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Council Foregoes Public Hearings Before Leasing Public Land for Gas

Drilling

Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 11:23 PM

On Wednesday, the council discussed a proposal for the city to lease city-owned land to private

companies so they can drill for gas on public property. The proposal will allow gas drilling andwells within 300 feet of residential neighborhoods and public parks. In return, the privatecompanies will give the city $32 million.

Have you heard about this? No? Perhapsbecause there werent any public hearings to discusswhether we, as a city, want to have drilling rigs and gas wells littering Dallas landscape.

Here are my objections with this entire issue:

First, no community input. When the council discussed an ordinance on gas drilling last Fall, Isuggested we put one of the 150-foot gas drilling rigs out on the City Hall plaza and let residents

come by and see what they think. I objected then, and object now, to the idea that we would dosomething like this without having public hearings. This is something were going to have to livewith for decades, and were not asking residents what they think?

I just read an article in the Star-Telegram that pointed out the buyers remorse some Fort Worthresidents are feeling over the citys decision to drill for gas:

I do know that we didnt ask enough questions at the beginning of this gung-ho gas drillingprocess, primarily because most of us simply didnt know what questions to ask.

The new drilling techniques were to be minimally obtrusive, with the rigs only on-site for a

handful of days and the finished wellheads basically out of sight or hardly noticeable.

Despite attempts by some companies to camouflage the destructiveness of natural gas drilling,weve already seen a terrible scarring of the land, with large swaths being cleared for access torigs and the laying of miles of pipeline.

In several parts of town, Im seeing the ugly industrial sites necessary to support this growingindustry, where machinery like Ive never seen has to be stored and maintained.

Large trucks are crowding and destroying streets that led to once-quiet neighborhoods. Andmany of us have just begun to learn that some of those massive mobile tanks are hauling waste

water that we still havent figured out how to handlewhether to inject it into the ground in ourown city or ship somewhere else to become someone elses problem.

That upset feeling was it something we swallowed? Barnett Shale by Bob Ray Sanders(Fort Worth Star-Telgram, Dec. 9, 2007)

Second: I dont like being railroaded. The City Manager told us if we didnt approve the lease,wed lose $20M from this years budget and another $14M from next years. What? How could

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staff have counted on this money when the council had not yet approved the drilling leases?When we had our council retreat last July and the gas drilling issue came up, both MitchellRasansky and I specifically instructed city staff NOT to count on this money because the councilhad not approved the gas drilling. We did not want to be in exactly the position were in now.

So here we are: staff puts the council over a barrel by including certain anticipated revenues inthe citys budget, despite the fact that the funding source for that revenue has not been approvedby the council. The philosophy seems to be: It is better to ask forgiveness than permission. Byincluding the gas lease funds in the budget prematurely, staff ensured that most of the councilwould have qualms about eliminating the revenue source, which would necessitate budgetcuts. Then were told were in a rush to get the lease done, and we cant possibly wait for publicinput. (Mitchell Rasansky wryly pointed out that the gas had been down there for a few millionyears; it could wait another couple of months.)

Third: If youre under eighteen stop reading now, because I cant think of a less crude way to saythis: Im tired of our city whoring itself out for a few measley bucks. There. I said it. Ive been

thinking that a lot, like when we decided it would be fabulous to put up ugly kiosks on tinysidewalks all over town, for a pittance. Or every time we beg businesses to come to our city andgive them tax breaks or other financial incentives out of the public coffers. Or when we givedevelopers excessive zoning rights at the expense of residents/the environment/good design. Weneed to be more chaste and less desperate. We need to make our city attractive to businesses bymaking our city safer, improving our schools, and cleaning up/beautifying Dallas. We need toforce new developments to provide generous sidewalks and use quality materials that will last.We need to protect our few natural assets like Timbercreek and the Trinity River.

Fourth: Ah, the tranquility of Dallas parks. Did I mention that the six-page list of addresses ofleased property includes the Trinity River Park as well as Grauwyler Park and Bachman Lake

Park? Oh, and Love Field, too. Makes sense, right? Airplanes, gas wells, parks, gas wells. Sure!

At the end of the day, I proposed that we postpone the issue 90 days while we hold neighborhoodmeetings and gather public input. We need to discuss this with Dallas residents. We need to talkabout safety concerns, environmental impact, risk of water contamination, the future costs ofpossible environmental remediation.

Unfortunately, everyone except Councilmember Rasansky and I voted against getting publicinput before doing the leases. Those against the motion argued that each drilling site wouldrequire a public hearing and council approval, and thats when residents would have their say.But that misses two key points: One, residents might like to have been consulted not just onindividual gas wells, but on the overarching issue of whether they want gas drilling on publicland in Dallas. Two, the council will NOT have the absolute right to refuse every drillingrequest. The drilling companies arent giving the city $34M to get absolutely nothing in return.We cant turn down every single permit and not expect a lawsuit. And we cant refuse a permitjust because residents dont like the idea of drilling near their homes. So well be forced to dosome drilling, somewhere.