poses immediate and long-term risks but our nearest permanent air monitor is over 45 miles away.
We need ongoing, local air monitoring with immediate publication of results.
6. Fracking industry vehicles damage our roads and shorten their lifespan.
We need regulations to ensure that road damage, repair, and additional construction costs are paid by the fracking industry.
The proposed regulations, below, would require us to rethink the rights and responsibilities of the fracking industry, mineral owners, and landowners and would further protect our health and environment:
1. No drilling or fracking near where people live, work, play or worship; minimal setback of at least 1/2 mile.
2. Frackers must pay for third party baseline testing of air, water and soil and immediately post results to a designated public online website with links from local government websites.
3. Mineral rights vs ground/landowner rights: If you are drilling on or under someone’s land you must pay for that privilege and get their permission in writing and pay compensation. Setbacks should also be required to ensure a buffer zone for neighbors. Mineral owners have the legal right to sell minerals, but this should not usurp the rights of the surface landowners.
4. Prior to approval of RRC drilling permit: surface landowner must sign off on a fair buy-out price and compensation amounts that will be paid to landowners who have their air, water, land, health, buildings or quality of life disrupted by fracking vehicles, equipment, or contamination AND escrow accounts must be set up or insurance purchased to ensure funds are available to cover these damages.
5. Frackers must pay for third party monitoring of air and water of all land drilled through. Readings must be posted in real time on a public website.
6. Emergency response crew, ideally a third party crew, must be on retainer and located within ten miles and able to respond within ten minutes in the event of an emergency.
7. Fracking equipment left running unattended must be patrolled at least every two hours.
8. Keep gas in pipes so the neighbors will not suffer health impact and climate change will not accelerate. Independent, third party monitoring for releases and immediate posting of readings to public website.
9. Setup new system for victims to file claims, report damages and communicate with neighbors.
10. New regulations to ensure maximum recycling of fracking wastewater and fracking wastewater storage, transportation, and disposal.
11. Regulations are also needed to ensure our community is adequately protected from noise, dust, traffic, flaring, vibrations, etc and that road damage and usage is paid by frackers and their support services and not externalized to taxpayers.
12. Fracking is falsely promoted as an economic engine that brings jobs and government revenues that allow a community to prosper. However, fracking fails to live up to its hype when you include the economic, environmental, and societal costs, the short-term, often hazardous fracking jobs and quick drop-off in production from fracking wells. Posting, by our government, of the revenues received from fracking and the expenses incurred (roads, monitors, RRC, TCEQ, health impacts, injuries, etc) will reveal the truth about fracking.
1. We need immediate baseline testing of our air and water. Baseline testing is often required to prove harm and collect damages.
2. Frackers are drilling through our aquifer to reach the Eagle Ford Shale. Industry studies reveal a 5-8 percent immediate failure rate of wellbores, with a 50-60% failure rate within 20-30 years. Failure of wells drilled through an aquifer will result in contamination of the aquifer.
We need adequate testing of all wells drilled through our aquifer and also timely and adequate testing of our aquifer’s water.
3. Fracking just one well in our area is estimated to use over 5,000,000 gallons of water OR MORE per fracking and most wells are fracked multiple times.
We need an immediate and thorough analysis of the impact, quantity and quality, that fracking is having now, and will have, on our already stressed water resources to ensure that we have sufficient water for the future needs of our community.
4. Fracking wastewater is extremely toxic - filled with fracking chemicals and often radioactive elements and other toxins released from underground.
We need regulations to ensure that fracking wastewater is completely segregated from the water cycle (on, under, and above ground water) and stored so it can’t release toxic fumes into our air and can't contaminate our water or land.
We need to understand where fracking wastewater is being stored or disposed of - injection wells, storage tanks, holding ponds, etc. These sites must be inspected on a regular basis to ensure our air, water, and land are not being contaminated.
5. Air pollution created by drilling, fracking, and transporting oil and gas poses immediate and long-term risks but our nearest permanent air monitor is over 45 miles away.
We need ongoing, local air monitoring with immediate publication of results.
6. Fracking industry vehicles damage our roads and shorten their lifespan.
We need regulations to ensure that road damage, repair, and additional construction costs are paid by the fracking industry.
The proposed regulations, below, would require us to rethink the rights and responsibilities of the fracking industry, mineral owners, and landowners and would further protect our health and environment:
1. No drilling or fracking near where people live, work, play or worship; minimal setback of at least 1/2 mile.
2. Frackers must pay for third party baseline testing of air, water and soil and immediately post results to a designated public online website with links from local government websites.
3. Mineral rights vs ground/landowner rights: If you are drilling on or under someone’s land you must pay for that privilege and get their permission in writing and pay compensation. Setbacks should also be required to ensure a buffer zone for neighbors. Mineral owners have the legal right to sell minerals, but this should not usurp the rights of the surface landowners.
4. Prior to approval of RRC drilling permit: surface landowner must sign off on a fair buy-out price and compensation amounts that will be paid to landowners who have their air, water, land, health, buildings or quality of life disrupted by fracking vehicles, equipment, or contamination AND escrow accounts must be set up or insurance purchased to ensure funds are available to cover these damages.
5. Frackers must pay for third party monitoring of air and water of all land drilled through. Readings must be posted in real time on a public website.
6. Emergency response crew, ideally a third party crew, must be on retainer and located within ten miles and able to respond within ten minutes in the event of an emergency.
7. Fracking equipment left running unattended must be patrolled at least every two hours.
8. Keep gas in pipes so the neighbors will not suffer health impact and climate change will not accelerate. Independent, third party monitoring for releases and immediate posting of readings to public website.
9. Setup new system for victims to file claims, report damages and communicate with neighbors.
10. New regulations to ensure maximum recycling of fracking wastewater and fracking wastewater storage, transportation, and disposal.
11. Regulations are also needed to ensure our community is adequately protected from noise, dust, traffic, flaring, vibrations, etc and that road damage and usage is paid by frackers and their support services and not externalized to taxpayers.
12. Fracking is falsely promoted as an economic engine that brings jobs and government revenues that allow a community to prosper. However, fracking fails to live up to its hype when you include the economic, environmental, and societal costs, the short-term, often hazardous fracking jobs and quick drop-off in production from fracking wells. Posting, by our government, of the revenues received from fracking and the expenses incurred (roads, monitors, RRC, TCEQ, health impacts, injuries, etc) will reveal the truth about fracking.