Link to Sierra Lone Star Chapter information about the RRC
http://sierraclub.org/texas/blog/2016/07/train-leaving-station-texas-railroad-commission-again
RRC PERMITS OPEN PIT OIL AND GAS WASTE SITES NEAR TOWNS, SCHOOLS AND GAS PIPELINES
Now that the “bust” part of the cycle is here for oil/gas production and oil/gas prices, waste disposal companies are aggressively pursuing obtaining permits for open pit waste disposal sites. For example, the Dec. 15, 2015, issue of San Antonio Business Journal reports that George Wommack, CEO of Petro Waste Environmental, confirms that his company is doing this and that his company plans to put one of its facilities within 30 miles of all drilling activity throughout the Eagle Ford Shale and the Permain Basin.
One of the proposed Petro Waste facilities near Nordheim (population 307) in DeWitt County would be approximately 200 acres in size (half the size of the Nordheim town site), and its boundary would be less than one-half mile from the public school and about one-fourth mile from the city limits. Its location would frequently place the entire town site and school within prevailing winds spreading toxic fumes over the area. (Sierrans and many other Texas citizens know how oil/gas hazardous waste products came to be officially classified as ”non-hazardous.”)
Equally or more worrisome is the fact that the proposed waste facility would be built over an active natural gas pipeline. Petro’s CEO, George Wommack, explained in a March 18, 2016, report on San Antonio’s WOAI Channel 4 TV that construction over a pipeline is a normal occurrence. In a letter to the RRC dated Feb. 11th, Southcross Energy made it known that despite the fact that as owners of the pipeline they are a potentially affected entity, they were never notified of the permit application for the waste facility.
Moreover, the RRC said, in the WOAI report, the pipeline was taken into account in the proposed site plans, and Wommack claimed that it would have been premature to have notified the pipeline previously, even though he has been working for three years to get the permit approved.
RRC hearings have been held, and this permit has been approved despite the fact that residents of Nordheim and nearby areas have organized a group, Concerned About Pollution, (CAP) and fought against the issuing of the permit for three years. They have hired expert environmental engineers who testified at the hearings as well as attorneys from the Austin Environmental Law Firm – Frederick, Perales, Allmon, & Rockwell. (Additionally, the Nordheim saga has received nationwide publicity in Scientific American, The New York Times, Texas Observer, NPR, and numerous other sources.)
Because Nordheim is just one example of what is likely to come in this arena, it is hoped that the Lone Star Sierra ExCom may find a way to turn this protest into a statewide movement through some sort of environmental coalition so that many other small Texas towns may be spared becoming collateral damage of the sort which Nordheim is facing.
Venice Scheurich
Conservation Chair of the Coastal Bend Sierra Group