The Former Chesapeake Energy Parade Of Lights Bringing Holiday Spirit To Downtown Fort Worth

Incoming email from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. has among its plethora of information what appears to be a bit of misinformation.

This upcoming day after Thanksgiving, November 28, 2014, to be precise, for the 32nd year in a row, the annual Parade of Lights will take place.

The message from Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. is calling this the 32nd annual XTO Energy Parade of Lights.

I know my memory is shot, but I know for a fact that XTO Energy has not been the sponsor of this parade for 32 years.

Why, just a year or two ago it was the now disgraced and run out of town (for the most part) Chesapeake Energy which had its name attached to this parade.

How did the Chesapeake divorce from this parade take place? Did Chesapeake Energy leave the parade after Fort Worth and multiple prominent people in Fort Worth sued Chesapeake Energy? Or did Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. kick Chesapeake Energy out of the house, so to speak?

And why, oh why, after having this parade sponsored by one disgraced gas driller, would whoever decides such things agree to have it sponsored by another gas driller?

All I know for sure is the Parade of Lights, whoever the sponsor is, is a very good parade, attended by thousands, even if the temperature is uncooperative.

I have watched the Parade of Lights twice and found myself impressed twice, with how downtown Fort Worth can go from being a ghost town on the busiest shopping day of the year and then that night come alive with an extremely bright, extremely well done parade.

But, after the parade is over, in downtown Fort Worth there are no department stores for the parade goers to go to to continue their Christmas shopping....

Water Returns After Drying Up In Dalworthington Gardens Pappy Elkins Lake No Thanks To XTO Energy

Last night I got around to reading this week's Fort Worth Weekly.

This week's Fort Worth Weekly cover story is about a subject about which I have had some in person experience, and about which I have blogged multiple times.

That subject is the XTO Energy gas drilling site on the shores of Pappy Elkins Lake in Dalworthington Gardens.

The cover article is titled DRYING UP IN DWG with a sub-title of Water and facts have a way of getting lost in Dalworthington Gardens.

The "facts have a way of getting lost" part of the title and the fact that one key fact was not factual, according to what I saw with my own eyes last month, is a bit ironic.

The drying up referred to in the title is in reference to the claim that Pappy Elkins lake had shrunk from being a lake to being a puddle.

Well.

Friday, June 27 I was in Arlington, walking around Veterans Park. An extremely loud noise was coming from the direction of the XTO Energy site by Pappy Elkins Lake. So, after I was done walking I drove to Pappy Elkins Lake to the site of the XTO Energy site to turn off my engine and listen.

No noise.

And Pappy Elkins Lake looked no different than the first time I saw it way back on Sunday, October 24, 2010.

I assume the heavy rains last month re-filled Pappy Elkins Lake

Many Dalworthington Gardens locals believed the missing water was due to XTO Energy sucking the water out of the lake to frack its well. Well, wells.

The FW Weekly article claims there have been 11 wells drilled at the Pappy Elkins location. How is that even possible? I recollect the original drilling and a followup appearance of the drilling rig, just like what happened when Chesapeake Energy moved into two locations in my neighborhood.

Those who blame XTO Energy for a host of woes, including missing water, formed an organization calling itself Pappy Elkins Restoration Group, aka, PERG.

Among the many things which upset PERG is the apparent fact that when the permission was first granted to poke a hole in the ground beside Pappy Elkins Lake XTO Energy said they would not be asking to use the lake's water. Then after the hole was drilled XTO changed its mind and asked DWG's city government for a water sucking permit, with the expected approval of TCEQ.

Permission was granted to remove 3.2 millions gallons for the first well. By 2010 XTO Energy claims to have used 10.8 million gallons to frack three wells.

I do not do well at math, but if by 2014 there have been 11 wells drilled at this site does this mean that over 33 million gallons of water have been used to do the fracking?

On the left you are looking at the first XTO Energy Pappy Elkins drilling operation, with the tower hovering above the apartment complex to the east of Veterans Park.

I remember when I first saw this I was appalled, because it looked as if this was right amongst the apartments, which is what led me to find out where it actually was. That had me walking through the apartment complex, which had me meeting some upset residents, which I then wrote about in a blogging titled Finding Wildscapes Under A Barnett Shale Drilling Operation In Pappy Elkins Park In Dalworthington Garden.

If you go to the Finding Wildscapes link above you will see what the XTO Energy Pappy Elkins site looked like back in 2010. At that point in time, adjacent to the drilling tower was a Dalworthington Gardens Wildscape garden. That garden is now totally gone, covered over by the XTO operation.

The FW Weekly article makes mention of other things that don't match what I have seen. For instance mention is made of a baseball field and park on the north side of the lake, which the city allowed XTO to take over to install wastewater storage tanks. Back in 2010 I did not notice a baseball field or park and in June I did not notice any storage tanks.

Then again, at that point in time I had no reason to look for storage tanks or a missing baseball field.

I used Google Earth to do a closeup flyover of the site and could not find anything which looked like an old baseball field or storage tanks. I'm not suggesting FW Weekly made a mistake, I'm just saying I never saw these things, just like I never saw the lake looking like a puddle.

Mention is also made of a nearby school. I do not know where that nearby school is. I have not seen it.

In the Fort Worth Weekly article there is absolutely no mention made of the residences closest to the XTO Energy Pappy Elkins drilling operation, that being the apartment complex I previously mentioned.

Why in the world did Dalworthington Gardens allow drilling to take place at this location? No wonder the locals are upset and have PERGed.

11 wells drilled at that location? Can anyone make sense of that for me?

An Arlington Mom Is Not Happy About XTO Energy Causing Her Yard To Bubble and Burp

Last night XanziMom Last made an interesting comment to a blog post from way back in December 18, 2009.

XanziMom Last has left a new comment on your post "A Giant New Barnett Shale Gas Drilling Rig Hovers Over Veterans Park In Arlington": 

If you would like to see the aftermath of this horrific well...check out "Paradise Diminished Arlington, Tx". You can find it on the search engine BING by searching Fracking in Arlington Tx. I ran across it trying to find out why my yard is bubbling and burping when I drain my kids swimming pool.

______________________

You can check out the horrific aftermath to which XanziMom Last refers by going to Paradise Diminished Arlington, Tx.

In addition to XanziMom Last's yard bubbling and burping the horror also has to do with damage done to Pappy Elkins Park in Dalworthington Gardens. The Barnett Shale  Natural Gas Drilling Rig you see in the picture above is the source of the horror. And the damage.

After the initial post about this drilling operation I blogged about it, in various ways in three subsequent bloggings...

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2010
Finding Wildscapes Under A Barnett Shale Drilling Operation In Pappy Elkins Park In Dalworthington Garden

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2011
Was There A Gas Leak Last Night At The XTO Energy Drilling Site In Dalworthington Gardens?

SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2011
An XTO Energy Gas Site Blows Frac While I See My First Tandy Wildflower Of The Year & Contemplate Taking A Trip To TRIP

An XTO Energy Gas Site Blows Frac While I See My First Tandy Wildflower Of The Year & Contemplate Taking A Trip To TRIP

The arrival of the first wildflowers coloring up the Tandy Hills was a good indication today that spring is almost here.

Only 15 days until we can say goodbye to the worst winter I've experienced in all the years of my Texas exile.

Yesterday I blogged about a potential gas leak at an XTO Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drilling Operation next to Pappy Elkins Lake in Dalworthington Gardens.

Today, the source of the potential gas leak information, Kim, followed up with what she's found out about what happened at the XTO site next to a lake and apartments and Veterans Park, in Arlington....

Last night, the Dalworington Gardens XTO site had a failed valve and loudly blew (radioactive?) frac sand all in the air near an apt. complex and never called the incident in to the RRC. Since I called this in (thanks to an email tip), the RRC rep called me back and told me that the choke valve leaked into their cellar and blew frac sand out of the well. XTO shut in the well and made the repair. While there was "wash out" in the area, no chlorides or effluents came off the pad into Pappy Elkins Lake. I do not know if any evacuations of the nearby apartments were attempted.  Also unknown is if any people were exposed to any gas or other effluents that the frac sand was under pressure from. 

On a different incident, the drilling spill at Lake Arlington last summer was reported by the Star Telegram as a small water spill, but a report I received today states that at least 95 barrels of produced water was recovered. The five barrels is what they estimate made its way into the lake which is the drinking source for over 500,000 souls.

My next door Chesapeake Energy drilling site has erupted with loud noises a couple times, loud popping noises. I did not know about the Lake Arlington spill. Lake Arlington is fairly close to my abode.

Change of subject. Back to the Tandy Hills. In the picture we are looking west at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. As you can see it was a bit overcast in the noon time frame. It has since brightened up a bit.

I may be taking a TRIP to the west side of beautiful downtown Fort Worth in a couple hours.

Was There A Gas Leak Last Night At The XTO Energy Drilling Site In Dalworthington Gardens?

I got email this morning about the XTO Energy Barnett Shale Natural Gas drilling site you see in the picture. It is located in Dalworthington Gardens by Pappy Elkins Park and Veterans Park in Arlington.

I have made mention of this drilling operation many times, due to its proximity to an apartment complex and people I've talked to who live in that complex who complained about the noise and pollution.

The email I got this morning was a compilation of email exchanges between various parties which began with the following statement...

"I believe there was some kind of an incident tonight with the gas well in dalworthington gardens (near Arkansas Ln)."

Another emailer in the exchanges spoke with RRC, whatever that is, about the alleged spill, saying...

"Just spoke with RRC and they have the correct site....not a spill (thank goodness cause there is a water body adjacent to that site)...all I know is that there was a gas leak at the DWG XTO site. I'll bring my son to school today after all.  I guess he'll be safe.  Life's a crap shoot these days in the gaspatch? The info I received from a council member for the Pantego site near my son's school is..... "...Frac'g is complete.  Some of the trucks drilled out plugs at the various frac stages. The only issue I heard had to deal with evacuating some frac water from some of the completed wells. When laterals get spaced closed together, sometimes as the shale cracks, frac water migrates to another well lateral so that water has to be pumped out before the well will start producing gas again.  There have been some pressure issues between the distribution pipeline and the well head pressure..."

I think the Pantego site being reference is the one to the northwest of the intersection of Pioneer Parkway and Bowen.

That's really was all the information I was able to glean from this email. Someone thought there was a leak. Someone else said there wasn't. The subject line was "Dalworthington Gardens XTO Gas Leak Last Night." The email was flagged urgent.

Also in the email was an interesting bit of Texas law...

Texas Administrative Code, Title 30,  Part 1, Chapter 101, Subchapter A, Rule 101.4, Environmental Quality, Nuisance

No person shall discharge from any source whatsoever one or more air contaminants or combinations thereof, in such concentration and of such duration as are or may tend to be injurious to or to adversely affect human health or welfare, animal life, vegetation, or property, or as to interfere with the normal use and enjoyment of animal life, vegetation, or property.

The law in Texas can be so ironic. There should be a law against that.

The Overexposed Icy Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Worrying About Natural Gas Dissipating All Over Fort Worth

You are looking at a photo facsimile of the Overexposed Icy Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man, taken around noon today.

I don't know what the technical term for that Shadow photo is. Overexposed? I did not realize, when I was taking pictures today, that the camera was still on the ISO setting that I use to take a picture when it is dark, like the picture, this morning, of the view from my cold window.

I do not know what ISO means. No one will tell me. Not even Google.

I reluctantly agreed to take Big Ed hiking with me to the Tandy Hills today. I usually am not agreeable to that, due to a propensity for incidents that reduce the peacefulness of being in the Tandy Hills Sanatorium.

Big Ed wanted to go hiking today due to too much sitting apparently causing his feet to swell up like an overweight pregnant lady in her 8th month.

Yesterday I saw an odd comment or posting or whatever you call it on Facebook, by Big Ed, something about screaming like a school girl. It really made no sense.

For me the hiking did not go well. Why? I don't know. It started off badly when I tripped on a cable. After that I seemed a bit unstable. So, I sort of cut the hiking short.

I was parked at the top of Mount Tandy.

You can tell when Big Ed approaches due to the loud wheezing and the thumping of his heftiness as he stomps along the trail.

I got myself a big chunk of wood, hid behind a bush and waited for Big Ed to wheeze past on his way up Mount Tandy. When he did I threw the chunk of wood at him. He jumped and let out a scream like one of those school girls he Facebooked about.

As soon as I saw the height of the jump and volume of the scream I regretted not having my camera out and on and in video mode.

On a completely different note. This past week I have speculated as to whether or not my recent respiratory woes might be related to Chesapeake Energy activity at their gas pad across the street from my abode, which they were working on last week.

This morning, in north Fort Worth, an XTO Engergy gas well site was pluming out a big vapor cloud. Fort Worth Firefighters arrived and blocked off the site of the leak, while Fort Worth police routed traffic away from Main Street. I am guessing this leaker is a gas well site due west of the Trinity River, due south of the Fort Worth Stockyards. I recollect being appalled when I saw one going up there whilst pedaling my now stolen bike on the Trinity Trails.

An XTO crew got the leak under control before the fire officials went into evacuation mode.

A spokesman for XTO Energy said the vapor cloud dissipated as soon as the leak was stopped.

Dissipated? As in mixed in with the air we all breathe? Or, for some of us, try to breathe? I prefer my air to be free of dissipated natural gas.