Denton CO (TX) Residents Discover Limits To Property Rights (Theirs) When Gas Drilling Begins

[hatrack]

EDIT

For more than 100 years, the relationship between Texas landowners and the energy companies had been cordial. Even though both pay the same taxes, Texas laws have always favored the mineral interest over the surface, particularly when the property rights are severed. But the Barnett Shale’s urban drilling paradigm has wrought a Texas-sized culture clash over the rights of property owners, their neighbors and corporations. “Where do you draw the line?” McMurray said in an interview. “That’s being debated around kitchen tables all around the Barnett Shale.”

And all around its government board rooms. For want of better regulation, cities have been drawing lots of lines, in part because the Texas Railroad Commission persists in saying it satisfies its duty to the public interest by conserving the state’s oil and gas resources. After well explosions in Brad in 2005 and Forest Hill in 2006, some cities increased their “setback rules.” Many required somewhere between 300 and 600 feet between wells and homes or other buildings. Some city councils, otherwise poised to require longer distances, buckled as mineral owners threatened to sue for taking their property rights. But several cities upped the requirement to 1,000 feet between a well and a home or building — 250 feet more than the width of the burning crater in Brad.

As other issues emerged — crushed roads and collapsed bridges; roaring compressors and obnoxious fumes; multiple, redundant pipelines that rendered prime, developable property useless — cities sought more rules to protect the health, safety and welfare of their residents.

After workers began moving dirt behind their homes on Britt Drive between Denton and Argyle, Jana DeGrand and Jennifer Cole quickly learned that the railroad commission would offer them little help. The commission has no setback requirement (I). City setback rules don’t apply in unincorporated areas like Briarcreek Estates, the subdivision where the two families call home. In fact, the well pad site, now known as Whitespot for landowners Steve and Vanessa White, would be illegal in both Denton and Argyle without affected landowners’ permission because the Coles’ home is within 250 feet. Outside city limits, people are generally at the drillers’ mercy — a discovery that incensed the Briarcreek neighbors. “Our lives and our safety are not any less valuable because we don’t live in a corporate limit,” Jana DeGrand said.

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http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_Behind_the_Shale_3_1230.1d7804fb.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Sounds like Texas...

Is about to undergo a little paradigm shift in thinking.

[izquierdista]

2. All I can say is.....

You wanted to move to that gated development outside the city limits because the taxes were lower. Now you know why.