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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGBA 2010-04-08 Minutes MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE GAS BOARD OF APPEALS OF THE CITY OF NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, TEXAS APRIL 8, 2010 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chairman Tom Duer at 6:30 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL PRESENT Chairman CITY STAFF Director of Planning & Dev Asst Chief Fire Marshal Recording Secretary Tom Duer Randy Shiflet Garry Cope Marty Kusmierski Kathy Luppy John Pitstick Mike Rawson Lt. Greg Lindsey Gina Pastre 3. Approval of March 11, 2010 Gas Board of Appeals Meeting Minutes. APPROVED Randy Shiflet, seconded by Garry Cope, motioned to approve the minutes from March 11,2010. The motion carried unanimously (5-0). 4. GB 2010-02 Public hearing and consideration of a request from Chesapeake Energy Corporation for a deviation from distance requirements from existing structures to gas wellheads at the proposed Engler-Mann 2H gas well located at 7300 Mid Cities Boulevard. Distance requirements are established in Section 104-6 of the City of North Richland Hills Code of Ordinances. John Pitstick said representatives from Chesapeake Energy are present. If you have any questions you can hear from them and other members of the audience. Our first request GB 2010-02 is a public hearing to consider distance requirements. Our community standard is 600 feet from the well hole from any habitable structure. There is an appeal today for distance from the Engler site. Page 1 of 6; 04/08/2010 GBA minutes This is a new gas well site that Chesapeake has made application. Staff is still reviewing the application and they have to get their appeal approved through the Gas Board of Appeals. There are 4 houses across the railroad tracks on the southeast corner of Mid Cities and Iron Horse. This is the flood plain property and they normally have crops growing there. Agricultural and we are reviewing their case. They are required to initially make application and if they have any structures within 600 feet they have to come before you for an appeal. We sent a notice to all property owners within 600 feet. The structures are between 464 feet and 577 feet from the well. The ordinance requires notification for all property owners within 600 feet and a public hearing for all properties between 300 and 600 feet. If any of these structures were within 300 feet than that would require a formal letter from those property owners for permission to drill. No drilling is allowed within 150 feet of the gas well. The pad site is on the backside against the railroad tracks. There is also a temporary frac pond that will be built to the west of the gas well location. The pad site will be there for several years and they plan to drill 4 initial wells at this site. This is only application for one well. At the completion of the first well a masonary enclosure will be required with landscaping. The property owner has indicated that he would potentially pad these sites off for potential garden office in the front. Right now it is zoned Agricultural and they are not requesting a zoning change. Tom Duer asked if the railroad commission has any restrictions how close the drilling can occur to their easement? John Pitstick said 150 feet. Scott Castaneda, 100 Energy Way, Fort Worth, TX 76102 came forward representing Chesapeake Energy. Good Evening board members and city staff. I come before you seeking one well permit on the Engler pad site. I will cover the Engler site overview, transportation route, community participation and outreach and any questions that you may have. The Engler pad site is a private property located at 7300 Mid Cities Blvd with an entrance to the site from Iron Horse Blvd. We are seeking one well permit the Engler-Mann 2H to be drilled in the Engler-Mann unit with an anticipated drill start date of June 2010. The plans include drilling up to 4 wells for this particular unit and it does have the potential to produce minerals for 240 acres of which 30 acres are leased by The City of North Richland Hills. It does have the potential to reach 700 residents and businesses. There are 4 protected use structures within the 600 feet and we did hand deliver letters to those properties. We do have a couple residents from that area here tonight. This is the transportation route and it is an approved route which takes us from Loop 820 north to Rufe Snow and east on Mid Cities Blvd., right on Iron Horse Blvd and onto the pad site. At this time I would like to discuss a couple of items that were brought up while I was visiting with the residents. They had a couple concerns regarding sound. Chesapeake with install sound barrier walls or sound blankets to mitigate sound and ensure that we Page 2 of 6; 04!08/2010 GBA minutes ,,t are within the ordinance on sound levels. The other item was landscaping and fencing. Per city ordinance 90 days after the first well is frac we will be required to install landscaping and irrigation and masonary walls to screen the site from view. The construction plans have all the landscaping and walls already included. The third issue was lighting. All lights will be pointed downward toward the site. Also we have performed photometric analysis and we will be in compliance with the cities light ordinance. The lights that you will see will not be any brighter than normal lighting in the city. The last concern that was raised was dust. We are required to provide a dust inhibitor on the site. It is a substance that is applied to the rock based material that hardens the rock into concrete. A concrete access approach is required to be installed 90 days after the first well is fracked. Dust will be controlled. We have provided the update on pad activity and drilling information this month. We also provide online updates at Chesapeake.com under the neighborhood center. Drilling in North Richland Hills has also allowed us to support community events such as Nights of Holiday Magic,social transportation for seniors, The 4 of July celebration and several neighborhood initiatives. We also plan to continue to keep an open line of communication with the neighborhoods. In conclusion Chesapeake is asking North Richland Hills Gas Board of Appeals to approve a gas well permit for the Engler-Mann 2H. Approval to drill the Engler pad site would allow for production of minerals for about 700 residents and businesses. The 4 planned wells for this site have a potential to bring in overall economic impact that could be 48 million dollars including 8 million in royalties to mineral land owners and 1.1 million in increased tax revenue for The City of North Richland Hills. At this time I would be happy to answer any of your questions. Marty Kusmierski asked if any of the residents objected to the wells? Mr. Castaneda said no. There were some concerns and some of those residents are also here this evening. Tom Duer asked what percentage of those landowners were under contract now? Mr. Castaneda said that minerals have been leased by all 4. John Pitstick said that we aren't afraid to enforce the ordinance in regards to sound and make them put sound blankets up. We are still reviewing these permits and this is one step in approving their permit. Public Hearing Opened 6:41 p.m. No one in the audience spoke for or against GB2010-02. Public Hearing Closed 6:41 p.m. APPROVED Page 3 of 6; 04/08/2010 GBA minutes Randy Shiflet, seconded by Garry Cope motioned to approve GB 2010-02. Motion was carried unanimously (5-OJ. 5. GB2010-03 Public hearing and consideration of a request from Chesapeake Energy Corporation for a deviation from distance requirements from existing structures to gas wellheads at the proposed Morrow-Stevens A 2H, A 4H, B 2H, 1 4H, and West 1H gas wells located at 9201 Kirk Lane. Distance requirements are established in Section 104-6 of the City of North Richland Hills Code of Ordinances. John Pitstick said this is a request for 5 additional wells at the Morrow-Stephens site. This is an established site and has an existing masonary wall and landscape buffer. There are several wells that have already drilled in that area. We encouraged Chesapeake as they established those wells to drill those sites out as quickly as possible. They are now requesting to drill 5 wells at that location. You can see that there has been a residential development to the north of the site. There are 3 existing homes and a barn that are within the 600 feet. They fall between 452 and 586 feet from the proposed wells. At this location they are using the existing tank for the fracturing operations on the eastern portion of the property. They have told us that it will be a combination of fracturing and they also may bring some tanks on site to allow for that. But all operations will occur within the masonary boundary of that site. The homes that are within the 600 feet have been notified previously. We do require a gas well vicinity notice to be filed with the county of everything within 600 feet. New potential home builders would know that they are within the 600 feet boundary. Previously on Morrow-Stephens there were some issues regarding potential development surrounding that area. There are no restrictions for future development for potential single family builders. As Chesapeake would come forward with more wells they would have to deal with those structures that would be closer and closer to the well site. They would have to come back before the Gas Board and Appeals. Therefore they have decided to request 5 wells. They will be drilled right after each other. It normally takes 18-20 days to drill a well so with the technology they have and will skid the rig over to the next well site and drill the next well. The drilling rig would stay up for 100 or more days to complete all of the drilling. We have very high aesthetic standards. We can have them put up sound blankets if that is necessary. In the previous wells that we have had drilled on Morrow-Stephens we have had a few sound complaints and we have been able to go out and resolve those issues. We encourage them to go ahead and drill the site out and go into production. Once it is in production you would no longer see the drilling rigs and all of the traffic. Scott Castaneda, 100 Energy Way, Fort Worth, TX 76102 came forward representing Chesapeake Energy. Good evening board members and city staff. I come before you seeking 5 well permits on the Morrow-Stephens pad site. We will cover the site overview, transportation route, community participation and outreach and any questions Page 4 of 6; 04/08/2010 GBA minutes PS you may have. The Morrow-Stephens pad site is a private property with an entrance to the site from the Precinct Line and Kirk Lane. Three wells have been drilled on this site previously in November 2008 ,August 2009, February 2010. We are seeking 5 new permits on A2H, A4H, Unit B2H, Unit 4H with an anticipated drill start date of September 2010. These wells do have the potential to produce minerals for 1170 acres of which 85 acres are leased by The City of North Richland Hills. It also has the potential to .reach 965 residents and businesses. We were expecting a letter of support from State Representative Hancock but we have not received that iri hand yet. This is the transportation route that has been previously approved. It takes them from 820 ,north on Precinct Line Rd and onto Kirk Ln and then the pad site. Drilling has allowed us to participate in community activities and Chesapeake will continue to keep an .open line of communication with its neighbors. In conclusion Chesapeake is asking The North Richland Hills Gas Board of Appeals to approve the gas well permits for Morrow-Stephens for A2H, A4H, Unit 62H, West 1 H, Unit 1 4H. Approval to drill the Morrow-Stephens pad site would allow for production of minerals for about 965 residents and businesses and the 5 planned wells for this site have a potential to bring in an overall economic impact that could be 60 million dollars including 10 million in royalties to mineral owners and 1.4 million in increased tax revenue to the City of North Richland Hills. At this time I would be happy to take any questions you may have. Garry Cope asked when you anticipate that you complete all 5 wells? Mr. Castaneda said that it normally takes about 3 weeks to drill each well. So about 4 months to complete all 5. That would be dependant upon the drill schedules but the plan is to just get them all down. Tom Duer asked if the distances from the affected dwellings is an accurate distance from the well? John Pitstick said yes. Tom Duer said that these are pin pointed to the site for the new gas wells? John Pitstick said yes. Public hearing opened 6:50 p.m. No one from the audience spoke for or against GB 2010-03. Public hearing closed at 6:50 p.m. APPROVED Kathy Luppy, seconded by Randy Shiflet, motioned to approve GB 2010-03. Motioned was carried unanimously (5-0). 6. Adjournment Page 5 of 6; 04/08/2010 GBA minutes There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:51 p.m. Chairman Tom Duer Secretary ~~4i./ ~ ~~ Ka by Lup y Page 6 of 6; 04/08/2010 GBA minutes