Barnett Shale

Nelson calls for Flower Mound air monitor

State Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, wrote a letter to the head of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Tuesday urging him to place an air monitor in her home town.

“Flower Mound, located in the heart of the Barnett Shale, would be an ideal site for such a station,” Nelson wrote in a letter to TCEQ Executive Director Mark Vickery. “Residents have taken a strong interest in the impact natural gas drilling is having on our economy, our environment and, most importantly, our health.”

Vickery has said the agency will install three new full-time air monitors in the Barnett Shale region by the end of the summer. The only such monitors are in northwest Fort Worth and near Eagle Mountain Lake.

Flower Mound’s Town Council recently approved moratoriums on any new gas drilling activity for the summer while it reviews its drilling ordinance.

On Monday, state Rep. Marc Veasey and state Sen. Wendy Davis, both Fort Worth Democrats, wrote Vickery requesting he install an air monitor in Southeast Fort Worth.

You can read Nelson's full letter here.

-Aman Batheja

Driller sues Flower Mound over drilling ordinance

Red Oak Gas sued the city after the Oil and Gas Board of Appeals denied variances the driller sought for a well site , the Town of Flower Mound reported. Red Oak Gas asked for 15 variances from the city's 1,000-foot minimum setback provision. A copy of the Flower Mound Leader's story is here. And read an earlier account of an Oil and Gas Board of Appeals meeting here.

Flower Mound said it has until July 21 to file a response to Red Oaks' June 27 filing in state district court. Town Council will meet July 17 in executive session to consider responses, the city said in a news release. "The Town Council has consistently been supportive of Flower Mound's current oil and gas well drilling ordinance, which attempts to balance the rights of mineral owners and the health, safety and welfare of the community," Mayor Jody A. Smith said in the release.

-- Jim Fuquay

It's getting heated when the fire marshal shows up

You know the meeting is packed when the fire marshal gives emergency exit tips, just in case. Such was apparently the case recently, when the Flower Mound Oil and Gas Board of Appeals met to discuss one company's petition to begin drilling. According to the Flower Mound Leader (click here to read its story on the hearing), more than 100 residents showed up for the meeting.

"We're not against gas drilling," Becky Belcher, president of Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling, told the board, according to the Leader."We would be hypocritical if we were. We just don't want it done in a high-density area."

The board decided to take the issue up again at its Aprtl 9 meeting, the Leader said.

Click here to read Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling's blog.

Click here to read the Town of Flower Mound's gas drilling ordinance.

-- Scott Nishimura

(Image: Jupiter Images)

Flower Mound neighborhoods get offers

Residents of several subdivisions of Flower Mound, including Lake Forest Estates, Oaks of Flower Mound, Wellington and others are entertaining mineral rights lease offers from Cherokee Horn Production.

The offer is for $2,500 per acre and a royalty of 20 percent after numberous production deductions, according to residents.

Residents plan organizational meetings and hope to get offers from other companies, including Williams Energy, which they say is operating nearby with more lucrative terms.

Meanwhile, residents are flaming the current offers on a discussion group at: FMMRG@yahoogroups.com

Stay tuned.....

-- Bill Bowen

(Photo: Flower Mound's Tour 18 golf course)