August 14, 2012
Oil field fight a real battle
Barry Porterfield Pauls Valley Daily Democrat
Pauls Valley, Oklahoma — The battle is more bruising than ever for a group of Pauls Valley area landowners fighting an oil field disposal operation being proposed at a site near their properties.
That looks to be the case even though a ruling came down Monday not in favor of these opponents of the commercial disposal site being proposed just east of PV.
What the landowners fear is the possible contamination of groundwater from the site sought by CAVU Energy Services.
For now a hearing on the company’s permit application is set to go as scheduled next week, specifically Aug. 22, unless an appeal is sought on this week’s ruling related to public notice.
It was that ruling from an associate law judge with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission which concluded CAVU’s legal notice published in newspapers like the Pauls Valley Democrat was sufficient public notification of the upcoming hearing on the merits of the case.
“They did everything they had to do according to Commission rules,” said Carol Price Dillingham, an assistant district attorney from Norman, referring to the company’s public notice.
She is in this case representing District 3 Garvin County Commissioner Johnny Mann, who along with Joe Menefee and Ian Ogilvie are the three main protestants in the case.
“You’ve got to play the game,” Mann said Monday after hearing the ruling.
“We got the short end of the stick, but we’re not done,” he said. “We’ll take it as far as we can take it.”
Dillingham said she will review the 20-page document and then consider any possible options for an appeal to the ruling. A five-day period is allowed for this process, she said.
Menefee and others have contended the proper notice for the hearing in the case had not been properly given to the more than 1,300 people who signed a petition opposing CAVU's permit application for the disposal site.
“For 1,342 people to sign this petition and have an interest in this and not get notified is incomprehensible,” Menefee said.
From the beginning this past spring the opposition's main concern is over what they claim is the potential threat to groundwater in the area from this proposed site, along with a nearby non-commercial saltwater disposal well also being sought by CAVU.
For Menefee the risks are simply too great to ignore.
“Everybody that's looked at this is convinced there will be contamination ultimately,” Menefee said, referring specifically to the commercial site. “They see problems with it as it's designed.
“We've got serious concerns about all kinds of contamination. There's no good that will come from what they want to do,” he said.
“For the sake of the environment this has got to be stopped. That's the whole nutshell of all this.”
It has also been Menefee's claim from the beginning of the fight that he won't stop in his opposition to the proposed disposal well.
“We don't intend to quit. I'm not going to give up on this issue,” he said.
“There's too much at stake for residents and for our county.”
AI
