Dallas Morning News/ January 22, 2006 / Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe - Denton Record-Chronicle

Illegal brine dumping causes drab landscapes on FM407

Denton County: Culprit sought for dead trees, $10,000 cleanup 

          BARTONVILLE - James Price says he can't remember when he first noticed that the old trees along FM407 were dying.

          He drives the road between Bartonville and Argyle every day, and late last summer he noticed that some trees didn't have leaves.

          "And there was standing water in the culvert under Post Oak Drive - that was in drought conditions," he said.

          He and others reported the dying trees to the city, and officials realized that someone was illegally dumping into the culvert.

          An investigation by local officials and the Texas Railroad Commission revealed that the culvert was more than likely filled with brine byproduct from a gas well-drilling site.

          Argyle Fire Chief Mac Hohenberger said there was at least one other illegal disposal in a field in Northlake, but it was small, so no one reported it to the commission, which is responsible for the cleanup of oil and gas field sites.

          "These [brine] trucks are everywhere," he said.

          The investigation into the Bartonville site began with Denton County Fire Marshal Jody Gonzalez, whose office agreed to help with surveillance.

          "We set up for a couple of nights and saw a suspect vehicle, but nobody did anything," the fire marshal said.

          Chief Hohenberger said the surveillance confirmed suspicions that the material was probably brine.

          Oil and gas drillers use saturated sodium chloride brine solution in their drilling operations. When drilling is finished, trucks are supposed to take the solution to a designated disposal site.

          Brine hauler Lee Owens of Roanoke said there are many legal sites nearby, and that drilling companies pay for the trucker to dispose of the brine.

          He said for most haulers, there's no reason to take the chance of getting into trouble by dumping into a creek or bar ditch.

          "You'd be ruining your whole business for one load of water [brine solution]," he said.

          Mr. Owens said that he and his crew get paid by the hour, so it doesn't matter how many loads of brine they can dispose of. But some trucking contracts get paid for each load, so a trucker could make more money by not driving all the way to a disposal well.

          Thomas La Point, an environmental scientist at the University of North Texas, said the high level of salts and sodium in brine make it toxic to trees and vegetation where it is dumped, and harmful to fish if it flows downstream.

          Ray Horton, a Texas Railroad Commission geologist who supervises site remediation from the Wichita Falls office, said the commission evaluated the site and agreed to clean it up. It sent a crew to remove the contaminated dirt from the culvert in October.

          Mr. Horton said the cleanup cost $10,000.

          "It was one of the largest like this I've done in the past two years," he said.

          The commission spent about $3.6 million in 2005 for site remediation statewide, paying for most of that with fees and with fines collected from offenders, according to the agency's Web site.

          The number of trees lost along FM407 won't be known until spring. There are hundreds lining the creek bed in the area. With normal rainfall, it will take five years for other vegetation to come back, Chief Hohenberger said.

          Because those who dumped the brine have not been found, Chief Hohenberger encouraged residents to report suspicious activity to the fire department or the Denton County fire marshal's office at 940-349-2840.

          Brine haulers, who drive a tractor-trailer with a pressurized tank that looks much like a gasoline hauler, must register with the Railroad Commission.

E-mail pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com