Fracking is expanding near Arlington homes, day care without council vote. Here’s why
Two months after the Arlington City Council rejected a permit for new gas wells near a residential area and day care center, the city’s planning and development department has approved seven new wells at an existing site near the municipal airport.
The Rocking Horse drill site, named for a nearby preschool that has since been renamed to Childcare Network, has been operated by TEP Barnett, the Fort Worth branch of oil giant Total, since 2009.
Amid vocal opposition from neighbors and activists in 2013, the council narrowly approved the company’s request to expand the site by 2.3 acres in its pursuit of building 11 new wells on the property, at 4945 South Collins Street.
That 2013 public hearing gave TEP Barnett a specific use permit for its drill zone, allowing the company to earn administrative approval for seven new wellheads rather than going through a council hearing process, said Richard Gertson, Arlington’s assistant director of planning and development services. Those permits were issued on Aug. 7, according to Tom Edwards, the city’s gas well coordinator.
“Obviously, if they choose to go outside the zone — in other words, they want to expand the scope of the area where they’re drilling — you got to go back to the permit to amend that drill zone,” Gertson said. “But in this case here, they’re drilling within the zone … and those permits may be approved administratively.”
Activists are concerned that TEP Barnett’s latest move violates Arlington’s gas drilling and production ordinance and will allow the company to escape the public scrutiny that typically accompanies a council vote.
“I’ve not seen this in actually seven, eight years of watching the permitting of drilling,” said Ranjana Bhandari, the director of environmental group Liveable Arlington. “Very little stuns me when it comes to gas drilling, but this one is just so appalling.”
Under the permit issued in 2013, TEP Barnett was granted permission to drill within 600 feet of some buildings after obtaining written consent of at least 70% of affected property owners, according to news reports.
However, Arlington’s ordinance now dictates that drilling within 600 feet of protected properties, including schools and homes, requires the support of at least seven out of nine council members, Bhandari said. TEP Barnett’s latest plans, which she examined after Liveable Arlington submitted requests to the city, put new gas wells within 300 feet of the Childcare Network location, which Bhandari said threatens children’s health.
“You’re not allowed to drill within 300 feet of a school in Arlington anymore, but they’re going to do it,” Bhandari said. “They’re going to do it without a hearing. They’re going to do it without neighborhood notification.”
Residents living within a quarter mile of the drill zone will be notified five days before drilling commences, Gertson said, but activists say that is too late for residents to voice their opinions to elected officials.
TEP Barnett did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the director of the Childcare Network location on Caplin Drive. TEP Barnett representative Lynda Gearhart told council members in 2013 that the company tries very hard to be a “good corporate citizen and neighbor,” citing the company’s history of drilling in the Barnett Shale.
City staff reported in 2013 that Childcare Network was 359 feet from the boundary of the drilling zone. But the construction of new buildings since then, including a slew of medical offices, has made it more complicated for TEP Barnett to build wells that are 300 feet away from protected buildings, including those medical offices, schools and homes, Bhandari said.
“Their old wells were absolutely at the western edge of the property, because they were trying to create proper distance between the well and the school,” Bhandari said. “Now, they can’t do that, and I’m very taken aback that they’re encroaching inside the 300 feet circle of the school.”
Gertson said he understands the public interest in the latest gas drilling permits, but that the council has already examined the issues of allowing wells close to protected buildings in this case.
“All of those issues were taken into account, and in a way, it’s been asked and it’s been answered,” Gertson said. “It’s always possible that subsequent to that approval, new land uses come in and locate at other distances but the drill zone, once established, has gone through that process already.”
Bhandari and her fellow activists say they are not satisfied with that response, questioning why city council members voted against drilling more than 600 feet from a preschool in June but will not consider whether to drill within that distance at the Rocking Horse site. Marvin Sutton, a council member who represents the area where the drill site is located, did not respond to an interview request.
“They’re completely stonewalling,” Bhandari said. “Because they’re claiming that this is an established drill zone, whatever that may mean, they’re not even notifying the neighbors. They don’t even know that this is coming, which means that they have no voice. They don’t even know that this is about to happen to them.”
The permits are part of Total’s plans to expand drilling in the Fort Worth area. The company is seeking permits from the Railroad Commission of Texas to build 16 new wells across Tarrant County, including nine in Fort Worth, four in North Richland Hills and three in White Settlement.
