PONDER — This summer is probably the last that Abby and Teresa Schofield will take carefree bike rides along the quiet stretch of Florence Road in front of their house.

Chief Operating LLC received a permit for, and plans to begin this week, drilling an underground injection well across from the Schofields’ home, and plans to begin operating it by the summer’s end.

DRC/Gary Payne

John Schofield and his daughters Teresa, left, and Abigail stand outside their house Saturday in Ponder. The Schofields are concerned about plans to put an injection well near their home.

The well, designed to push production waste from hundreds of area gas wells back underground, could bring as many as 160 to 180 trucks traveling in and out every day — or about one truck going by every four minutes, 24 hours a day.

Many Ponder residents, including the Schofields, are concerned not only about over-sized trucks but also the environment and the public water supply. Many on Florence Road worry about their property values, too, said Patty Schofield, Abby and Teresa’s mother.

“You couldn’t sell; the trucks would always be going by,” Patty Schofield said.

The Schofields were among 30 Ponder area families who formally protested in writing the permit for the third well. Patty’s husband, John Schofield, also took their daughters — Teresa, 11, and Abby, 14 — to a January hearing before the Texas Railroad Commission in Austin to protest.

The new well across from the Schofields is the third such well in Denton County.

The county’s first site is along Clear Creek near Era and the second site is near Stony and the Denton-Wise County line.

While some recent hearings on proposed injection wells have sparked lawsuits, busloads of protesters or multiple days of hearings, only the Schofields were able to attend on behalf of the Ponder area.

Teresa, who is worried about the turtles, fish and herons that populate nearby stock ponds, noticed that the company representatives limited what they said, too.

“They repeated over and over again that, if the water spilled, it would not hurt the surrounding life,” she said.

Chief Operating spokeswoman Kristi Gittens said the company proposed a design for the well that would have two layers of concrete to protect the well, including one that goes to the bottom of the well. The company’s design was different from what railroad commission engineers recommended.

“Our recommendation was superior to protect the water,” Gittens said.

Because the well will go more than 12,000 feet deep, drilling will take more than six weeks, Gittens said.

Company officials told the railroad commission the drilling waste would not affect nearby water wells or gas wells.

But the Schofields and many others aren’t convinced.

The girls watched the proceedings as their father talked about quality of life issues. Abby, who is home-schooled, said she learned how business people think and responded to questions.

“They had a one-dimensional view,” said Abby. “They can’t look at the three-dimensional view, where there are pros and cons, and the opinions of residents are involved.”

John Schofield said the hearing process was respectful, but he didn’t realize that the railroad commission stuck to issues surrounding the well design. Officials told him that they won’t consider things like land use or traffic counts in order to permit the well. 

When he got back home, he asked Denton County Commissioner Andy Eads for help.

Knowing that the county has no zoning authority — and thus no power to keep industrial land uses away from homes, schools and churches — Eads wrote letters and visited in person with railroad commission officials to try and persuade them to deny the permit based on concerns about the area’s water supply.

The Schofields and their neighbors, Wayne and Judy Simmons, both draw their water from drinking wells about 450 feet deep. The town of Ponder, Robson Ranch and Longhorn Company also supply drinking water to hundreds of other families in the area with their wells in the Trinity Aquifer, another 150 feet deeper.

According to public testimony by company representatives at the hearing, the company will bring production waste from its own wells, which are in the Alliance area of Tarrant County, and be able to save money without having to transport the production waste to Wise County any more. In addition, they will accept waste from other energy companies’ wells, too.

Although the protests over land use and traffic had no effect, Eads said it was important that the railroad commission and the energy companies continued to hear the residents’ concerns.

“This is a unique time in the history for Denton County as we’re trying to manage this type of economic development,” Eads said. “There’s a definite cost associated with it.”

Recent special legislation looking to ease some of the county’s problems specifically with road use went nowhere in the Texas Legislature, he said, and the continuing limits on the county’s authority is frustrating.

“As county commissioners, we do not have the authority to control it, just the authority to respond,” Eads said.

Abby and Teresa don’t want to leave the only home they’ve known, but they aren’t looking forward to another round of drilling, because the noise and the lights make it hard to sleep.

They aren’t sure what the new truck traffic will bring, either, but Teresa thinks it will destroy the new road in front of her home.

“The roads are not meant for elephants to run on them,” she said.

BY THE NUMBERS

Next week county road crews will finish rebuilding Florence Road just as Chief Operating LLC begins construction on its injection well between Seaborn and Blair roads.

Distance paved from FM2449 to Blair Road: 2 miles

Number of bridges: 1

Cost of road materials: $245,000

Thickness of new asphalt: 3 inches

Typical weight limit: 25 tons

Weight of one wastewater tank truck: 40 to 50 tons

Potential number of truck trips: 320 to 360 per day

Current daily trip count: 560