Joe Boone reports on the struggle in Arkansas to balance recreation interests against those of the burgeoning natural gas industry.
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Month: March 2012
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Letters to the Editor
Voter ID
Tim Sampson’s outrage at poor, shut-in, 80-year-olds being discriminated against due to “racist” photo ID requirements is pure liberal excrement (The Rant, March 22nd issue). Never mind that the bulk of these “voters” wouldn’t even vote in the first place if it wasn’t for local liberal churches and political groups dragging them out and packing them like sardines into vans in the first place. As for those racist, punishing lines at the photo ID stations? They are a lot less trying than the experience seniors encounter in being herded into stuffy church vans.
Be fair, since the ID booth is open all year, the lines are much shorter than those at the polls, so spare us the fake compassion. Requiring a photo ID to vote is neither racist nor conservative. It is a solid method to improve the voting process and pay proper respect to our rights.
The liberal objection to voter photo ID is that it will require two independent events of herding people who otherwise wouldn’t vote. It’s easy enough to get folks excited about making a difference and get them to jump into a sardine can on voting day. However, liberals realize that when presented with the requirement to take two trips, one ahead of time to get a photo ID, then one more, to vote, this “passionate” group of voters will take the lazy way out and not put forth the effort.
Tommy Volinchak
Memphis
Dear Speaker Harwell, I’ve been attempting to get a photo ID for three months. I admit that I refuse to stand in line for hours to have a photo taken to put on my Tennssee driver’s license, since I am 66 years old, have had a triple bypass, and just got over prostate cancer. Oh, and I have two bad knees due to being a catcher for 12 years.
I do have a photo ID from my former employer, Delta Airlines, that gets me through airport security check points. Like Bruce Springsteen, I was born in the U.S.A. I also have a voter registration card issued by Shelby County. Years ago I elected to take advantage of the Tennessee law that says I didn’t need a picture on my Tennessee government-issue ID.
I understand that your GOP believes it does better when fewer Americans vote and that relatively nonexistent voter fraud is a problem. I just don’t understand why the party of WASPs is making it so hard for one of their own to vote. So, is there a secret place where a good old, born-in-the-U.S.A. WASP can get his picture on his driver’s license without waiting all day to do it? I promise not to tell any minorities or liberals.
Jack Bishop
Memphis
Rihanna and Chris Brown
Thank you to Michael Wassmer for his March 15th Viewpoint, “Rhythm and Boos.” As he mentioned, there are so many things wrong with the way people have reacted to the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident, which was a real act of domestic violence that left a female victim brutally assaulted and led to her intimate partner being arrested and convicted of a felony crime.
As disturbing as it may be that young girls would talk about volunteering to be beaten by Chris Brown and as incomprehensible as it may seem that Rihanna would have anything to do with him now, this situation really shines a light on the complexity of domestic violence and the need for education about this crime. And, unfortunately, Rihanna also stands as a role model for young girls. While these girls may only be using satire to express their attraction to a celebrity, there is clearly an opportunity here to teach a lesson about the reality and danger of domestic violence.
As the executive director of the Family Safety Center, I know that domestic violence victims experience a physical and emotional pain that sometimes can’t even be vocalized. They live in fear, confusion, humiliation, and loneliness — not a “rock star” way to live. Despite horrendous acts of abuse, these victims find the will to live every day. When their stories are told, we have to hope that these young women will pay attention as intently and understand that no one should have to live that way.
Olliette Murry-Drobot
Memphis
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Boxing Day
For our first Flyer Box Art contest, we chose 13 artists to take some beat-up newsstands and create their own individual statement. What we got back were incredible pieces of public art that will soon be on display all over town.
Wednesday, March 28th, marks the official unveiling at Material Art Space (2553 Broad), so stop by from 5 to 7 p.m. and see for yourself the amazing things our artistic community can produce.
Be sure to vote in our “Reader’s Choice” through April 4th. To vote, scroll to the bottom of this page, select your favorite box, and click VOTE to submit. The winning artist will receive $500.
Check out this map to see where the boxes are located around the city.
Thank you to the Art Center Supply Store for providing the artists with a materials stipend.
DANIEL TACKER
Daniel Tacker grew up reading comic books and began drawing his own illustrations at a young age. A Memphis native, Tacker left to attend the University of Tennessee at Knoxville where he studied photography, film, and video for his degree in media arts.
He returned home to work in graphic design and continued to develop his artistic abilities, moving beyond the realm of photography into the wide world of painting. There Tacker found his true calling, looking to street art and graffiti as the form in which he could combine all of his interests into the highly polished and decidedly urban works he currently creates. This box can be found on Main St. outside the Green Beetle and Frank’s Deli.
ANDREA MANARD
Andrea Manard honed her creative skills as a stay-at-home mom, dabbling in paint and collage until people began to suggest she try to sell her work. After a successful run at the Cooper-Young Art Festival, Manard opened several internet shops for her creations, one of which is tailored to customers with an eye for Memphis history.
Her box portrays a Memphis from the turn-of-the-century with photographs of the downtown skyline, the Cossitt Library and Post Office, and the Memphis Zoo, courtesy of the Library of Congress digital archives. The letters used to make up Memphis Flyer were even cut out of a map from the 1870s.
“It’s a bird’s-eye view of the city,” Manard says. This box can be found at the intersection of Main St. and Butler Ave.
TONY MAX
Tony Max decided to go with spray paint for his space-themed newsstand, starting with shapes that would be easy to stencil: a city, a moon, paper planes. But from a look at his finished product it seems that Max, a self-employed artist and tattooist for Midtown’s No Regrets, had no trouble with the box at all, aside from the fact that a bout of rainy spring weather forced him to do most of his spray-painting indoors, making his apartment a little fumey.
Among the native Memphian’s other projects are commissioned comic books and album covers and a custom tarot deck that’s just sold out in his online shop. Max says the tarot deck will appear in a sci-fi movie in the future — a fitting destination for work by the man who turned the Pyramid into a spaceship.
This box can be found outside Lenny’s and YoLo on Cooper.
MEREDITH WILSON
Meredith Wilson’s box is adorned with a signature of sorts, the latest phase in a succession of pairings of animals with pastries — in this case, owls with donuts for eyes. A graduate of both the University of Memphis and the Memphis College of Art, Wilson has been teaching art in the Arlington school system for the last eight years, and her work with middle and high school students informs her lighthearted approach to painting.
Wilson says this project may be the last sign of the owls for a while. A recent trip to Paris left her brimming with ideas for a new direction, moving from gouache to acrylics (and paint pens for her box). We can bet that wherever her inspiration takes her next, there will be a healthy dose of Memphis grounding her work. This box can be found outside Kriby Wines
SHAWN MATTHEWS
A self-taught artist from Portsmith, Arkansas, Shawn Matthews says he has a fascination with the city’s Egyptian ties. His box depicts the ancient capital’s triad of gods: Ptah was the major deity of Memphis, a high priest described as the creator of other gods and declared the master of destiny. His wife, Sekhmet, is shown with a blazing sundial overhead to portray her fiery position as the goddess of destruction and war. Their son, Nefertum, was created as the patron of healing arts and beautification, to bring the trio full circle.This box can be found outside Starbucks on Union Ave.
GREG CRAVENS
Greg Cravens has been drawing for the Flyer almost since the paper’s inception, beginning with the illustrations that appeared alongside Lydel Sims’ popular column. Indeed, his 21-year career as a professional artist has been built, in part, on creating silly cartoon characters that are filled with imagination.
Cravens took a signature approach with curious characters on each side of his box. The most peculiar has to be the small purple alien adorning the backside of this one-of-a-kind artwork. It’s sure to send our readers on their way not only with the latest issue but something to talk about. This box can be found outside Cafe Ole in Cooper-Young.
JAMOND BULLOCK
If you’ve been to an open-mic poetry night in the last month, chances are you saw Jamond Bullock working on his newsstand. The Whitney Elementary School art teacher has been doing live-painting for several years now. Bullock paints at festivals, open-mic nights, and even weddings.
Once you’ve taken a look at Bullock’s box, you’ll start noticing his distinctive style of work around town — in galleries, on a store counter, in an upcoming mural he’s working on with the UrbanArt Commission. And look closely: Bullock has hidden tiny newsstands and characters around his box for observant viewers to find. This box can be found at the BP Station on Riverside Drive.
BOB X
When Bob X first entered then-Memphis State University to pursue an art degree, his adviser told him that he didn’t have any talent. He eventually left school and entered a technical college to take courses in drafting, a more practical field in which he excelled. But that didn’t stop him from doing what he loved, and over the years Bob X has produced work for advertising, for local bands and organizations, and for merchandise like T-shirts and helmets in a style of underground art closely related to that of Robert Crumb. Yet, his box can be described as an homage to both Jackson Pollock and psychedelic art, with his current style evolving toward the abstract.
“It’s always an ongoing process. I don’t look too far down the road. You have to adjust to situations as they come along,” he says. “There’s no great wealth in art, at least in my world, but there’s a great deal of satisfaction in it.” This box can be found outside American Apparel at Main St. and G.E. Patterson.
DARLENE NEWMAN
Darlene Newman has recently gotten back into illustration after delving into custom portrait work and mural painting, and her stylized but realistic representation of the Flyer‘s content is true to the kind of work she’s done for some of her clients — among the big projects she’s worked on in the past was an illustration gig for The Wall Street Journal fresh out of school.
Newman was born in Memphis but has degrees from New Orleans’ Dillard University and Savannah College of Art and Design. She has a background in business as well as art, which helps ground her work as a self-employed artist. Newman has recently finished illustrating a few children’s books by local authors and hinted at some exciting projects coming up. She said she wasn’t yet able to share details, but we think we’ll know it when we see it.
This box can be found near the University of Memphis at Patterson St. and Norriswood Ave.
DANIEL COUNCE
The one artist to take on the depths of the inside of the box, Daniel Counce takes his art pretty seriously. A Memphis native, Counce briefly attended the Memphis College of Art, where he took a painting class for one week before dropping it. He now divides his time between working at a frame shop in Germantown and making pieces of fine art to sell at Cooper-Young’s Painted Planet.
The artist has a talent for surreal imagery, blending obscure references like the manatee that made local headlines with tiger stripes and transforming the all-seeing eye of Egyptian mythology into the all-seeing fly. Get it? This box can be found at Archer Records on Nelson Ave.
MATT OWENS
Matt Owens says he likes to work spontaneously, using materials as his guide with a wide variety of media. The longtime cooking enthusiast and daytime chef at McEwen’s on Monroe says that he thinks of cooking as an extension of his work as an artist, which encompasses commissions for paintings and sculptures ranging from the miniscule to the larger-than-life.
As a young Memphian, Owens found his way into the art world through experimenting with the loose, dynamic nature of street art, visible in his work even now. Whether it’s customizing a display for a local restaurant, hand-painting a pair of shoes for a client, or crafting a small wooden toy for his kids, Owens marries that spontaneity to a dedication that shows. This box can be found at Whole Foods on Poplar.
LAUREN RAE HOLTERMANN
A recent graduate of the Memphis College of Art, Lauren Rae Holtermann dreams of publishing her own graphic novels, but for now she’ll settle for taking on creative projects around town and running the Rozelle Artists Guild.
Holtermann picked her three favorite things about Memphis — music, food, and basketball — as a concept for this project, while the skeleton figures draw upon an inspirational trip to Mexico City. She even used the Flyer as a play on words, with all three characters in states of flight. This box can be found at Fino’s from the Hill at Madison and McLean.
SCOTT & REMI JENKINS
Neither of the Jenkins family duo is a full-time artist. By day, Scott works for BNSF Railway and hosts WEVL’s Modern World on Friday mornings; Remi spends her days at Dogwood Elementary as a fourth-grader.
But the two have a history of working together, from taking a pottery class for Remi’s birthday to creating a cardboard mock-up of their proposed Flyer box. Scott says he’s dabbled in the arts on his own time and that working on this project was a great way to encourage his daughter’s creative side. They came up with the concept of painting iconic Memphis imagery together — the idea to include flying pigs came from Remi.
If you see Remi in the next couple of days, wish her a happy birthday! The budding artist celebrated her 10th birthday the day before this issue came out. This box can be found inside the Forest Hill Cinema.
Categories
What They Said
About “Hungry Memphis” and a visit to a new place in Collierville called Booya’s:
“Wait, are we bashing a SPORTS BAR for POSSIBLE INAUTHENTICITY?” — mayostard
About “The Rant” and the controversial voter ID laws:
“Tennessee already is solid red when it comes to the presidential election, so this isn’t a ploy to get your boy out of office.” — Grizzman
About “Naifeh Is Wrong on Segregation Claim” when he says that Shelby County schools are indeed segregated:
“This is not about racism! This is about wanting our children to attend schools in a city that are not last in the state! This is about our children’s education and their future! This is about their ability to learn and have the right capacity to do so. This is not about racism!” — Libby
About “The Shelby County School Muddle for Dummies: An Update”:
“As for the Shelby ‘burbs and their hired help, they can bang their collective heads and pay consultant fees until they turn purple and nothing will change. The rest of the state will not let collective actions within one county by a few suburbs force a school system as large as the one in Shelby County to fail. Nice try. Pick up your own tab!!” — Mid TN
Comment of the Week:
About “State of Denial” and not-so-rosy predictions for nine major civic projects:
“Your nine ring true, but how do we get the mayor, council, and other decision-makers to take off the rose-colored glasses and make decisions based on facts? Seems like that’s the first step.”
— justwondering
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An Unnatural State
Heber Springs, Arkansas, has been a recreation and retirement destination for Memphians since the 1960s. Located just 134 miles from the Bluff City, the mountains, the waters of Greer’s Ferry Lake, and the abundant trout on Little Red River are the basis not only of a tourism industry but the retirement plans of many Memphians.
“We call this Little Shelby County. Memphis is our main draw,” Heber Springs mayor Jackie McPherson says.
But now McPherson’s city sits at ground zero in a battle between two economic forces: On one side is a community built on natural beauty. On the other is the natural gas industry, an economic juggernaut that employs thousands and is a source of income to a historically poor region.
Maurice Lipsey, whose name will ring a dinner bell to Memphians who remember his family’s fish markets, owns Fat Possum Hollow, a 250-acre resort on the Little Red. His website touts its natural amenities (the river, trails, horses, hunting) and the luxury accommodations. It’s his home and his vocation.
“Most of my customers are from Memphis — I’d say 90 percent,” Lipsey says. “Most of the people who own property around here on the river are from Memphis. Myself included.”
Lipsey is among many here who see an industry of outsiders running rampant and jeopardizing the natural beauty and economic engine of the area.
“On my property, right across the street, they have fracked, drilled six wells,” Lipsey says. “They have started back up again for the last week, and 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they are bringing trucks in and out of there — at all hours of the night. You can’t sleep.”
The community
It can be said that the town of Heber Springs owes its existence to large-scale environmental exploitation. The dam impounds the Little Red River and creates Greer’s Ferry Lake, which provides hydroelectricity and drinking water for the region. The dam’s dedication ceremony was President John F. Kennedy’s last public appearance before his fatal appearance in Dallas in November 1963.
The power station was commissioned in 1964. The lake itself is an energy-production by-product. But since its creation, it has supported a local economy with incomparably clear water and a bounty of bass, walleye, and striped bass.
The Little Red River is managed for the 79 miles from the dam output to its confluence with the White River. Its cold, clear waters are a legendary draw for trout fishermen
Heber Springs lies on the eastern edge of the Fayetteville Shale, a “play” as the natural gas industry calls it. Heber Springs is merely a drop in a giant bucket into which the industry has poured more than $2 billion of investment since 2009. Despite a nosedive in natural gas prices, developments in extraction technologies have opened up reserves once thought unprofitable at much higher prices.
“We are very proud that they are here. Those are good-paying jobs,” McPherson says about the drilling companies.
The city of Heber Springs leased about 450 acres to Chesapeake Energy for an initial payment of just under $2 million and a 20 percent royalty on the gross income. The city used the funds to develop its most congested intersection.
“Now we have national chains looking at that intersection. Those are new retail businesses that pay taxes, increase employment, and it helps our traffic flow,” McPherson says. “The royalties should help us grow and invest without raising taxes.”
Similar benefits come to thousands of property owners who lease their mineral rights to drilling companies. The income was essential for some in this hardscrabble country. For others it was gravy on luxury property. Either way, few complained, initially.
“Originally it was manna from heaven. Those folks in those old rocky farms — they were happy,” Greg Seaton says. Seaton is a retired Little Rock native. He works as a fishing guide on the Little Red River.
The Commodity
Rising energy prices drove new techniques for natural gas extraction, particularly horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. These opened up new plays, most importantly the Barnett Shale of Texas in 1999 and the Marcellus Shale in the northeast around 2005.
The Fayetteville Shale runs across Arkansas at depths from 1,500 to 6,500 feet and ranges in thickness from 50 to 325 feet. In the early 2000s, Southwestern Energy found similarities between the Barnett Shale and the Fayetteville Shale. This set off an oil rush throughout Arkansas. In 2004, there were 13 wells worth $640,000. By 2007, 603 wells produced gas valued at $651 million, according to a study done by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas.
The economic benefits in that study were based on price estimates of around $6 per MMBtu (one million British Thermal Units). Prices peaked at more than $8 in 2008. The warm winter of 2011-2012 led to a glut in gas, with inventories 41 percent higher than last year. The average price for 2012 is estimated to be $3.17 per MMBtu by the Department of Energy.
“They continue to turn a profit even with low prices,” study author Kathy Deck says. “It still costs more money to invest, but the industry has gotten really good at identifying where to drill to get bang for the buck.”
But even at the low prices, the scale of activity is overwhelming. Chesapeake Energy sold its Fayetteville Shale holdings to BHP Billiton Petroleum in February 2011 for $4.75 billion.
The other major player in the area is Southwestern Energy, a conglomerate with subsidiary interests in exploration, extraction, and transportation. Southwestern spends $2.8 million per well and invested more than $2 billion in 2011 and 2012.
Both companies were asked to provide local sources that had found work with the industry. Calls and emails to Southwestern were not returned. BHP supplied a link to the 2008 study.
Natural gas drilling is a complex and expensive job involving several processes, including: exploration, obtaining mineral rights, installation of drilling equipment, drilling operations, extraction, field processing, gathering, and transportation.
“Fracking,” or hydraulic fracturing, involves millions of gallons of highly compressed fluids blasted into rock formations, creating fractures that allow natural gas to escape. The entire process can require three to five million gallons of fresh water.
The fluids are saline mixes and other chemicals, many of which are considered proprietary trade secrets. The fluids and the by-products of the gas extraction are collected in a pool and disposed of by four common methods: treating the water and returning it to surface water, injection into deep water formations, recycling, and even spreading onto roads for dust suppression.
The Problem
“The reason I enjoy owning property here is to enjoy fishing on the Little Red River,” says Jim Julian, a Little Rock native and former president of the Arkansas Bar Association.
“We are close enough to a rig that we can hear construction and the sound of the drilling at times. Those things are somewhat noisy. It depends on the time of day,” Julian says. “My concern is that the science of how this effects the habitat of the trout has not been done. They are taking water out, and it’s probably getting back in.”
The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission grants the permits required to get water from state waters for operations. In 2007, the commission received three requests to move water from rivers for use at other locations. The next year there were 121 requests, and the number has remained above 400 every year since 2009.
“You’ve got the road kicking up dust. In fact, when I drove over here, it looked like there was a fire burning. But it’s not a fire. It’s the dust from what they are doing over there right now,” Lipsey says.
This dust presents a second risk: sediment.
Clinton, Arkansas, in the more heavily exploited, adjacent Van Buren County, recently had its water supply tainted due flooding and sediment. While normal development creates sediment that impedes watersheds and changes the chemical make-up of aquatic habitats, the problem has dramatically increased as gas companies have cleared roads and “pads” covering several acres for operations.
“They started drilling about eight months ago, and that’s when I started discovering the methane in my water,” Lipsey says. He’s had to abandon his own well and have his property placed on the municipal water system.
Shale gas is typically comprised of over 90 percent methane.
Two studies have confirmed the role of drilling activities in the contamination of water wells. One by Duke University on drilling in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that “methane concentrations in drinking-water wells increased with proximity to the nearest gas well” and were 17 times higher in extraction areas than in those without drilling activities.
An EPA study of water supplies in Pavillion, Wyoming, found methane, petroleum hydrocarbons, and other chemical compounds “consistent with migration from areas of gas production.” Although the levels were “below established health and safety standards,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services later reviewed the EPA’s data and advised the well owners to use alternate sources of water for “drinking and cooking, and ventilation when showering.”
“There may have been methane in the well, but it’s nothing like it is now,” Lipsey says. He worries that it will decrease the value of his property. “You’re going to have to disclose that you’ve got methane in your water well.”
Regulation
“We want local judges and politicians to think about the retirement and recreation,” Seaton says. “[The gas companies] had their guns drawn and their ducks in a row when they hit the state. They wanted to try to get as much done as possible before the agencies could act.”
The federal government granted the industry exemptions from the major regulatory acts including the Safe Drinking Water Act. That leaves the monitoring and rulemaking up to the state. The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission and the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality regulate natural gas wells.
Shane E. Khoury is the deputy director and general counsel for the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (AOGC). He thinks there is sufficient regulation.
“The Oil and Gas Commission is serious about doing all we can to ensure that drilling and fracking is done in a safe way in Arkansas. Although accidents may occur, we have passed many regulations to ensure that the practice in Arkansas is highly regulated in an effective manner,” Khoury wrote in an email.
AOCG has nine members and, by law, a majority of members must have experience in the development, production, or transportation of oil or gas.
“Drilling and/or ‘fracking’ does have a potential to cause contamination. I am not saying that issues didn’t arise or that they weren’t serious events. I am just saying that they are often taken out of context and reported as global problems for fracking everywhere,” Khoury wrote.
He points to shallow production wells in Wyoming and a blow-out on a Chesapeake site in Pennsylvania where fluids spilled or discharged onto the surface due to poor regulatory oversight.
“The state allowed frack flowback to be treated and released into streams and other surface waters. This same fresh water flowed downstream and was eventually used for drinking water. This issue was caused by surface discharge, not the fracking process.”
Khoury points to Arkansas regulations such as a moratorium on disposal wells following increased seismic activity, requiring additional seismic data for disposal wells. Arkansas is the only state to impose a statewide noise regulation and amended casing and construction requirements to protect water supplies.
Khoury notes that Arkansas is the second state to require the disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing: “The reported fluids, additives, and/or chemical constituents are submitted to the AOGC under penalties of perjury.” However, the state regulation on fluids exempts any fluid declared a trade secret.
When Teresa Marks, director of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), came into office in 2007, the department was overburdened. Seventeen regular water inspectors responded to complaints, in addition to regular duties including wastewater treatment and oversight of industry.
“They had a full plate without the burden of the Fayetteville Shale,” Marks says. ADEQ was overwhelmed by the number of complaints as the companies were laying the groundwork: making roads and constructing pads.
Help came, ironically enough, when the Arkansas Game and Wildlife Commission leased some its land for drilling and used a portion of the funds to underwrite four additional ADEQ inspectors and another supervisor dedicated to permitting and inspection duties.
Marks says industry has made efforts to clean and recycle water, something that was not done before. Sand mining (for use in the fluid mix), sediment, and air pollution are also concerns.
“It’s in the industry’s best interest not to have those fugitive emissions. They are very difficult to see. It would be nice to do more testing, especially with the compressor stations,” Marks says. She would like to do more data gathering and additional testing of ground water and adjacent waterways. While drilling has dropped off since Marks arrived, there is still concern about the disposal.
Treatment centers, where fluids are treated and released to local surface water, are regulated by ADEQ. Injection wells, which pump fluids deep into geological layers, are regulated by AOGC and ADEQ. Recycled fluids can be re-injected into wells as fracturing fluid. Recycling is not regulated by permit but is subject to AOGC rules. Spreading water on local roads for dust mitigation is unregulated unless it otherwise presents a threat to state waters.
Even the industry’s harshest critics concede that some dialogue has taken place.
“We are not at all in disagreement with ADEQ or ANR [Arkansas Natural Resources Commission]. They were overrun. But we need better regulations, and it has to come from the legislature,” Greg Seaton says. He has met with Southwestern, Chesapeake, and others. “They are taking notice. Some have been helpful. They have worked with us on best management practices. I don’t want to muddy that up.”
In 2011, Chesapeake Energy conducted tests on Greer’s Ferry Lake and set off a groundswell of community concern. The issue surrounded the Army Corps of Engineers Little Rock District’s release of the permit. The Corps has responsibility for Greer’s Ferry Lake.
“We appreciate people’s concerns, and we share those concerns. It is a possibility that a gas company could drill under the lake. The Corps of Engineers did not always buy the mineral rights,” says Laurie Driver of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Local attorney Richard H. Mays sued the Bureau of Land Management — which administers the mineral rights — along with the Forestry Service and the Corps of Engineers to place a moratorium on drilling under the lake and in the national forest until an environmental impact statement can be completed in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
“We are in the process of trying to settle. But I don’t think they have the leases issued. And I have a close relation with them, because I have sued them a lot,” Mays says.
Mays downplays the threat of drilling under the lake and sees drilling in the forest, threats to the Little Red River, and wastewater containment as more important threats.
“I don’t think there is immediate cause for concern,” he says of drilling under the lake. “There would be a public uproar.”
Mays’ concerns are for the river and the forest.
“It takes 2 to 3 million gallons of water per well. That’s taken out of the water cycle,” Mays says — adding that there is probably improper disposal going on and that some companies are probably getting away with it.
“I don’t have much confidence in the regulators, because they don’t have enough people to do it.”
Most here will have to live with the bargain that the industry will get its way until something catastrophic happens. If nothing catastrophic happens, the industry will call their operations a success. Whatever the final outcome, the anxiety of the risk and the day-to-day burden of trucks, dust, and noise all take their toll on the notion of a placid, secure retirement or a livelihood based on natural settings.
“This property is in jeopardy because of what they are doing,” Lipsey says. “This is a resort property, where people come to get away from the rigors of, say, Memphis, Tennessee.”
Additional Reading:
Links
Maps of drilling sites from the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission (Requires Google Earth): http://www.aogc.state.ar.us/Maps.htm
Photos of drilling near Greer’s Ferry Lake: http://gotowebbuilder.com/savegreersferrylake/photo-gallery.html
The Economic Impact of the Oil and Gas Industry in Arkansas: http://cber.uark.edu/369.asp
U.S. Energy Information Agency’s natural gas page: http://205.254.135.7/naturalgas/
Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality: http://www.adeq.state.ar.us/
EPA study on hydraulic fracturing and drinking water: http://www.epa.gov/hfstudy/
Duke University study on methane: http://www.biology.duke.edu/jackson/pnas2011.pdf http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/cgc/
EPA study on Pavillion, Wyoming:
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/index.html
Army Corps of Engineers Press Release:
http://www.swl.usace.army.mil/news&info/news/2011/008-11.html
BHP Billiton:
http://www.bhpbilliton.com/home/Pages/default.aspx
Southwestern Energy:
http://www.swn.com/Pages/default.aspx
Time was when the Memphis City Council had the patent locally on eccentric conduct and discordant ways, while, across the downtown government plaza, the Shelby County Commission had a reputation for reserved, even staid behavior. No more.
In the last several months, the council has been made to seem a Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s Society by comparison with the commission, whose members have gotten themselves involved in near fistfights, censure resolutions, and, most notoriously, an endless disagreement on what should be the simple matter of redistricting themselves.
The Census of 2010 has been in the books for a while, and the redistricting plans of other governmental bodies have long since been concluded. The county commission, unable to agree, has an April 5th date with Chancellor Arnold Goldin, who will be asked to act in the role of Solomon.
The problem is not that the commission, which has debated the issue ad infinitum over the last several months, has deadlocked on a given hot-button matter. The points at issue have proliferated and varied wildly since discussion began last fall. To convey some sense of how kaleidoscopic disagreement has been: Last fall a distinct majority of commissioners favored an updated version of the current plan, one involving four districts of three members each and one swing district with a single member. Sentiment has shifted to the opposite viewpoint. Whereas only one member was holding out for 13 single-member districts in December, that position now represents the consensus, with only a distinct minority publicly favoring multimember districts. The breakdown now is over just how the lines are to be drawn, dividing the 13 districts-to-be. Every kind of motive — personal, political, racial — has intruded to prevent the achievement of the nine-vote commission supermajority which the county charter mandates.
And therein, for a body which loves above all to disagree, lay the opportunity for an ultimate disagreement that could lead to profound institutional crisis.
Given her responsibility to represent the entire factionalized commission, county attorney Kelly Rayne availed herself at year’s end of a sensible remedy: the appointment of seasoned lawyer Ron Krelstein as special attorney. Both because he believes that state law, which requires only a final majority of seven to achieve redistricting, trumps the county charter and because such an interpretation allows him to actually take into court a plan of some kind, Krelstein proposes to argue for “2-J,” a single-member plan that has successfully passed three readings with a majority of at least seven.
At this week’s commission meeting, however, dissenting commissioners prevailed on a majority to pass a resolution directing Rayne to force the county’s representative in court to defend the county charter’s requirement for a nine-vote supermajority. Krelstein has made it clear he will not act against his own best legal sense, embedded in a pleading already entered, and will resign from the case if required to. It is now up to Rayne to decide, among other things, whether the commission can legally enjoin her to enjoin Krelstein.
As if Chancellor Goldin, who will probably have to decide that matter, too, didn’t already have enough to unravel.
Categories
Game Changer
Vacant, rundown properties come a dime a dozen in Memphis, but things are looking up for a couple of local neighborhoods. Last week, the National Association of Realtors awarded the city of Memphis, the Memphis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR), and local homebuilders a $25,000 “Game Changer” grant to fund the demolition of approximately 20 blighted properties.
Thirty groups from across the country applied for the national grant, and Memphis was one of five cities to receive the full $25,000.
“These [blighted homes] are sources of declining property values for the neighborhood,” said Onzie Horne, the city’s deputy director of community enhancement. “They become centers of criminal activity. They present an obvious health and safety hazard for the community, so it’s absolutely critical that we eliminate those houses that are beyond rehabilitation.”
“The whole idea is to ease the burden of the city’s list of [vacant] houses,” said Lee Davidson Holt, chairwoman of MAAR’s Community Partners Committee. “The long-range hope is to create a pilot program for other cities to do similar things.”
Through collaboration, MAAR and the city will be able to reduce the cost of demolition from around $4,000 or $5,000 per house to a little over $1,000 per house, meaning their grant money will be enough to tear down roughly 20 blighted homes.
“We’re able to do with $25,000 what normally costs from $100,000 to $125,000,” said Aubrie Kobernus, director of governmental affairs at MAAR. “If other groups come in and bring additional resources, we’re going to have an even greater impact.”
To save money, area homebuilders plan to donate their time, labor, and equipment, while the city is helping with dumping fees and permit processes, Kobernus said. Most of the grant funds will go toward paying for fuel and soil.
“[MAAR] knows that the city is dedicated to demolishing houses that are beyond rehabilitation. They wanted to make a contribution of manpower dollars to help get that done,” Horne said. “The realtors want to be able to make a visible difference, to show a real impact on a neighborhood, and to prepare for the next phase.”
The city and MAAR are looking for houses to target for demolition, as well as strategies to produce something worthwhile on the land cleared. Some ideas include placing public art and community gardens on the properties. Demolition will likely occur in one or two neighborhoods with the greatest need, Horne said. The demolitions are expected to be complete by the end of the year.
“It’s not just tearing down the property,” Kobernus said. “It’s also coming up with a plan for what do to with these properties afterward, because if the vacant lot becomes a dumping ground and the grass never gets cut, it just becomes another nuisance for the neighborhood.”
It is difficult to follow all of the mind-numbing discussions that are going on in the 23-member Consolidated School Board and the 21-member Transition Planning Commission. My sympathy goes out to the members who are giving their time and effort to this work, and they should at least get free comfortable cushions for the time they sit there and listen to all the opinions.
I have been thinking about this debate, and I have an opinion on several key questions, one that is currently hot and another that seems to have been put aside and not discussed, at least in the media.
Who owns the school land and buildings in the incorporated cities outside the city of Memphis and in Shelby County? We are talking about Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, Arlington, Lakeland, and Millington. The liability for these buildings is on Shelby County government’s books, and the assets are on the books of the Memphis school system and the Shelby County school system.
It seems to me that if, for instance, Germantown wanted these facilities, the remaining liability (bonds issued for the purchase and construction cost of these facilities less the amount paid to date) should be transferred to Germantown’s books and taken off Shelby County’s books. This liability should be for the actual land and construction cost and not include any $3/$1 average daily attendance ratio that might have occurred at the time of construction.
Then the next step in this process, again taking Germantown as an example, should be a reconciliation of the tax rate for that city’s Shelby County taxes.
Germantown residents pay Shelby County taxes, and those taxes include a portion for education and a portion for debt. The portion paid to Shelby County for education should be reduced by the percentage of students that they promise to educate rather than have Shelby County educate them. Also, the portion paid to Shelby County for payment of bonded debt should be reduced to reflect the percentage of debt that they have taken over by assuming liability for the school bonds.
Of course, Germantown taxpayers will see their city tax bills go up in proportion to the new education and bond tax load, plus whatever else the city determines is required to run an educational establishment.
The result of this transfer arrangement would be that Germantown divorces itself from the Shelby County educational system and would be completely independent. Is that a good thing? That will be up to the people of Germantown, and any of the other incorporated cities in Shelby County that do likewise, to determine.
This analysis will no doubt be challenged by people on both sides who keep arguing that the suburbs must pay “a fair market price” or, on the other hand, that they should get the properties for free. I am not a lawyer, and there may be state laws and precedents that would not allow such an arrangement as the one I have proposed, but, as a businessman, it seems fair.
Now as to the other not so public issue: OPEBs. “OPEB” stands for “Other Post Employment Benefits” — mainly health care for retirees. On June 30, 2010, the unfunded OPEB liability for the Memphis City Schools system was $1.53 billion. In other words, they were paying 70 percent of the actual health care costs of retirees on an annual basis but ignoring the future costs. The Shelby County Schools system’s similar unfunded OPEB liability, as of June 30, 2010, was $242 million.
Now, when you consider that the Memphis school system has three times as many employees as Shelby County Schools, the unfunded OPEB liability, to be proportionate, should be in the range of $726 million, not $1.53 billion. The differential leaves $804 million to be assumed by the new combined school system. Is it fair to ask taxpayers to assume this unexpected burden? You have to ask the obvious questions: How and why did this occur?
I have been studying and writing about the operation of local government for a number of years, and I have come to one simple, obvious conclusion: Shelby County government and Shelby County Schools have been much better run from a financial standpoint than have city of Memphis government and Memphis City Schools.
I make no judgment on the educational achievement of the two systems, and I hope for a resolution that will be good for all the children. It seems obvious to me, from my background of 40 years in competitive business, that competition improves products and forces innovation and lowers costs. I say, let the competition begin.
Joe Saino follows public issues and writes about them on his Memphis Watchdog blog and in other venues.
Categories
Hill’s Bill
State representative Matthew Hill’s controversial House Bill 3808, named the “Life Defense Act of 2012,” has been toned down considerably, after being forced to defend its own life in the Health and Human Resources Committee last week.
The bill garnered national attention from physicians and women’s health advocates concerned about a clause that would mandate the collection and publication of extensive information on doctors who perform abortions in Tennessee and the patients who receive them.
Critics called the bill an attempt to intimidate and terrorize women seeking abortions and to put a target on the backs of doctors who perform abortion procedures.
After a barrage of negative press, that provision was removed at the behest of Hill in last week’s committee meeting.
“There are those who have used the power of reckless and false rhetoric to propel themselves to the national spotlight. They’ve been on national news programs spreading lies about me and about this bill and its intent,” said Hill, before introducing an amendment to remove the controversial provision in last week’s meeting.
“These individuals have attempted to dissuade me from taking a course that is best for the people of Tennessee and the culture of life that the majority of Tennesseans have said that they hold dear,” continued Hill, who hails from Jonesborough in East Tennessee.
With that, Hill introduced an amendment to reduce the bill to one provision, which requires physicians who perform abortion procedures in Tennessee to have admitting privileges at a licensed hospital in the county or a county adjacent to the one where the abortion is performed.
“The amendment removes the reporting requirements of the original bill,” Hill said. “That has become a distraction from the real purpose of this legislation, from the real concerns of this bill, which is women’s health and safety.”
Hill explained that the new bill would focus on providing “continuity of care” for women receiving abortion services.
“When a doctor is performing this kind of procedure on a patient, it’s important that they have admitting privileges at a hospital,” Hill said. “If something were to go wrong during an abortion procedure, the doctor could safely admit the patient into a hospital emergency room.”
But even the neutered version of the bill drew cries of concern from fellow representatives.
“There’s a wide variety of surgical procedures that are done in ambulatory surgical centers,” said Representative Gary Odom of Nashville, “but only in the [case of abortions] are you requiring the physician to have hospital privileges.
“My concern is how easy it will be for someone to get those hospital privileges,” Odom said. “The process is not simple. It can be a very lengthy process, and I’m concerned that’s one of the goals here that’s not being mentioned.”
Barry Chase, executive director of Planned Parenthood of Greater Memphis, agrees.
“This [bill] has only one intention, and that is to create a barrier for women who want to terminate a pregnancy,” he said. “Otherwise, they would make this for all physicians who work in ambulatory surgical centers.”
The bill was recommended for passage with the inclusion of Hill’s amendment and as of press time was scheduled to go before the Calendar and Rules Committee on Tuesday, March 27th.
Categories
Equal Access?
A state law that was designed to prevent local governments from passing laws protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) employees contracting with cities and counties may unintentionally allow for housing discrimination in Memphis.
The Equal Access to Instrastate Commerce Act was signed into law last year, and Mayor A C Wharton says the law also nullifies part of the Memphis Fair Housing Ordinance, which protects people based on “source of income.”
“Residents in Memphis no longer have recourse to fight discrimination in housing based on source of income,” local activist Jonathan Cole said. “If someone is on a disability income and the landlord decides he doesn’t want to rent to someone who is on a fixed income, they can turn them away.”
State senator Jim Kyle of Memphis is sponsoring SB2762, which, if passed, will repeal the Equal Access to Instrastate Commerce Act. When he introduced the repeal bill last year, he wasn’t aware of the Equal Access act’s effect on fair housing in Memphis.
“I got a letter from Mayor Wharton on the unintended consequences of this action,” Kyle said. “This is a perfect example of the folks in Nashville thinking they know more than folks in other communities.”
The Equal Access act says that “no local government shall by ordinance, resolution, or any other means impose on or make applicable to any person an anti-discrimination practice” that deviates from the definition of discrimination in state law.
The state human rights law protects people based on race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, or national origin. It does not protect people based on sexual orientation or source of income.
“Rather than identifying particular groups, the [Equal Access act] essentially said that the state and federal laws are the ceiling for provisions for nondiscrimination,” Cole said.
The Equal Access act does exempt employees of local governments from its restrictions, so Shelby County’s ordinance protecting LGBT employees still stands. However, a Nashville ordinance protecting LGBT employees of contractors was nullified after the act’s passage. If Kyle’s repeal bill is passed, Nashville’s ordinance and the non-discrimination clause in the Memphis Fair Housing Ordinance will go back into effect.
State representative Glen Casada of Franklin sponsored the Equal Access to Instrastate Commerce Act last year. Although the bill’s opponents believe Casada’s intent was to pass an anti-gay bill, he claims he was attempting to create uniform laws across the state with regard to contractors. He said he was unaware of any effect on housing in Memphis.
“One of the most important things for job creation and sustainability is a uniform set of laws across the state. When going from state to state, [contractors] know what is expected,” Casada said.
But Kyle argues that Casada’s bill is an example of government reaching too far.
“I have a philosophy that local governments should be able to manage themselves, and this anti-discrimination ordinance was a decision made by elected officials. Government closest to the people is best,” Kyle said.
At press time, Kyle’s bill was scheduled for a vote in the State and Local Government Committee on Tuesday, March 27th.