There has been a frenzy of drilling activity around Fort Worth since the price of oil became high enough to make it economically viable to extract gas from the Barnett Shale, which may be the biggest natural gas field in the U.S.
For the past few years, most of the drilling has been in rural areas, but now they’re starting to drill in the heart of Fort Worth. Energy companies are buying gas rights from homeowners in some of Fort Worth’s oldest neighborhoods, including mine. I signed a contract myself and got a nice check from Big Oil (if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?). But maybe I should have thought about that a little more.
The problem is this: To get to the gas under these homes, they have to build unsightly, noisy, and environmentally unfriendly drilling sites nearby. One of the proposed sites is smack dab in the middle of the most beautiful section of the Trinity Trail, where lots of people run, ride bikes, and have picnics. The picture above is the section I’m talking about. They would clear-cut those trees and put in a 2.5 acre drilling site with diesel engines running 24/7 and a constant stream of semi truck traffic.
I had heard about this project before (Ben posted about it several weeks ago) but I didn’t realize just how insane it is. How could anyone even think about doing this? Just north of the proposed site is a ton of land owned by the railroad that is already cleared and is a bit further from the river and trails.
Luckily, some folks have organized to fight this project. For our part, ThinkCash is making a donation to the Trinity Trees organization. Please help spread the word.
[...] in some of our most historic neighborhoods. Of course this involves big, ugly, loud machinery, clear-cutting of old growth trees, hundreds of trucks, and pollution of our air, water, and soil. Wells will be drilled right next [...]