Drilling a worry for park, tourists
Balmorhea fears fracking could destroy springs
BALMORHEA — From the shore of Balmorhea Lake, the often spectacular desert sunsets over the Davis Mountains now come with an unwelcome distraction.
For several months, an orange natural gas flare has been burning brightly in the hills to the west.
To the north near Interstate 10, two much larger flares light up the night sky, telltale signs of oil and gas exploration.
At nearby Balmorhea State Park, the tourists, some of whom come from as far away as Europe to frolic in the gushing spring waters, are concerned.
“They don’t want to see the park harmed,” said
park Superintendent Karl Coughlin, noting that he expects 150,000 visitors this year. “The worst possible outcome would be that somehow the water would be contaminated, and it would affect the springs.”
Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife officials in Austin say they are monitoring the drilling activity around the park. Their experts say so far they see no threat to the flows coming from the San Solomon Springs into a rock pool built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Exploration worrisome
Apache, the energy company doing the exploratory drilling, has vowed to be a good neighbor and says it will take all possible steps to avoid causing environmental problems, including not drilling under the tiny park, though it owns those mineral rights.
“I’m confident we’re protecting the resources there,” said company spokeswoman Castlen Kennedy in Houston.
Fewer than a dozen wells have been drilled around this town in southern Reeves County, which historically has yielded mostly dry holes. But the amount of future exploration remains unknown and worrisome to some residents and visitors.
Many in the Big Bend and beyond regard the San Solomon Springs as a unique natural resource and are equally fond of Balmorhea, where about 500 people live surrounded by fields of alfalfa, sudangrass and cotton.
One of its charming features is the small stone aqueduct that flows through the town beneath large cottonwood trees. In hot weather, it is used as a kiddie pool.
Balmorhea is decidedly rural, with horses and goats kept penned along the main street. Ona recent day, a cow was being led through town.
Some folks here are familiar with the traffic, trash and despoiling that came with frenetic drilling in Pecos, about 40 miles away and in the Permian Basin oil and gas formation. Balmorhea is south of the basin.
But Main Street also has abandoned buildings and closed businesses, and there are those who think a local oil boom is needed.
“It will help the school and the town. I don’t think it will mess things up,” said Joel Madrid, 56, owner of El Oso Flojo Lodge. “It may not be the best thing for the scenery, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad.”
Mayor John Davis, who works in the energy industry, did not return calls seeking comment.
The positive sentiments appear to be in the minority, and as awareness of the drilling spreads, so does concern.
“The San Solomon Springs are on a fault line and are just one earthquake away from disappearing. There is no precedent for what they are doing, because the natural springs we have here exist nowhere else,” said Neta Rhyne, who owns a dive shop near the park.
This spring, a petition was begun by Maria Garza, 44, manager of the local school cafeteria, urging city and school district leaders to refuse to lease their lands to Apache for drilling. Apache is no longer seeking those leases. Petition drive
But the petition has attracted more than 5,000 signatures after being posted online recently by the Big Bend Conservation Alliance, which fought and lost a bitter battle to keep the Trans Pecos Pipeline from cutting through the region to Mexico.
“It’s not just the San Solomon Springs that feed the famous swimming pool at the park. You have other springs systems in that area that are at risk of being contaminated if you send water down to those depths to frack and bring the oil up,” said Trey Gerfers, president of the alliance.
Earlier this year, Paul Matta, 47, who has lived in Balmorhea most of his life, organized an educational meeting for those worried about the drilling.
“Some were for it, but at least 90 percent of the people there that night were concerned,” he recalled.
Matta said he opposes the drilling.
“I’m not an activist or environmentalist. I’m just a regular person, a citizen of Balmorhea, Texas. And for me personally, some places should be off-limits. We have the swimming pool, the lake, the endangered species,” he said.
“I don’t want to be like Andrews or the Odessa Midland area where you smell the oil and gas, and see all the activity, and the trucking,” he said. “I like the quiet and the water.”
For Apache, which has more than 3.3 million acres leased in and around the Permian Basin and produces more than 165,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day there, the wells drilled around Balmorhea are only a “small exploration program,” Kennedy said.
The company has declined to disclose the acreage it has leased around the town, well results and future plans.
As a neighborly gesture, Kennedy said, the company has created exclusion zones.
“We are focusing on exploration activity in less-populated areas and employ best-in-class practices in our operations. In addition to meeting all legal requirements and acquiring all necessary permits, Apache takes proactive steps beyond what is required to further enhance the safety of operations,” she added in a written statement. ‘Oasis of West Texas’
But Garza, the mother of four who started the petition, said she becomes more anxious each time drilling starts on a new well.
She worries about the springs and the health of her children.
“My head literally hurts as I think about it,” she said as she showed a visitor around town.
“They call Balmorhea the oasis of West Texas for a reason,” she said. “It’s crazy to think that if fracking comes, something could go wrong and affect the springs.”