Fittingly enough, the recent Board meeting of the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority on June 9 was held in the new Chisholm Trail Museum building. The museum will house memorabilia and document Dewitt County's role in the formation and history of this famous trail over which thousands of head of cattle slogged, driven by tough Texas cowboys and vaqueros to market in the Midwest. The roots of this history run deep in the ranchers of the area, with some tracing back the history of their herds and ranching traditions to the original vaqueros of Goliad Mission La Bahia. Seven generations is a long time for one family to be devoted to the land and to ranching as their livelihood. That can produce hard-earned dedication to protection of both surface quality of the grazing land and the water that keeps both people and their animals alive and thriving.
So it was with a bit of irony in the air that current Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones spoke her words of assurance to the ranchers, farmers, businessmen and women and of course, bankers and entrepeneurs there. "You don't have to worry about your water's being contaminated from fracking. Never, in the fifty-year history of fracking, has a single water well ever been contaminated, because this goes on thousands of feet below any aquifer or water well. So, you don't have to worry. Your water is safe."
The irony came just five minutes after she had finished, as she stepped outside to connect with an old family friend from the New Braunfels neighborhood where they both grew up. And this friend brought along his own friend, who brought along his jug of stinky-smelling water, straight from his contaminated water well. Elizabeth Ames Jones had enough gumption to take a good whiff of that water--and realize that something was not right with it. No one attempted to offer her a drink. The answer would have been obvious.
Instead, Ms. Jones asked a few questions, heard about how her Railroad Commission in Austin had told this rancher that there was nothing wrong with his water or his well, and that it was safe to drink and to bathe in. Only problem had been, continued consumption and contact had continued to make them all ill. And then she heard the story of the two drilling rig operations that had both blown out just two miles above this man's well location--all situated above an "old gravel hill", well known in that area. Apparently, both the concrete and the steel casings failed under fracking pressures, and drilling fluids and other unidentified chemicals flowed into underground strata and beyond. The well, 270 feet deep, having served this man and his family with no problems over the last fifty years now went bad. It is known that the wells of his neighbors--all around 100 feet deep--were not effected.
After a call to her RRC office in Austin, Elizabeth Ames Jones took this jug of water back to that office for further testing and reports, with the promise that this would be done right this time, and then the three of them and her staff member would meet in her office at the RRC building in Austin to get to the bottom of the story.
So far, the man has received from the Railroad Commission staff members one phone call, a set of reports, and a letter informing him that a "file review" on his case will be held on July 23. The end of the story is still to come. But there are a good number of ranchers and homeowners waiting to hear what the Railroad Commission's analysis of this situation will be.
Maybe, just maybe, Dewitt County will once again make history! Maybe, just maybe, it will prove to be the site where that fifty-year "record" of "never contaminating any water well", was was finally broken by the new technology called "fracking". The question is, is this good news or bad news? That remains to be seen. But one thing is sure: if the private lab reports which this rancher had done are accurate, no speechmaker anywhere at anytime in the future will be able to say again, "You never have to worry about your water--it's safe with fracking".
We'll see where this history goes from here.
