GROUP LOOKS TO BLOCK LAKE SOMERVILLE LAND AUCTION
An organization dedicated to exploring rural issues is asking Washington County residents to contact U.S. Senator John Cornyn in order to block a petroleum lease auction that includes land around Lake Somerville.
Texas Rural Voices (TRV) says they are concerned about the potential environmental damage from oil and gas drilling in the area.
The Bureau of Land Management is planning to offer federally-owned property at three Texas Lakes for oil and gas leasing, which includes approximately 1.4 acres at Lake Somerville. In 2016, the agency planned to include that land in a lease auction but stopped the process after protests.
TRV says the exploration would involve the use of “highly toxic drilling fluids”, which could impact Brenham’s only water source.
TRV isn’t the only group to express concern over the possible sale. In November 2016, state Senator Lois Kolkhorst sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management urging the agency to postpone any decision until the citizens and local officials in the area were given the opportunity to review and comment on the proposal.
Kolkhorst says that given that Lake Somerville supplies her hometown of Brenham with its drinking water, she feels that enhanced environmental assessments should be conducted before any land is considered for development.
While the period of public comment for the lease sale has closed, TRV is calling on residents to contact Sen. Cornyn at 202-224-2934.
Your hometown Senator is the only local official to take a stand against this idea. Last year she stood alone while the local congressman, the Burleson County-based state representative …and US senators did not say a peep. She should be trusted to do what is right even if nobody backs her up and I thank her for trying to stop this bad idea by the federal government even if it is beyond her control because she is a state official and does not oversee the BLM.
Fyi: There is/was active drilling in operation less than a mile from lake somerville. The closest one that i know about sits on the machemehl ranch off of 36. This site just finished fracking about 2-3 weeks ago. By rough estimation the frack job took place a little over a quarter mile to half a mile from the shore of the lake.
Right, This is nothing new and oil and gas development in the area won’t cease if the BLM pulls this 1500 +/- acres in Washington and Burleson Counties. Oil and gas producers have responsibly drilled and fracked hundreds of wells in the Lake Somerville/Yegua Creek watershed without incident.
Yes, there was one right on the other side of the Apache Hills neighborhood where I live, so less than a mile from the lake.
Yes, there are dozens of producing wells around Lake Somerville, BUT NOT active drilling. It is DURING the drilling processes on NEW wells. And with every new well drilled the chances increase for the overflow of TOXIC drilling muds into the many creeks and tributaries during heavy rainfalls like we experienced last May. Those creeks and tributaries drain into Lake Somerville, our ONLY water supply. And there are no guarantees during fracking either. It makes no sense to risk our only water supply so private companies can make money. For more information on the acres and auction google Bureau of Land Management oil and gas Washington County Texas. The worst part, if the land is leased for production, and there is an accident of contamination, we won’t know until our children fall ill from the toxins.
I’ve got news for you folks; there are dozens of producing wells under Lake Somerville right now. Use the Public GIS Viewer on the Texas Railroad Commission website and see for yourself. This is nothing new. What makes this oil and gas lease sale different from the hundreds of private oil and gas lease sales under the existing wells that came before it?
And someone please explain exactly how the BLM offering an oil and gas lease for public auction (read: to both private companies and individuals alike) is COMPETING against the “Free Enterprise System”? The government has neither the means or know-how to produce the oil and gas or other minerals that are collectively owned by all of us.
Steve. When government property competes against private property you are COMPETING against Free Enterprise.
This is SIMPLE ECONOMICS (neg) 101
How does government property compete against anything? A restated fallacy is neither an argument nor an answer to my question. It is no less expensive to produce minerals from BLM lands than from private lands. You can’t make the argument that this somehow creates unfair competition.
Private companies and individuals are competing via auction for the right to develop the minerals owned by the .gov. Private companies will develop and produce said minerals and pay royalties to the treasury. Private companies and all of their employees and contractors will benefit from profit from the sale of those produced minerals, more so than the .gov.
This brings income into local area and helps the economy. There has been wells drilled out at Welch park and other larger areas of the lake.You wouldn’t know it now by looking. Let Texas be Texas
This is completely rediculous. Bad location. Not right for the government to compete against the Free Enterprise System. Again, Bad Location; Look at Flint, Michigan. The last article I read on KWHI eluded to the fact that Senator Kolkorst had this issue rezolved and it would NOT be happening. Now we are being told. NOT SO. If you can’t trust your hometown senator, who can yo trust ? Again, Bad Location; Look at Flint, Michigan.
Exactly which land is it that is it that they are wanting to lease. seems like a lot of risk for so little of land.
where do these leases occur at Lake Somerville?
Who would pay to have water trucked into Brenham for each resident for drinking, bathing, washing, etc., if there was a leak at one of these proposed drilling sites? A contaminated lake would mean the end of fishing, swimming, boating and wildlife in the area. The land is federally owned so if leased, I doubt there would be any monetary gain for the City of Brenham. Sounds like a very risky proposition to me. Once again greed raises its ugly head. I will be calling the Senator’s office on Monday morning and conveying my concerns and hoping others in our community will be doing the same.