Oil and gas landfill prompts concerns from Elysian Fields residents

• Meredith Shamburger  www.marshallnewsmessenger.com

An oil and gas landfill set to begin operations in Elysian Fields has drawn concerns and ire from residents who are worried about environmental contamination and traffic.

Community members gathered Thursday night at the Elysian Fields Fire Station to hear from local officials about the site and from activists fighting similar landfills from the same owner in Waskom and Paxton.

The site, a stationary treatment facility for commercial surface disposal, treatment, waste separate and reclamation, sits on more than 187 acres on Waskom-Elysian Fields Road northeast from the intersection of FM 451 and FM 9. It is owned by M2T, LLC (McBride Operating), the same owner as a smaller oil and gas landfill in Waskom that has been subject to neighbors’ complaints.

The Elysian Fields facility includes one monofill consisting of six cells; two contact water ponds for temporary storage of contact water prior to reuse or on-site disposal; one salt water disposal well; one covered receiving pond; two covered fluid management ponds; three covered collecting/receiving ponds; two covered mixing/drying pads; and one commercial oil reclamation facility for truck wash water and non-hazardous oil and gas wastes with high liquid content.

Elysian Fields residents say they are concerned about several aspects of the facility, including potential groundwater and aquifer contamination, as well as potential contamination of the east and west forks of Socagee Creek and the air surrounding the facility. Other concerns include Elysian Fields’ limited equipment and small fire department, which would be responding to major incidents, and expected heavy traffic from trucks delivering the oil and gas waste to the site.

Another issue cited Thursday was the lack of notification about the facility. Harrison County Judge Chad Sims said county officials were not aware of the site, and Elysian Fields firefighters noted they were not aware of it either.

“That’s exactly what’s happening here. Literally nobody in this room knew this was happening, and it’s been going for over two years,” Jerry Cargill, who has been fighting a similar landfill with the same operating company in Waskom, said. “So I’d like to tell you, we’re in great shape. We’re not, but the best chance we’ve got is to get people that have skin in this game.”

Sims, along with Cargill, recently traveled to Austin for a Railroad Commission meeting at which the Paxton site was on the docket. The Railroad Commission is responsible for permitting oil and gas facilities and enforcing regulations.

Sims told the meeting they met with the commissioners and shared their concerns about the site’s company and its operations in Harrison County, which have included a number of violations, to which Sims said they listened and agreed to enforce proper regulations. But he also noted that previously-reported violations were not addressed.

“There have been a number of violations, and there seems like there’s no teeth from the Railroad Commission,” Sims said, who noted he supports oil and gas operations when they follow proper regulations. “They’ve got a lot of good rules, but their enforcement is very much lacking.”

Sims highlighted a concern about water quality. Harrison County sits on a large aquafer, and the county’s watershed flows into the Sabine River — both of which provide drinking water to area residents. Any potential leakage from the site is a concern for contamination.

Sims noted the facility is required to have monitoring wells, but similar required wells at the Waskom site were found not to be working — and weren’t addressed for more than a year.

“I think it’d be very wise for us to drill a few monitoring wells back there, sample them now before you ever get started, so you have a baseline and he can’t come back and say, Oh, well, the water was already bad out there. No, we checked it before we ever got started,” Sims said.

Cargill has been fighting the Waskom landfill for several years. A proposed expansion was pulled, but Cargill notes the company is up for a five-year renewal — the application submission has not yet been completed despite the renewal period ending in July, and yet the facility is still in operation.

“We are still fighting, and since he’s not gotten his permit in any of you that would like to help us, you can protest it,” Cargill said.

Sims said another one of the things they are concerned about is norm — naturally occurring radioactive material.

“It is in almost every bit of oil field waste you can find tank bottoms,” he said. “And that’s you all see these big tanks, big steel tanks, fiberglass tanks, on these locations over time, sludge, sediment built up in the bottom of those things. They call that tank bottoms. It almost all has norm in it, naturally occurring radioactive material. It’s it’s natural, it happens. This site is supposed to have none of that. They are not permitted to take norm.

“I’m not sure what they’re going to bring in there that wouldn’t have it, I mean, maybe some drilling mud there. There may be some instances that it doesn’t happen. A whole lot of oil field waste is going to have norm in it. And so if they’re being properly inspected, I think a lot of that’ll get turned away. It shouldn’t be here.”

Both Sims and Cargill noted that Harrison County, and in Paxton in Shelby County, the landfills being built are serving oil and gas waste coming in from Louisiana, where they have stricter regulations that don’t permit the same type of disposal.

“It’s really sad for me to think that Louisiana has stricter rules than Texas does, but it’s the honest truth,” Sims said.

He encouraged the community to contact the Railroad Commission about their concerns.

“The Railroad Commission is very political. You got three commissioners who are politicians, and what do they respond to? Heat, letters, publicity,” he said.