We never could come to a good consensus, other than to hold on to the money until after the gas development is completed. We've appropriated about $3,000 of the money for air quality testing, which should take us through next year, but we've only spent about $500 of that so far.

I'd like to add more trails or put an amenity in one of the parks.

I was reading that a Barnett Shale well is expected to produce for 20 to 30 years or more. Do you anticipate testing the air quality for this period of time? Also, does the natural gas being produced contain an odor? Hypothetically, if a substantial leak occurs, then would someone nearby be able to smell it?

In addition, do you know if they have completed natural gas drilling at one of the sites NW of the mobile home park? Last week, there were two drill rigs in that vicinity, but only one exists now.

Because of the short half-lives of Barnett Shale gas wells, I suspect the 20-30 year numbers are exaggerations intended for the consumption of mineral owners and investors. The wells may last that long and produce for that long, but in the later years, I'd be highly surprised if they got a fraction of what they get at first. At any rate, I don't think we will be doing the testing more than the few initial years or when there is a problem. Either we don't find anything in the air, in which case, we call it good and stop regular testing, or we find something, raise hell about it, get it fixed, then re-test. Only way we continue with long-term regular testing is if we end up with levels of contaminants that cause concern, and we are not able to get the operator to abate the problem. Also, we may see the city begin doing its own testing.

Supposedly the natural gas would have little to no odor as it comes out of the well. Odorants are typically added after processing so that we can detect leaks in our homes. There are meters that could be used to detect explosive quantities of gas leaks, but as far as I know, our ordinance doesn't require any sort of automatic monitoring for that. Williams has committed to daily site-visits on these wells, so hopefully no major leak would go more than a day without someone noticing. More likely, a major leak would be called in after a citizen hears something, or in the case of a fire or explosion. In Flower Mound recently, a leak was called in by a citizen before Williams detected it.

I also noticed that the rig that was drilling Chesapeake's AD well is now down. I'd be surprised if they've had time to frac it yet though. The Williams rig is still up and drilling on the ACE pad site.

I think it might be prudent to hold own to some of the monies. The potential of earth quakes, aquifer and surface leeching of salt water could make you thankful you had reserves to get representatives to test these causes. I read about the issues at Dish, Texas (in north Texas)having earthquakes they believed were caused by the shifting of the earth strata. The mayor was ready to resign the last time I read about it. He was getting no results to resolve the issues.
I'm having issues with the stagnation of a natural fresh water stream 35 miles from the GOM. Suspect fracturing faults broke the zones for steam feed to the Arenosa Creek, in Victoria, TX. This suspect is currently under Texas State authority investigation more to come. Hope it comes out OK<.>