Survey Shows Feelings Mixed on Gas Drilling

By Jim Fuquay, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Nov. 17–Residents of Johnson and Wise counties view natural gas development as a net positive for their communities but are dissatisfied with a number of issues relating to quality of life, more so in Wise than Johnson, a new study by a Sam Houston State University professor concludes.

Rural sociology professor Gene Theodori said he selected the two counties to see how attitudes might change over time as petroleum development matures. Wise County has experienced oil and gas drilling for decades, while activity in Johnson County only dates to the start of the decade.

Responses collected in mid-2006 from about 300 people in each county indicate that nearly 9 out of 10 residents agreed that natural gas development has become important to each county’s economy. And majorities in each county also agreed that the benefits of natural gas development outweigh the costs, although in Wise County only 55 percent endorsed that view, compared with 61 percent in Johnson County.

But residents also want to see the industry adhere to more environmentally friendly drilling practices and make more data available to the public. Majorities agreed that "too little attention is being paid to the social costs of natural gas development" and that "natural gas operators are drilling and producing too close to homes and businesses."

Theodori said he was surprised at some of the strong opinions his survey elicited, including a number of phone calls demanding to know whether he was working for a particular interest group. He said he is simply an independent college professor conducting a study, which was funded by a grant made under the federal Renewable Resources Extension Act.

Joe Lambert, mayor of Decatur, the county seat of Wise County, said he thinks the survey largely reflects attitudes he has encountered in his six years in office.

"It’s sort of a blessing and a curse," Lambert said of oil and gas development. "It fuels the economy, and you’ve got a lot of jobs and the additional taxes it brings in. But the downside to all that is they’re tearing up the roads. People feel that fracturing the wells takes so much water that it’s sucking the groundwater dry in some places. And these disposal wells, there’s all sorts of upheaval."

Johnson County Judge Roger Harmon said traffic and noise are major issues in his jurisdiction. And Cleburne Mayor Ted Reynolds cited water consumption as the No. 1 concern among his constituents.

Harmon said the county has added two employees to boost enforcement of weight and safety inspections on county roads.

When there is obvious damage to a road caused by a water truck or other service vehicles, he said, the operators are voluntarily paying for repairs.

A spokesman for Devon Energy, the biggest operator in the Barnett Shale, said he couldn’t respond to each point in the survey but said the company works hard to communicate with its communities, contributes money to help meet local needs and mitigates road damage it causes. He noted that the company this summer gave $50,000 to each of Hood, Johnson and Parker counties to help repair roads and bridges damaged by spring flooding.

Lambert said Devon, which has especially large operations in and around Bridgeport in Wise County, "is a good corporate neighbor. Most of the companies, they try to do the right thing." But because Texas law gives mineral rights owners dominance over surface owners, he said, the industry "has the upper hand," and that colors people’s perceptions of its power and its impact.

The three elected officials were mystified, however, by one of the survey’s results. Roughly 80 percent of Wise County respondents and 70 percent of Johnson County respondents said high tax rates were either a serious or moderate problem. That was unexpected, the officials said, because tax rates have been cut the past two years, mostly owing to increased natural gas revenues.

"We have decreased our property taxes with the two biggest decreases in our history," Reynolds said.

The two-term mayor suggested that "no matter what you do, they feel taxes are too high."

Lambert said Decatur just raised the city’s tax rate about 4 cents, but Wise County cut its tax rate.

Residents also complained about a paucity of public information about natural gas drilling and production. Only 16 percent in Johnson County and 17 percent in Wise County said they had attended a meeting to learn more about the industry.

Ed Ireland, head of the newly created Barnett Shale Energy Education Council ( www.bseec.org), said that’s one reason the industry-funded group was launched. He said the industry "is trying to do things that make the impact as minimal as possible, such as pilot programs to recycle drilling fluid to reduce water use."

He also questioned whether respondents "know the basis for providing an answer" on some questions, such as water pollution.

In Wise County, 54 percent of respondents said natural gas development was making water pollution worse, as did 31 percent in Johnson County.

Reynolds said it is easier to see negative impacts than positive impacts. Traffic in town is obvious, he said, but "you don’t see the royalty money used to build parks or rebuild roads or a new fire station."

Even with the negatives, Lambert said, Wise County and Decatur are beneficiaries of natural gas production. He said his city has gained a new 99-bed hospital and a new cancer center, and built a new high school.

The Decatur native said he left the city in 1961 because there was no reason for a young graduate to stay. If the town was growing then the way it is now, he said, "I’d never have left."

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jfuquay@star-telegram.com JIM FUQUAY, 817-390-7552

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