Balmorhea residents fear fracking could hurt springs
BALMORHEA, Texas—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.
Elsewhere, to the north near Interstate 10, two much larger flares light up the night sky, telltale signs of exploration activity for oil and gas.
At nearby Balmorhea State Park, the tourists, some of whom come from as far away as Europe to frolic in the gushing spring waters, also notice the flares.
"They see all these little candles all over the place where they are burning off stuff, and they are concerned. They don't want to see the park harmed," park Superintendent Karl Coughlin told the San Antonio Express-News, noting 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," he added, although the likelihood of that happening remains unknown.
Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife officials in Austin say they're monitoring the drilling activity around the park. Their experts say that so far, they see no threat to the fabulous flows coming from the San Solomon Springs into a rock pool built by Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.
Apache, the energy company doing the exploratory drilling, repeatedly 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, even though it owns those mineral rights.
"I'm confident we're protecting the resources there," company spokeswoman Castlen Kennedy in Houston said.
Fewer than a dozen wells have been drilled around this quiet town in southern Reeves County that 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, a green oasis of about 500 people 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 by local mothers.
Balmorhea also is decidedly rural, with horses and goats kept penned along the main street. On a recent day, a cow was being led through town.
Some folks here who are quite familiar with the traffic, trash and environmental despoiling that came with frenetic drilling in nearby Pecos and elsewhere do not believe their unassuming hometown would be improved by such. Pecos is 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 others think a local oil boom is just what is needed to revive things.
"I'm 100 percent for it. The community needs oil here. 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.
"I'll do whatever I can. It may not be the best thing for the scenery, but sometimes you have to take the good with the bad," he added.
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. The petition since has taken off, even though Apache no longer seeks those leases.
It 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 conservation alliance.
"Sixty miles down the road is a very applicable example. The Comanche Springs in Fort Stockton were pumped to non-existence for agricultural purposes," he added, citing the extinction in the 1960s of a once equally prodigious flow.
Earlier this year, Paul Matta, 47, who has lived in Balmorhea most of his life, organized an educational meeting 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 for general quality of life reasons.
"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. I like the quiet and the water. And here, you can turn on your tap and drink the water," he said.
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 handful of wells drilled around Balmorhea are a only "small exploration program," Kennedy said.
While it drills, the company is holding its cards close to its chest, declining to disclose the acreage it has leased around Balmorhea, well results and future plans.
As a neighborly gesture, Kennedy said, the company has created exclusion zones and will not drill under the state park or inside or under the city.
"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.
But Garza, the mother of four who started the petition, said she becomes more anxious each time drilling starts on a new well, such as the one that recently appeared just north of Interstate 10.
She worries about the springs and the health of her children.
"My head literally hurts as I think about it," she said as showed a visitor around town.
"They call Balmorhea the oasis of West Texas for a reason. There are dry lands all around, and here you have this clear and clean water coming up from a spring. I've met people from Germany and France, who came to see the spring. It's crazy to think that if fracking comes, something could go wrong and affect the springs," she said. for