What’s Happening in Copper Canyon – January 2010
By Sue Tejml
Mayor of Copper Canyon
Council Member Mark Schmitz has sudden, but successful, Open Heart Surgery
The Council welcomed Mark Schmitz back from his sudden, unplanned, open heart surgery in December. Mark’s physician assured him that he was going to feel tremendously better this month, as his previously blocked heart received far more oxygen. Just don’t try to call Mark on his cell phone. He has had so many well wishers that his message center is full! . Mark has assured the Council that he will be in attendance at Council Meetings, thus alleviating any concerns about having a quorum to transact Town business. Thank you, Mark, for your dedication to Copper Canyon!
Brief Flaring of Gas Wells is allowed for Safety
The Texas Railroad Commission is the state authority that regulates oil and gas wells and pipelines within Texas. The RCC allows a gas well to flare (burn) venting gas for up to two weeks. This is a safety measure. If the natural gas vented unburned into the air, it could be ignited and cause a significant explosion.
Our Copper Canyon ordinance also allows a gas well to briefly flare venting gas for the same safety reasons. Our ordinance does not allow raw venting of natural gas into the atmosphere for any reason.
Tyler Deines with Red Oak Gas, LP notified me Saturday morning that Red Oak would need to flare their Canyon Oaks well for a couple of days. This well is located on the Buttons gas well site east of Copper Canyon Road across from the gun range. The well is drilled horizontally west under the Canyon Oaks subdivision. The residents of the subdivision have leased their mineral rights to Red Oak and will receive royalties from the gas produced from that well.
The well had not been able to naturally “lift” the frac water up out of the well for disposal. The standard practice is to inject nitrogen, an inert gas, into the space between the casing and tubing. The nitrogen circulates within the well’s piping and helps “lift” the frac water the approximately mile and a half distance back up to the surface for disposal.
The nitrogen recovered is mixed with the methane gas being produced by the well. Pipelines do not accept the gas for sale if it is mixed with nitrogen, because the nitrogen is hard on the pipeline’s equipment. The standard solution is to flare the methane/nitrogen mixture for a few days until all the nitrogen is gone.
Tyler said there is a new “flameless” technology developed for flaring the gas. It consists of a muffler on top of the flare stack. The gas is burned within the muffler and no flame is visible from the outside. The “flameless” technology was developed to be used around DFW airport, so that the visible flame does not confuse pilots as they fly in and out of the airport. Our Town Council may consider adding the “flameless technology” as a requirement for any venting of gas necessary for safety reasons.
Scouting for Food Saturday, February 13th from 10 am until Noon
Cub Scouts from Pack 1163, based at LISD’s Heritage Elementary, are participating in the “Scouting for Food” project. The Scouts will be going door-to-door requesting canned food or shelf stable items to be donated to our local food pantry. Christian Community Action mans our local food distribution network from its headquarters in Lewisville.
If at all possible, locate the food items you want to donate and have them ready for the Scouts. As always, there will be an adult escort along for each one to two Scouts. Please help this very worthwhile Scouting project. There are many local families short of basic food supplies in this tough economic climate.
New Members volunteer for Long Range Planning Task Force on Roads
Several of our Town residents, who initially agreed to serve on the Task Force, have been unable to attend regularly due to conflicts in their schedules. However, the Council and I believe that every geographic area of Town needs representation on our Long Range Planning Task Force. Therefore, the following persons have volunteered to serve:
Nita Humphrey for Rolling Acres Drive and Patty Rossman for Mayberry Court, north of Rolling Acres Drive; Ron Gerard for Waite Drive; Vickie Marriott for East Jernigan Road; George Bleuher for Hillside Drive in the Woodlands Subdivision; and Ira Witkin for Crepe Myrtle Lane east of Copper Canyon Road. Darryl Snedecker, of Oakridge Trail in the Woodlands Subdivision. will give me an answer this week. Darryl could be a very valuable member of the Task Force, because his front yard is subject to flood waters when Poindexter Creek overflows Oakridge Trail in that area.
These new members of the Task Force will need to personally drive all Town roads, so that they are familiar with the condition of each toad. Each member will also have an individual Task Force Notebook with all the data and information to date on the physical condition of all Town Roads and suggestions on how to fund their repair or rebuilding. My sincere thanks to these volunteers for being willing to contribute their time and their ideas to our road projects.
Traffic Survey conducted on Copper Canyon’s five arterial/collector Roads
Members of our Long Range Planning Task Force decided that the Town needed a traffic count conducted on its arterial/collector roads. Volunteers agreed to make the count for a four hour continuous period during a week day. Bob Stegmaier volunteered for Woodlands Drive; Jim Coleman volunteered for Rolling Acres Drive; Roy Bradford volunteered for Jernigan Road; Dave Svatik volunteered for Estates Drive; and Tom Reed volunteered for Post Oak Road (which is not technically an arterial road). We lacked a volunteer for East Jernigan Road.
However, after the last Task Force Meeting, our Town Engineer Brian Haynes learned that to be valid the Traffic Count needed to continue for 24 hours uninterrupted. I was not going to ask any resident to do a 24 hour outdoor shift, especially given the severe winter weather at the time.
Our Town Engineer also learned that the cost of traffic studies had come down dramatically in cost, due to improvements in technology. The Town Administrator and I can each authorize up to $500 in expenditures prior to Council approval. So we pooled our spending authority to cover the $850 cost of an electronic traffic survey of our five arterial/collector roads.
The Town was able to have a 24 hour count in five locations that not only included the number of vehicles and the direction they were traveling, but the time of travel and the type of vehicle. (i.e. motorcycle, passenger car, light truck and van, bus, or maximum 2 axle-6 tire single truck.) These five categories of “vehicles” accounted for 93-99% of the traffic on the five individual roads surveyed electronically. Therefore, any heavy truck traffic is predominantly limited to the Town’s perimeter roads and not entering our residential streets. This is an important fact to consider, as the Council and Task Force determine the type of surface (asphalt or concrete) appropriate for out interior residential roads and our five arterial/collector roads.
There were really no surprises in the 24 hour traffic count. The following five roads had the resulting vehicle per day traffic count:
873 – Woodland Drive
586 - Rolling Acres Drive
530 – Jernigan Road
233 – Estates Drive
174 – East Jernigan Road
Geo Tech Road Borings delayed by Winter Weather
CMJ had planned to complete its 53 borings on Town roads and have its analysis to the Long Range Planning Task Force by Monday January 4th. The Council wanted the Task Force to have a week to study the results before their next Workshop meeting January 11th. But the weather did not cooperate. However, CMJ worked through the weekend to have the Report ready for the Task Force and Council by the January llth meeting. Unfortunately, I do not have the details to report here. However, when the borings report is received, it will be posted on the Town web site for the information of all Town residents..
Natural Gas Pipelines and possible Toxic Emissions in the Barnett Shale area:
Denton Mayor Mark Burroughs is hosting the regular quarterly meeting of area Mayors to discuss regional issues. Topics will include the recently drafted “Best Practices” guidelines for natural gas pipelines traversing municipalities. Also to be discussed are possible toxic emissions from natural gas drilling sites and transmission pipelines and the possibility of voluntary emission monitoring by the natural gas operators in the Barnett Shale area.
Monitoring Gas Well Emissions in Copper Canyon
Tyler Deines reported that Red Oak Gas, LP is voluntarily installing natural gas monitors on each of its three gas well drilling sites in Copper Canyon. Only one site, located on Janet Aune’s land west of copper Canyon Road, is currently producing; but Red Oak expects the other two drill sites to be producing within weeks. In addition, Red Oak has retained an environmental firm to install infrared cameras on each site and to do independent studies of the quality of any emissions. However, the gas produced in Copper Canyon and our immediate area is considered “dry gas”. Toxic emissions are usually associated with “liquid gas”, such as the gas produced in the area of the City of Dish.
Red Oak is currently in full compliance with any State mandated emission requirements. But the company realizes that emission standards are a “moving target” as the state TCEQ and the local branch of the federal Environmental Protection Agency tighten their standards for air emissions in North Texas.
Proposed Frack Water Disposal Well adjacent to area’s potable Water Wells
Bartonville Water Supply Corporation has sent a letter to the Texas Railroad Commission objecting to an injection well to dispose of recovered fracking water used in natural gas well drilling. The injection well is located near BWSC’s major producing water well and its soon to be drilled new water well. BWSC is concerned that the disposal well may contaminate the water wells that supply our area with drinking water.
Update on engineering for Orchid Hill Lane and Chinn Chapel Road
Commissioner Andy Eads hosted a meeting at the Denton County Courthouse for updates on engineering progress for Orchid Hill Lane and Chinn Chapel Road. Commissioner Eads met with Mayor Tejml and Halff Associates consultant Jim Carter and engineers Brian Haynes, James Gaertner, Ben McGahey and Cody Hodge for an extended three and a half hour meeting. At Commissioner Eads’ request, Copper Canyon and its Town Engineer Halff Associates had agreed to expedite the engineering for rebuilding the Town’s two perimeter roads, Orchid Hill Lane and Chinn Chapel Road. Both road are highly utilized by north-south Denton County commuters.
Orchid Hill Lane’s reconstruction needs to be expedited to accommodate the expected increase in east-west traffic from a completed FM 2499. However, the main concern for Chinn Chapel Road is the flooding which occurs from Harlington Drive south to Copper Canyon’s boundary with Flower Mound. The northern three quarters of Chinn Chapel Road is still in relatively good physical condition.
Former County Commissioner Jim Carter suggested that bids for Orchid Hill Lane’s reconstruction in concrete be combined with the rebuilding of the southern quarter of Chinn Chapel Road. That southern quarter of roadway will be underlaid with three side-by-side 4’ x 8’ cast-in-place concrete culverts. This is a $2 million dollar project to alleviate flooding in that area between Highland Village and Copper Canyon. Carter and Halff engineer in charge Ben McGahey suggested that the Town, and ultimately the County, might receive a very favorable bid if those two concrete road and drainage projects were bid together. Halff Associates agreed to expedite its engineering, so that the two projects could be bid as a package in March 2010.