American Energy Production Inc(fka AENP)

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A fracing concern

Some wonder if area drilling will run lakes dry while others question if drillers pay their fair water share

Jerry Ambrose
Mineral Wells Index

LAKE PALO PINTO – Concerned lakeside residents are contacting authorities – and the Index – about water tankers lined up nose to tail, waiting to take on loads at the Gordon boat ramp.

One caller claimed, “They’re going to suck the lake dry at this rate.”

High water usage demanded by booming natural gas play is beginning to unnerve some people – especially during a period of drought when lawns are turning brown and hay is being imported from faraway states.

Loaded tankers head out for area wells where over 1 million gallons of water – sometimes easily as much as 4 million gallons – are needed for each well to fracture hard Barnett Shale formations deep in the ground and release natural gas trapped there.

North Texas highways are thick with water tanker trucks day and night – a sign of the current methodology for extracting natural gas in the region. Due to weight restrictions, each tanker is limited to 5,000 gallons, so it adds up to a lot of visible truck traffic at the boat ramp resulting in some public concern.

Palo Pinto Water District officials claim the water tankers have generated about $10,000 in revenue so far this fiscal year – revenue that will go a long way towards paying pumping and water plant operating costs. PPWD Secretary Scott Blasor said each drilling company permitted to draw water from the lake pays $2.89 per 1,000 gallons for raw, untreated lake water – currently the same rate Mineral Wells residents pay for treated water piped to their homes.

Blasor said five companies have been permitted to draw water from the lake so far. The permits are verbal. The companies tell Blasor how many 5,000-gallon tanker-loads they’ll draw, and he bills them. A recent payment was $5,462 for 1.9 million gallons of water, he said.

There are no meters involved at the lake or any PPWD employees monitoring activity there. He said, “It’s an honor system. These are reputable companies. We do background checks.”

Blasor notifies the Palo Pinto County Sheriff’s Office with the names of companies that are permitted to draw water. He said the procedure has been in effect for several months.

Sheriff Ira Mercer said his deputies have “run off several tankers” that shouldn’t have been there but added there is no policy or procedure presented to his office by PPWD to guard the lake full time against infringement. He acknowledged manpower availability would be an issue if asked to do so.

PPWD officials feel not allowing drilling companies to draw water from the lake would be passing on a good revenue source because the water would be lost anyway. The lake loses millions of gallons of water per day due to natural evaporation. For example, on Aug. 15 – based on ambient temperature, wind and humidity levels – Lake Palo Pinto was evaporating away at a rate of 20 million gallons of water per day.

By comparison, the city pumps about 8 million gallons of water per day from Palo Pinto Creek downstream from the lake. Some of this volume is lost each day to filter backwashing and natural evaporation, said Public Works Director Bobby Baker.

Lake Mineral Wells State Park officials recently turned down an offer by a drilling company to buy 4 million gallons of raw water because its reservoir is below conservation level. Instead, the company will probably buy treated water from the City of Mineral Wells from a metered tap in Wolters Industrial Park.

Blasor – who also serves as City Finance Manager – said several drilling companies are permitted by previous arrangement to draw treated water at $2.89 per 1,000 gallons from five specially metered taps within city limits. He said this is a long-standing policy.

City Manager Lance Howerton, “In previous discussions with these companies about selling water, we’ve been clear that we’d continue to sell until Stage 1 conservation levels are in effect.

“If and when the water district concludes it is undesirable to sell raw water from the lake or treated water from city meters, we’ll certainly curtail those sales. Our primary purpose is to provide drinking water.”

Stage 1 kicks in when Lake Palo Pinto falls to 860 feet above sea level. The lake level stood at 861.3 feet on Aug. 21. If current dry weather conditions persist, Stage 1 water conservation could be a reality before the end of September, according to some sources.



What is ‘fracing’?

Hydraulic fracturing – “fracing” (pronounced FRACK-ing) – is a technique in which water and sand slurry is pumped into a gas well under high pressure to fracture a geologic formation like the hard Barnett Shale beneath North Texas.

The pressurized slurry fractures pathways in the shale allowing natural gas flow to the well. Developed in the U.S. over the last 10 years, the practice is used to reach natural gas otherwise unrecoverable by other means.

Hydraulic fracturing is currently used in gas fields in Alabama, Wyoming, and Colorado as well as Texas. Gas field developers contract the costly specialized operation to service companies such as BJ Services, Schlumberger and Halliburton.

The operation usually can be done in a day. The technique – developed in the Barnett Shale in Wise and Denton counties around 1998 by Mitchell Energy Company (now Devon Energy) – costs from $30,000 to over $1 million depending geologic factors of the well.

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