Town of Flower Mound Oil and Gas Well Drilling Fact Sheet History : • Flower Mound’s first Oil and Gas Well Drilling ordinance was adopted in May 2003. A gas well ordinance must take into account the rights of all property owners, including mineral owners and land owners, relative to establishing surface setbacks and providing balanced regulations for responsible gas well drilling.• Considered one of the most stringent in North Texas, the ordinance was used by several other cities as a template …

OIL AND GAS WELL BONDS Wells drilled in Pennsylvania after April 17, 1985, must be bonded. The bond is a financial incentive to ensure that the operator will adequately perform the drilling operations, address any water supply problems the drilling activity may cause, reclaim the well site, and properly plug the well upon abandonment. The bond amount for a single well is $2,500; a blanket bond to cover any number of wells is $25,000. MONITORING DEP Field Operations staff inspect well sites to ensure that the operator sites and drills the well according to the permit and applicable laws. DEP staff also investigate complaints where an oil or gas well or drilling activity may be causing environmental or public safety concerns, especially when contamination of a drinking water supply is suspected. DEP inspects well sites from construction to reclamation to ensure that the site has proper erosion controls in place, and that any waste generated in drilling and completing the well was properly handled and disposed of. Also, well operators are required to submit a variety of reports regarding well drilling, completion, production, waste disposal, and well plugging. When called for, DEP employs progressive enforcement against well operators to ensure that facilities are brought into compliance. COMPLIANCE ASSISTANCE In addition to permitting and enforcement, DEP’s Oil and Gas Management Program staff works to instruct and advise well drillers and operators on best management practices and procedures for environmental controls and waste management. Compliance assistance helps to prevent future incidents of environmental damage. DEP’s Oil and Gas staff hold workshops for industry and will meet with applicants as needed to address environmental matters before well site construction begins. OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS Brine is the general term used for wastewater produced along with oil or gas; it can be very salty, therefore, injurious to plants and aquatic life. Because of the small volumes of oil or gas from most wells, and the sometimes large volumes of brine produced, the costs of proper waste handling and disposal can be the biggest factor in the cost of production. Finding low cost methods of waste management is very important to the economics of oil and gas production in Pennsylvania, particularly for oil production. DEP’s Bureau of Oil and Gas Management is working with the oil and gas industry and federal agencies to research effective, economical means for disposal of wastes resulting from drilling and production. In recent years, DEP conducted research funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to find effective methods of reclaiming unlined pits that were used to contain brine from oil wells, a historically common practice. Another project researched the environmental impacts of spreading gas well brine on dirt roads for dust suppression. This is a current common practice of reusing the brine in a beneficial way instead of disposal in a deep well or treatment plant. Evaluation of other waste management methods is ongoing; for example, using gas well brine to pre-wet road salt for de-icing. In the years before the need for well plugging was realized, or laws enforced, many oil and gas wells were abandoned without being properly plugged. This problem is especially acute in Pennsylvania because of the history of oil and gas production leaving thousands of abandoned wells, some dating from the 1800s. For most of the long abandoned wells, the responsible parties are also long gone.

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