Arlington shuts down drilling site, says energy company violated fracking rules
After activists reported visible emissions and loud noise, Arlington officials temporarily shut down TEP Barnett’s operations at its Rocking Horse natural gas drilling site last week, citing a violation of the city’s gas drilling ordinance.
Tammie Carson, a member of the environmental group Liveable Arlington, captured a 10-second video of smoke coming from the property, located at 4945 South Collins Street near the municipal airport, on Nov. 13. She and other members have closely followed operations at Rocking Horse since Arlington officials approved seven new gas well permits in August without going through a city council hearing process.
“There had been no public comment, no city council meeting, no chance for anybody to weigh in, so that made it suspicious,” Carson said. “My son and his family live just one street over from the site, so I’m over there frequently, and from watching these gas wells so much, I knew that it was diesel smoke.”
Under the gas drilling ordinance that was updated in February 2019, companies in Arlington must use electric-powered rigs or obtain a waiver to use diesel fuel rigs if they plan to drill within 600 feet of protected buildings. In recent years, electric-powered drilling equipment has risen in popularity due to its lower maintenance and fuel costs, decreased greenhouse gas emissions and less noise when compared to traditional diesel-powered pumps, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Rocking Horse is near a daycare center, medical offices and homes, all of which classify as “protected uses” in the ordinance. After Liveable Arlington director Ranjana Bhandari reported Carson’s findings to the city, gas well inspector Tom Edwards investigated the complaint on Nov. 17.
Edwards found that TEP Barnett, Fort Worth’s branch of the French energy giant Total, was not using an electric rig as required, said Richard Gertson, Arlington’s assistant director of planning and development services. The company received a “notice of violation,” which instructs TEP Barnett to modify its behavior to avoid a citation and financial penalties, Gertson said.
“The operator was drilling the surface hole on well 5 out of the 7 permits issued back in August,” Gertson said in an email on Thursday. “We allowed work to continue on the surface drill for well 5 as it’s not prudent to pull out until completed … The operator will pull off the site when done with number 5.”
Kevin Strawser, a spokesman for TEP Barnett, said that the company used a “spudder rig,” or a small truck-mounted rig used at the beginning of drilling to prepare the surface for new wells when several ones are drilled consecutively. The small rig only accepts diesel power, Strawser said, but TEP Barnett sought to use the spudder rig because it reduces the amount of time that a large rig has to be at the drill site.
Now, TEP Barnett plans to have a large electric drilling rig on the Rocking Horse site by the end of December, depending on the completion of other projects, Strawser said.
“TEP Barnett has always worked with the City of Arlington, and here too we worked with the City Gas Inspector and agreed with their request to discontinue use of the spudder rig,” Strawser said in an email. “As mentioned, we will use the electric drilling rig to perform the remaining portions of the wells when it becomes available.”
Once TEP Barnett acquires an electric rig, workers will be allowed to return to Rocking Horse and continue drilling on all seven wells, Gertson said. Bhandari visited the site on Nov. 20 and said the diesel rig has already come down. She remains concerned that TEP Barnett showed “complete disregard” for the city’s rules, which are meant to protect residents from avoidable emissions, Bhandari said.
“What really surprised me about this is how flagrant the violation is with them using the wrong rig,” Bhandari said. “That is the biggest piece of equipment on this site, it’s not a minor thing. I was pretty taken aback even though I’ve seen all kinds of things go on at job sites for years.”
Edwards told GreenSourceDFW that he is required to inspect 52 gas wells on a quarterly basis and that Arlington completes between 15 and 20 inspections per week. But the incident at Rocking Horse showed that Liveable Arlington must continue to play a watchdog role and call in complaints so that the city is alerted to issues that affect public safety and health, Carson said.
She pointed to Arlington’s high rates of asthma and environmental studies connecting potential health consequences to people living in close proximity to fracking sites. Leaving energy companies to police their own actions is like leaving the fox to guard the hen house, Carson said.
“The onus should be on the city,” Carson said. “That’s why they hire gas well inspectors to monitor this, so a working grandmother doesn’t have to wind up trying to get there and get it recorded before I lose my daylight because nobody else is there to do it.”
This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
