Could new gas drills harm this Arlington neighborhood? Parents, locals have concerns
Arlington City Council members are poised to vote on a drilling project that some residents say may spell “disaster” for their children, neighborhoods and environment.
The Tuesday vote will decide whether TEP Barnett, a division of a French energy production corporation, can construct three gas wells less than 600 feet from residential housing at 2000 S. Watson Road in east Arlington. If approved and built, the wells would be as close as 507 feet to homes along Carter Drive, between Rosie Way and Saffron Lake, according to plans. Under city ordinance, no building should be less than 600 feet from a drilling zone without written permission.
But some nearby residents, including those outside of the 600-foot buffer zone, fear more drilling would adversely affect their community.
Wanda Vincent, owner and director of Mother’s Heart Learning Center at 1600 Patio Terrace, said she fears for the health of the children she babysits and the hundreds of people living in apartments nearby.
“We don’t know down the road what health problems it could cause,” she said.
Vincent’s daycare lies about 625 feet from the drilling site. She said the site’s location, which already houses two gas wells, is visible from the daycare playground. She founded the daycare in 2003, well before the first two gas wells were approved in 2010 and 2011. However, at the time of the first installation, Vincent wasn’t made aware of the project.
“We really didn’t know what in the world was going on,” she said. “We didn’t know we had a voice in anything. We didn’t know it could be hazardous to us.”
TEP did not respond to requests to comment.
The possibility of three more gas wells has hung over the majority Latino and Hispanic community since January, when the corporation hosted a community meeting that no one attended. Arlington-based organizations, as well as national environmentalist group Earthworks, claim the corporation did not correctly notify residents when it sent written notices to 111 property owners and posted the plans on the neighborhood-oriented social media platform Nextdoor.
Ranjana Bhandari, director of Liveable Arlington, said her organization and St. Matthew’s Catholic Church did the work TEP should have been doing by informing residents about the proposal.
“Everybody’s a renter around here, so they had absolutely no say in what happened,” Bhandari said.
The vote on the proposal was delayed in February at TEP’s request, then again on March 17 amid growing concerns of COVID-19. City council have received 66 pages of emails opposing the drilling site. More than 100 people have RSVP’d to tune into the city council meeting through telephone or video conference.
Bhandari founded Liveable Arlington in 2014 after she watched new gas wells pop up around the city. She formed the organization for concerned parents who wish to preserve the city’s air quality and minimize the effects of climate change.
Drilling, she said, “has enriched the city, but it has all been a disaster for our children. They breathe dirty air now, and they are going to live in a climate crisis because of this.
“Our children needed a voice, and as mothers, we have no choice. We have to be that voice,” Bhandari said.
More than that, Vincent said, the area, where over a quarter of residents reside below the poverty line, need a voice.
“If it is 100% safe and there is no long-term health problems behind it, why isn’t it in the really nice, upscale communities?” Vincent asked.
The Arlington City Council is set to vote on the gas well proposal among other items during its 6:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday. The meeting can be viewed online.
