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The Crowley City Council supported a memorandum of understanding with Chesapeake Energy Thursday night that may lead to more trees in parks across the city.
Chesapeake was required to install landscaping around well sites as part of obtaining a permit, but the new agreement releases the company from the requirement in exchange for its planting trees and shrubbery at alternate city sites.
Because many pad sites contain multiple gas wells, the council agreed that the city would benefit from spreading out the greenery instead of packing too many trees on individual sites.
The city and the energy company initially agreed that 14 trees per permit must be erected, but Councilman Jerry Beck said he thinks Crowley is becoming greedy.
“The original intent for the fencing and greenery was that we wanted to make sure as wells went up, they were aesthetically pleasing,” he said. “But I think we are abusing our requirements of the gas company.”
The city needn’t force Chesapeake to plant all 14 trees for every well when the actual pad site looks satisfactory, he said.
“Its taking advantage to try to decorate our city just because we can,” he said.
Several council members agreed, and the city will decide whether to use every tree at its disposal in the future.
The council also decided to support Burleson’s application for a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality analysis.
The convenience store chain QuikTrip Corp. plans to open a station on a 1.3 acre tract at the southeast corner of W. Renfro Street and Wilshire Boulevard in Burleson. Because the groundwater beneath the site is contaminated with benzene, Burleson is seeking a Municipal Setting Designation, which would permanently designate the groundwater at the site as nonpotable.
Because the site is less than five miles from Crowley’s city limits, the city must support the MSD for Burleson to move forward with a TCEQ application.
Sheri Campbell-Husband, Burleson’s neighborhood services director, attended Crowley’s council meeting to explain what an MSD is. She said MSDs are used in cases where the designated groundwater is not used for potable water, or drinking water, and probably will not be used for potable water in the future. The MSD allows TCEQ to remove the usual requirements for groundwater cleanup standards and then apply the next more stringent standards applicable to the site.
“The MSD allows for development without the cost,” Campbell-Husband said.
If an MSD is granted, TCEQ will be setting cleanup standards that would never be in place if the land was left undeveloped, City Manager Truitt Gilbreath said.
“There’s no reason not to pass this,” Mayor Billy Davis said in summarization.
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