Texas’ main oil and gas drilling regulator said the Environmental Protection Agency is jumping the gun in requiring a North Texas gas driller to provide clean drinking water to families whose water is contaminated with natural gas.
The Texas Railroad Commission said in a statement late Tuesday night it is continuing to investigate a Parker County incident first reported in August that involves natural gas found in a 200-foot-deep domestic water well.
Range Resources is drilling wells near the site but the TXRRC says it has not yet concluded the drilling is to blame for that gas.
Railroad Commission Chairman Victor Carrillo said he repeatedly told EPA Region 6 Administrator Al Armendariz last Friday that the actions were premature.
“This EPA action is unprecedented in Texas, and commissioners will consider all options as we move forward,” Carrillo said in a statement.
Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, who has put out a steady stream of anti-EPA press releases in the past year, said the commission “… will not deny due process to the parties involved in spite of the false claims made against our investigative actions by the EPA staff.”
Commissioner Michael L. Williams said: “This is Washington politics of the worst kind. The EPA’s act is nothing more than grandstanding in an effort to interject the federal government into Texas business.
The conflict is not exactly a surprise given the vigor with which Armendariz has gone after the Texas Natural Resource Commission for what he says are lax regulation of federal clean air standards.
There have been a number of instances in the Northeastern U.S., Wyoming and Colorado in which rural homeowners have claimed their water was contaminated by natural gas from drilling. The EPA has not intervened in the same way in those claims, however, most likely because state regulators have been somewhat more aggressive in addressing the issues.
Here’s a timeline of the incident, as described by the Railroad Commission.
- Aug. 6: Landowner files complaint with RRC District Office. Field inspection performed, gas odor noted.
- Aug. 10: RRC staff inspect the Range Butler Unit No. 1-H and Teal Unit No. 1-H production wells nearest the well property. 30 pounds pressure observed on bradenhead of Butler Unit No. 1-H
- Aug. 11: RRC staff inspect the well property and collect water samples.
- Aug. 17: RRC staff return to the well property and re-sample the water well to address quality control issues with first samples.
- Aug. 26: RRC staff return to well property to meet landowner’s consultant and collect gas samples.
- Aug. 27: RRC staff contacts Range and requests gas samples from Range’s production well.
- Sept. 2: Range Production Company samples gas from their Butler Unit No. 1-H well (bradenhead).
- Sept. 16: RRC contacts Range and requests additional gas samples to include bradenhead and production gas, and requests that Range pressure test their well.
- Sept. 20: Range collects samples of bradenhead and production gas.
- Oct. 13: RRC staff contacts local water well driller to discuss the occurrence of natural gas in water wells drilled in the area. RRC staff requests documentation.
- Oct. 14: Range performs pressure test of production casing from a point just below the top of cement to the surface. The well holds 845 pounds per square inch (psi), and no leaks were observed.
- Oct. 2: RRC staff contact Range and request additional samples of gas from the Butler Unit No. 1-H to include gas lift, bradenhead and production gas.
- Oct. 26: Range collects additional gas samples at the same time that the EPA collects gas and water samples.
- Nov. 23: EPA sends results of gas and water samples to RRC staff in Austin and requests attendance at a proposed meeting.
- Dec. 1: RRC staff call EPA to discuss sample results. Learns that the meeting has been postponed.
- Dec. 3: RRC receives letter from Range who agrees to take additional actions.
(AP Photo/Ralph Wilson)
Oct. 14: Range performs pressure test of production casing from a point just below the top of cement to the surface. The well holds 845 pounds per square inch (psi), and no leaks were observed.
That would eliminate a faulty cementing of surface and production casing.
If bunkers can be built, that are safe from a 2,000# bomb, then you will never convince me that fracing a well can break up 8,000 foot of rock.
And I want to know more about the info received from the water well drillers.
What’s frustrating for me, is not being able to hear Range’s side of the story, which they can not talk because they are going to end up in court. So right now, public opinion is being formed, only on the EPA and residents side of the issue.
And those wanting to politicize the issue will have a hey day.
That’s a neat feat, being able to smell sweet gas from a well prior to it being treated with mercaptan. Knowing that you can smell untreated gas how on earth did the New London school blow up in 1937? I don’t think the whole truth has been discovered.
If it was sour gas, then I think there would be bodies aleady if the aquifer had been contaminated with such.
Aug. 6: Landowner files complaint with RRC District Office. Field inspection performed, gas odor noted.
I did not even notice , that is heck of a feat.
The radicals at EPA has obviously declared war on Texas. This case plus the recent ruling that the 16 year old blanket emission policy for refineries and chemical plants does not meet federal standards are clear evidence. Time to draw a line in the sand. Texas’ congressional delegation needs to lead the fight to zero the EPA budget. The votes may not be there to abolish EPA, but the new house majority has the votes to cut off any funding for the radical agenda.