ACTION ALERT - Gas Drilling & Pipelines in Arlington- DFW REGION AIR QUALITY

We used to cover more community news on this blog... sports events, concerts, ballet, etc. Now we are consumed with gas drilling meetngs and environmental issues. We are literally fighting for the life and future of Arlington. Please excuse the absence of coverage on fun things, on cultural things, on other things which reflect the life of our home town. Hopefully the push for gas drilling will fade away and hopefully we'll still have a city and can return to experiencing and sharing something other than action alerts and important notices about gas drilling!

ACTION ALERTS:
Tues. Sept. 29, 2010 6 p.m. Arlington City Council to consider gas drilling permits for site on horsefarm at N Cooper and NW Green Oaks. This site is unacceptable because of terrain and location adjacent (uphill from Legacy Park and a branch of the Trinity). Heavy Hydrocarbons (VOC) travel downward and settle in low areas. River Legacy Park already has more exposure than is prudent from wells in the park. Adding more uphill from them will jeporadize the health of children (familes) who come to the nature center to escape the foul air in the rest of Arlington. Why have a nature center and fill it with toxin which contribute to childhood asthma, leukemia and pediatric bone cancer! Neighbors to the West and South of the site oppose the wells because any run-off will go to their property.




Citizens should demand continuous leak testing at all sites in the City of Arlington. Even if the City must pay for the with the number of wells (187 already permitted since 2006) in the City of Arlington, and miles of pipeline snaking through Arlington next to homes and schools and parks and playgrounds and industries - it is imperative that the City (which is permitting these wells locally) provide better safety measures for the people than the state is currently providing. Otherwise, they should stop permitting wells!
Read more about one of the companies who does arial infred leak testing and about the TCEQ's Remote Sensing Aircraft VOCs Project.

HERE ARE INFRA-RED VIDEOs of the emissions coming from the wells on UTA Campus (near the YWCA Day Care licensed for infants and toddlers!!!
There would be NO Emissions visible in coming off of these stacks if the "only natural gas we have in Arlington " was truly "clean, safe DRY GAS!"
(Note: This video was shot before all 22 wells at the UTA complex went on line. Under PBR each well head and each other "qualifying apparatus" can emit up to 25 tons of VOCs a year PER APPARATUS Under current TCEQ rules that site can emit 550 tonsof VOCs per year just for their well heads at that one site alone. That does not include their allowable emissions for their storage tanks and other "qualifying apparatus" at that site. TCEQ needs to be told to tighthen those rules!
(Video used by permission of Texas Sharon - Blue Daze)

THE CLOSEST BUILDING TO THESE WELLS IS THE YWCA DAYCARE CENTER at UTA. Children are among the most vulnerable to harm from VOC emissions common in natural gas. These wells do not have Vapor Recovery Systems which can capture 90% of the toxic VOCs before they escape into the atmosphere. There are no air quality monitors at this site to alert gas company operators and fire and rescue personnel that measures need to be taken to evacuate the children at the Day Care because of excessive VOC emissions. Methane and Benzene and many of the other VOC s which are known to cause bone cancer in children and contribute to pediatric asthma are invisible to the naked eye. Some of them are odorless however their presence leaves life long health damage to some and death to others.

: The derrick at the drill site pictured in this video is on Bowen Road in Pantego. That pad site was constructed about 2 years ago and that derrick has been up and down several times during that period of time. Two years later the homeowners STILL SEE THE DERRICK despite Councilman LeBlanc's statement that "after a few weeks homeowners will barely notice it!"

Saturday, June 26, 2010

High insurance costs kill temporary rail station in Arlington for Super Bowl XLV

By JEFF MOSIER - The Dallas Morning News - June 22, 2010

Super Bowl XLV organizers said Tuesday they've dropped plans to build a temporary rail station in Arlington next year to bring thousands of fans to the game.

Instead, they plan to use a Trinity Railway Express station in Fort Worth and take riders to the stadium in buses.

Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, said using the Union Pacific tracks in Arlington would have been too expensive.

The biggest hang-up was the need for additional insurance, which would have cost $300,000.

"We could implement service on the other corridor [TRE] for one-fifth to one-tenth of the cost," Morris said Tuesday night.

He said Union Pacific policy is that operators must have $200 million in insurance before using its tracks.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which co-owns the TRE, has $125 million in insurance.

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