Robert Scroggs

According to recently released Census Bureau statistics, Grand Prairie ranks 6th in the nation in terms of fastest growth among cities with 100,000 or more population. With our 6.6% growth rate between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006, we are 2nd place in Texas, behind McKinney who had an astoundingly high growth rate of 11.1%. Factoring in Denton's 9th place and Fort Worth's 11th place national rankings, the DFW metroplex area is growing like no other metropolitan area in the United States. More people means more houses, and more houses means a strong local real estate market ahead!

For more information, please see the Dallas Morning News article linked from the city's web site:

http://www.gptx.org/documents/growingcity.pdf

Also see Kathy Goolsby's article in the July 29th Dallas Morning News:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/city/grandprairie/stories/072907dnmetgpgrowth.2b8e48f.html

Natural gas drilling has come to Grand Prairie, Texas. This is generally viewed as a positive to those who own the mineral rights attached to their real estate. However, those who do not own their mineral rights are concerned about safety and noise. On each side of this issue, rumors and misunderstandings abound.

Will those who own their mineral rights be able to retire to a life of luxury? Will area families be in danger of losing everything to an underground explosion?

The truth is that nobody knows for sure what will happen, but we do have some idea based on similar situations throughout Tarrant County and beyond. As is typically the case, most of the hype is just hype.

Is it possible that a gas well might explode? Yes. Is it likely? NOT AT ALL. Media reports of natural gas explosions do exist, but they are few and far between. Most of the explosions that have been reported relate to construction workers hitting an existing gas line. My web research failed to turn up more than a small handful of explosions related to actual gas wells, and only a couple which did damage beyond the well site. Grand Prairie put a lot of thought and research into our gas drilling ordinance. Technology has improved tremendously. Gas well explosions are extremely rare. The pipes below your house will be over a mile deep. In other words, safety should not be an issue.

Will homeowners get rich? Not hardly. The initial signing bonus on a typical residential lot rarely exceeds $500, and the royalty check for a typical single family lot generally ranges from about $25 to $50 per month. While this is nothing to complain about, it is hardly getting rich. It is also probably not worth it to base the purchase or sale of a home on the mineral rights of the property. As a seller, would you really want to lose a potential buyer over a dollar per day? As a buyer, would you really want to lose the home of your dreams because you want that dollar a day income? In the big picture, mineral rights should not be a determining factor in the purchase of a typical residential lot. The only people who stand to get rich from natural gas royalty checks are large property owners (hundreds or thousands of acres) such as cities, school districts, and DFW airport. My thought is that this could mean increased funding for our schools, parks, roads, and emergency services without increased taxes on we the people. I'm certainly in favor of that!

About the noise......
As I mentioned above, technology has come a long way as it relates to the drilling of natural gas. There are now methods being utilized today which have tremendously reduced the amount of noise. Here in the International Estates subdivision of North Grand Prairie, we are already used to some noise. We are in the flight path of DFW. We are close to I-30. The worst case scenario with these natural gas drills would be the "High Impact" drilling sites. These are sites within 600 feet of any homes, churches, schools, etc. Grand Prairie's city ordinance requires a limitation on the amount of noise a well can generate. In the case of these High Impact wells, the sound level "shall not" exceed 78 dB during the drilling process, 85 dB during the frac process, and 65 dB during the ongoing operation. To put this in perspective, 85 dB is approximately the same as listening to your iPod at about 75% volume level or the noise created by heavy traffic as heard from a distance of about 30 feet. This noisiest portion of the process lasts about a week. The actual drilling is the part of the process which takes the longest. Drilling can take months to complete and it is a 24 hour/day process. The 78 dB limit for drilling is somewhere between the noise level of a hair dryer and a garbage disposal. The 65 dB limit for ongoing operation (lasting up to 30 years or so) is about the same sound level as normal conversational talking or the TV set when watching normal shows. When we crank the surround sound for action movies, it is significantly more. So, the annoyance factor of the sound will not be insignificant, but once again, I do not believe it will have a strong effect on whether or not someone would want to move into or out of a nearby neighborhood.

The next subject people want to know about is "Where will the nearest well be located?"
Since I live in International Estates, I will speak first of the closest drilling permit to my house. As of mid-June, 2007, the only site with a permit to drill is located off of Wildlife, on the site of International Wildlife Park. The only other site which has been identified for North Grand Prairie is between Shady Grove and Rock Island. That site has submitted an application to the city, but has not yet received a permit as of the posting of this blog. In South Grand Prairie, there are two sites on the peninsula and one site near the corner of Polo and Great Southwest which have applications pending in the city. All drilling sites which have received a permit in South Grand Prairie are south of Joe Pool lake, near Mansfield and Cedar Hill. For a complete and up-to-date map of permitted and pending gas well sites, see the city's web site at: http://www.gptx.org/EnvironmentalServices/GasDrilling/PermittedandPending.aspx

For more general information about drilling for natural gas, see the city's Environmental Services Department at: http://www.gptx.org/EnvironmentalServices/GasDrilling/GasDrillingIndex.aspx