By Robert Medley
Managing Editor
There are some public roadways getting pretty muddy from oil well activity in Piedmont, a city councilman said, and he would like the roads near them to be a bit less messy.
The mud from fracking operations and all the vehicles and heavy equipment is causing a concern on Arrowhead Road / NW 192, west of Piedmont Road, said city councilman Byron Schlomach of Ward 5.
Schlomach asked the city council to amend the existing city ordinance or draft a new ordinance concerning muddy roads leading to oil wells. Mostly, current city ordinance deals with oil lease roads.
“I’m referring to oil pads that are along Arrowhead Road NW which I live on. There are three in particular,” Schlomach told council members at the Monday, Oct. 23 regular city council meeting.
He showed photographs that were projected on a screen for the council to view.
One is west of Piedmont Road on Arrowhead Road/ NW 192 east of Cemetery Road on the southside. He showed a photo of a gulley caused by erosion. Gravel has been used to fill it but rains washed it away.
The erosion extends along the bar ditches along Arrowhead. He showed photos of pavement covered by mud.
Another photo showed the Arrowhead pavement near an oil well pad that was muddy near Frisco Road.
“It doesn’t drain currently so there is a lot of mud that gets pulled out. Now Frisco Road is also not paved so we can’t blame them for dragging Frisco Road mud out onto the pretty part of Arrowhead Road there,” Schlomach said.
“We’ve lost, I don’t know a foot and a half of pavement there,” Schlomach said.
He said there are other oil pad sites in Piedmont that are not well-drained but not all have problems with the entrance.
“You can see the pavement, 4 to 6 inches (covered in mud,)” he said.
Arrowhead Roads are a problem, he said.
“Probably the worst ones in town are on Arrowhead Road as it happens. We would not put up with this kind of thing from a commercial site in a New York minute. These pads, these fracking wells, sometimes the traffic is a lot heavier than any commercial site we have in town,” Schlomach said. “And I just think we need to come in with a tougher ordinance.”
He said the existing ordinance that is mostly concerning access roads to oil well sites has not been enforced.
“We haven’t been doing a good job of regulating how this impacts other people, how it impacts how our town looks, and we need to be tougher on these well sites,” Schlomach said.
Council members voted to instruct the city attorney to look at possible amendments.
Councilman Ron Cardwell said he thinks one additional requirement is to have oil companies provide a drainage plan for their sites that can be reviewed by city engineers so such problems can be avoided with muddy roads.
The council unanimously voted to instruct the city attorney to research and possibly draft an ordinance based on the Monday, Oct. 23 discussion.
Read The Piedmont-Surrey Gazette and follow piedmontnewsonline.com for updates to local news and events.
