Monday, January 6, 2014

The Frack Man Cometh


Tonight is fracking eve. The morning of Jan. 7th marks the beginning of fracking at the three wells on two pad sites near Vintage and S. Bonnie. Some homes in that neighborhood are within 250 feet, many others are far closer to the sites than our new setback requirement of 1,200 feet. I’ve pasted at the bottom of this post the letter that these Denton residents received from EagleRidge Energy. Here is a shot of them moving in their equipment and supplies.



This is clearly a situation that should not have happened. It should never happen again…but unless something drastic changes it will happen again and again. Residents there have already experienced nuisances and illnesses from the drilling. Many of them have kept their children indoors out of concern about the air quality. Some kids didn’t get to go trick or treating in their own neighborhood. At least one family has already moved out of the neighborhood. And others are concerned about the decreases they are likely to see in their property values.
Now that the fracking is coming, I know of at least two families with newborn babies that are evacuating their homes for the six weeks EagleRidge claims their operations will take.
Sleepless nights. Sick children. Families chased from their own homes. This is what Denton looks like on fracking.
It’s a sad day for that neighborhood. And it’s a sad day for our local democracy…it is a reminder that somehow we failed in our basic task of ordering the parts of our community into fitting relationships.
 
 
 

17 comments:

  1. cant read the letter

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  2. right click save as

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  3. I guess you missed the article in the paper about the increase in home values in Denton County?

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    1. The DRC site's search engine is terrible.

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    2. I've heard home values decreased in the areas with the most drilling...will look into this more. Also hear there is a story forthcoming soon about this..Can't imagine having a well nearby would actually contribute to an increase in home value.

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    3. South Denton is mentioned in the article as being especially hot! Aren't the Vintage, Acme & Ryan Road wells in South Denton?

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    4. Indeed, they are...but what can we draw from this? I doubt very seriously that it means drilling has no negative impact on home values. The larger picture is that this is a rapidly growing area and homebuyers are not informed of existing and probable future padsites. If you'd speak with the people in this neighborhood you'd know that they had no idea this was coming, many would not have purchased their homes had they known...so it seems to me that people don't want to live close to wells, which would drive property values down.

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  4. http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/local-news-headlines/20140104-serious-sellers-market-in-denton-county.ece

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  5. When people don't know or understand what is going on...then, of course, property values won't suffer that much. There are lots of ways to "hide" these drilling sites from potential buyers ~ especially when they are inactive at the point of purchase. As more and more people get informed, then property values will plummet. And why would any responsible city or realtor not work to inform people about the issues regarding their home purchase? Good grief.

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    1. Show me an example of a person who has successfully gotten their appraised value in the City of Denton reduced because of gas drilling. Tim Ruggierio had his reduced in Wise County, but I think this is the exception & not the rule.

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    2. Obviously "Ben" is PRO Fracking...

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    3. For Ben: We know that if you you call your county appraisal district and mention that gas drilling is nearby your taxes are going to be lowered. You may not know it, Ben, but we do because we know many who have made that call. If more called, more would see their taxes lowered and the property values affected as well, too. Maybe you just don't know everything that's going on, Ben. And people are not going to go around bragging about it or even mentioning it.

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    4. For every property tax bill that is lowered I can show you ten that have gone up because of mineral values!

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    5. assuming they own the minerals, you mean?

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  6. No, I mean for every person you claim has gotten their property tax bill reduced I can show you another person's tax bill that increased because of the increased value of their minerals. Somehow I can show you articles with data proving my point but all you can show me is vague comments about certain areas of town being affected & mysterious phone calls to DCAD where you can get your taxes reduced just by mentioning gas drilling!

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  7. It's always so funny to read someone who writes with bold vagueness criticize others for their vagueness . . . .

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