Until 2006, Fort Worth had a 600-foot limit between gas wells and "protected land uses" -- homes, churches, parks schools and hospitals, Assistant City Attorney Sarah Fullenwider said. Companies could drill closer if they got a waiver from the council, but only a few were granted.
The city was considering lowering the limit to 300 feet in 2006. But a fatal gas well accident happened in Forest Hill, just outside Fort Worth, in April 2006, just as a city task force was debating the new limit. Four days after the accident, Mayor Mike Moncrief called for a 600-foot limit. Moncrief and others have since said they were discussing the extended limit even before the accident.
As a compromise, the city allowed companies to drill within 200 feet of protected land uses -- if they got written waivers from all the landowners within 600 feet of the wellhead or permission from the council.
A sampling of other Tarrant County cities found that some, including Bedford and Richland Hills, don't allow waivers from their distance limits. North Richland Hills requires drillers who want a waiver to go before an appeals board. Arlington and Hurst allow variances from their distance setbacks, but they have to be approved by the City Council. Euless does the same, but requires a supermajority vote from the City Council.
Waiver problems
Neighborhood groups didn't like the waiver system from the beginning. They've said that it allows companies to essentially buy their way to a permit, and that it puts neighborhoods at the mercy of absentee landowners.
That's the case on Scott Avenue in east Fort Worth, where Chesapeake has applied for a permit to drill next to the Tandy Hills Nature Center, according to nearby resident Mike Phipps. Chesapeake has received a waiver from one landowner at the end of the street, the only one within the distance limit. But the trucks serving the drill site will affect every resident for three blocks.
Jim Bradbury, a lawyer who sits on the Fort Worth gas drilling task force, said at a recent meeting there's another flaw in the waiver system. The ordinance doesn't classify apartments as homes. So when Chesapeake asked for a permit last month to drill a high-impact well on Oak Grove Road, the company had to get permission from the City Council, because of the site's proximity to an undeveloped park. But the dozens of apartments just across the street from the site weren't taken into account until Councilwoman Kathleen Hicks asked about them.
The proposed well site is on a large vacant tract; the City Council delayed a vote on the permit to give Chesapeake time to see if there's a way to reposition the well, farther away from the apartments.
'Much to lose'
Proponents say high-impact permits are going to become more common, if people are to receive the money they expect from their mineral rights. And the gas companies have invested millions of dollars in setting up those leases.
