Yesterday, I attended the Breakout Session, Water Use and Conservation Efforts, at the Barnett Shale Expo.
I listened to the same spiel I’ve heard before from Jay Ewing, Devon Energy, about recycling water and, while I applaud any steps to conserve our water, I find the excuse that “it’s too expensive” for widespread use outrageous coming from an industry that had a net profit of $400 Billion dollars in 2007!
The session crossed over into the Twilight Zone when John Tinterra of the Texas Railroad Commission, gave his presentation and told outright lies about injection well inspections. John Tinterra stood onstage and told a room full of citizens who pay his salary that the Texas Railroad Commission inspects injection wells every month. He also said that they do drive-by inspections each week. I have witnesses!
From the Texas Railroad Commission website:
How often are these wells inspected?
The Railroad Commission inspects commercial disposal wells (wells that take produced water from various operators for a fee) once a year, while non-commercial injection wells (wells drilled by one operator to dispose of produced water from their own oil or gas production) are inspected at least once every five years.
His lie makes the Texas Railroad Commission’s malpractice and negligence of this Class II Commercial Injection Well all the more egregious!
Tinterra started his presentation by saying that “you,” meaning the people in the audience hire his bosses, the Railroad Commissioners, and that one of his “bosses” might be in that very room.
The session was attended by Victor Carrillo who gets “54 percent of his contributions from the oil and gas sector, $194,000 out of $355,000“. Carrillo should, at the very least, issue Tinterra a formal reprimand for lying to the public! But, I’ll not hold my breath.
During the question and answer period, I told Tinterra that he needed new bosses without conflict of interest issues such as the hundreds of thousands of dollars his bosses have received from the very industries they are supposed to regulate. My comment was not well received by Tinterra but several in the audience were highly interested and requested my contact information when the session concluded.
The quote that played in the background of my mind during Tinterra’s presentation comes from the movie Cold Mountain and was delivered by Ruby who was played by Rene Zellweger:
That man is so full of manure we could plant him and grow another one!
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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The RRC ought to be taken off of public funding–they should be allowed to go to the O&G industry to solicit their funds. This would save an enermous amount of tax money—–and nothing would change!