Flower Mound ACTION ALERT

Attention Flower Mound Residents

TOWN COUNCIL MEETING
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, AT 6:00 PM
Town Hall, 2121 Cross Timbers, Flower Mound

AFFECTING OUR FAMILIES, OUR COMMUNITY, AND OUR PROPERTY VALUES

What’s Happening: Williams Drilling has requested a Centralized Collection Facility in Flower Mound. Town Council will vote on whether to add a zoning classification that will allow this to happen at a Special Council Meeting on Thursday, January 21. We need Town Hall to overflow with concerned residents.

A CCF is even more dangerous than the seismic testing on Town streets and rights of way that we were successful in opposing last November. A CCF will start transforming our community from a quiet, residential, family town into a foul-smelling, ugly, unsafe industrialized area. It is unsafe because the Oil & Gas industry is exempt from provisions in the major federal environmental statutes intended to protect human health and the environment including: The Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, Toxic Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and more.

The issue of a Centralized Collection Facility (CCF) has been on the back burner for some time, probably with the drilling company and its supporters hoping that we would get burned out from working against seismic testing, an issue of secondary importance to them, and we would just sit by and let them push this through without opposition. We can’t let that happen. We MUST speak up – in numbers – to protect our homes, our families, and our community.

What is a CCF? A Centralized Collection Facility, or CCF, is a collection of huge, ugly, above-ground tanks that store the enormous quantities of highly toxic wastewater that result from drilling gas wells. If we get a CCF, not only do we get the massive, offensive storage tanks, we will also suffer from the building of pipelines that will go from each drilling site to the CCF.

The current proposal is to create a central point for Williams’ well sites in west Flower Mound (up to 100 wells). But there is nothing to prevent Williams from accepting tie-ins from other sites including other gas companies, creating an even larger industrial area with more pollutants.

Eminent Domain Issue: Williams will have the right to acquire access or create private easements (through purchasing or condemnation) to accommodate these pipes. Three pipes would be involved: 1 for the “go-to-market” gas well production line, 1 for the wastewater line, and 1 for the gas lift line (injected to stimulate the well and separate the gas from the water). This easement would be 30 feet or more in width and only required to be 3 feet deep. Just keep in mind two things: The owners of the easement have the right to enter the property where they own the easement at any time. Once there is an easement you cannot build on the easement.

Even more pipelines are being planned to carry the toxic wastewater from the CCF to an injection disposal well that has been proposed for Argyle. This well goes right through the water table feeding to Grapevine Lake.

More Info:
- We know of 4 adults and 5 children here in Flower Mound that have Leukemia, a rare blood cancer.
- One thing known to cause leukemia is benzene, which is used in the fracing fluids and has been found in the air near some gas wells here in Denton County.
- The Texas Department of State Health Services is looking into the possibility of a cancer cluster in the 75022 and 75028 zip codes.
- For more on this and other gas drilling issues in Flower Mound, go to: stopthedrilling.blogspot.com

Protect your family, your property values, and your community!
Come to the Town Council Meeting on Thursday, January 21st!

Wear green to show your support for maintaining our quality of life in Flower Mound.