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Argyle - Bartonville Communites Alliance
Argyle, TX 76226

Friday, May 14, 2010

Construction of Whitehead well - Near Argyle Intermediate School

Why is there construction equipment at Old Justin Rd. and Front St.?
Construction is beginning on the Whitehead natural gas pad site. There will be 24 wells at this location. One of the concerns was traffic safety. A couple of people addressed this with the school board and town council in March.  The town council voted to approve the wells ( and the Jenkins site, 12 wells behind AIS) but said they would form a group to look at the problem. Here is what has been done...  

Representatives from Hillwood Oil and Gas Operating Company, the Union Pacific Railroad, Argyle I.S.D., the Town of Argyle, and the Argyle Police Department met at Argyle Town Hall for the initial meeting of the Hillwood/Whitehead Gas Well Safety Committee. All representatives at the meeting discussed various traffic safety issues and agreed on enforcing a number of safety standards. The safety issues centered around the ingress and egress proposed by Hillwood during the town permitting process. Hillwood will use Old Justin Rd. and 377 and line up the entrance to the site at Front Street.  The concern was with added school and train traffic this intersection could become very dangerous. The task force has addressed many issues and here are some of the results:

  • UPRR(Union Pacific) will have a person on site
  • Hillwood will have off duty police officers at 377 and Front St. when their trucks exceed 10 per day
  • Hillwood will stage at another site to avoid overloading 377
  • When material hauling begins- will have an off duty officers to assist with traffic and a flagger present
  • Hillwood will have restricted times  ( 2:30 - 4:30pm) in which they can move equipment in and out 

5 comments:

  1. that's all fine and dandy but what about the "earthquakes", the air emissions and the leakage from fracking around so many young children? What has the task force done, said or found out about that? I hope Hillwood has good insurance. Oh, did they address the possibility of explosions? And drinking water contamination?

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  2. Interesting fact: The Argyle School Board has this on the agenda for May 17th, 6:00 meeting- Consider approval of amended mineral lease from Hillwood Oil and Gas resulting in additional $20,000. to AISD -
    Consider approval of easement document from Hillwood Oil and Gas

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  3. This is not interesting it is incredibly frightening. Please Post where the meeting will be and whether or not I have to put in a request to speak to the board.

    Hillwood Oil and Gas is owned by Ross Perot, JR. They own 17000 acres on the Barnett Shale. I wrote an email and will follow up with snail mail. I recommend everyone else do the same:
    alliance@hillwood.com
    snail mail:
    Ross Perot, JR
    PO BOX 269005
    Plano, TX 75026
    I asked to disclose all chemicals they were going to use, I asked them not to emit any chemicals in the air or ground. I asked if he would like his 10 year old at that school. I asked them to watch "Gasland". Be the change you want in the world. Please take a minute, or two.

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  4. Yea, maybe more money than that so when our children get sick we have money for a class action suit.

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  5. How much of the $20,000 will AISD get to keep? Is $20,000 the going price for endangering the lives & safety of our children? Another example of profit over people. I would like to see a public accounting of the signing bonus and royalty monies taken in by AISD & complete disclosure of how much the district gets to keep versus how much of this money that is turned over to the state for other districts that are not considered rich districts.

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