 Mike, chairman, thank you and thank the members this morning for joining us. And I I have the pleasure and blessed to serve as mayor of this great city. And I know that I see familiar faces that that I served with in the Senate after having served as former county judge and as a former House member. So I was house broke when I when I got to the Senate line. And very comfortable in in my boots then. But we very much appreciate all of you taking the time to to visit our city and to discuss the critical and timely issue before us, urban drilling. This is a challenge. This is a challenge. We're honored to to be your host for this important hearing. Anything you need while you're here, Mr. Chairman, let us know. And we will we will take care of it. On behalf of the 730,000 plus people who call Fort Worth home, I want to commend all of you, each of you individually and all of you collectively for your service to the people of this state. That's a tough job, some long hours time away from your families, time away from your businesses. So we thank you for scheduling this opportunity to be able to dialogue with you about the challenges that are associated with oil and gas development within urban areas of our state. You're in the heart of that activity. And as you know, there is no other city in Texas that has seen more urban drilling activity than Fort Worth. As a consequence, we continue to have serious questions and concerns about safety and long term effects of this natural gas boom. There are other gas plays in Texas. There's one in South Texas in Plain now. There are other plays around the country in Louisiana, the Northeast. But one of the most important questions that we have locally is how state and local governments can work hand in hand to enable oil and gas production to proceed in a manner that ensures the safety and well being of our citizens. In our case, the activities center on the recovery of natural gas. Expansive activity in our city has been both a blessing and make no mistake, a challenge. Bless you. If you are properly, if you are a property owner who owns mineral rights, you are reaping a modest and unexpected financial windfall. Something that might help pay off the mortgage, might help put that kiddo in college, might take care of grandma in the nursing home. If you live near drilling activity or production site, you've got health issues, you've got noise, you've got traffic concerns, safety. And during the past 10 years, we learned a lot about the challenge of drilling and production. We have a local gas drilling ordinance that is a model for the state and for the nation. Sarah Fullenwater, who's here today and other members of our staff, worked very hard on that product as have numerous task forces with the input of this city and our citizens. The ordinance covers many quality of life issues such as noise setbacks, truck traffic, other issues related to drilling and production in our city. As issues arise, we have carefully, very carefully adjusted this ordinance to meet the needs of our diverse communities. We're doing all that we can within our power and within our authority to ensure that our citizens are safe and that their quality of life is not compromised. It's a delicate balance to strike. Make no mistake, the impact of the Barnett Shale will be long lasting. The drilling and production will continue for the next 30 to 50 years. There's a lot of product in the ground. And after the drilling has ceased, we face another challenge. Fort Worth will deal with land use restraints because we're not going to be able to build anything over those plugged and abandoned well sites. For the city can address the quality of life issues surrounding urban drilling and production and our experience has shown that state agencies are somewhat limited in their ability and their authority to regulate the technical aspects of drilling and safety issues. Although Fort Worth has done a remarkable job in protecting the health, safety and well-being of our citizens, we respectfully request that this committee and the Texas legislature helps to address several important and outstanding concerns, and they are as follows. First, we see a significant disconnect between the Texas Railroad Commission and the TCEQ. I think that's something you all already see. With respect to environmental oversight, there is a lack of clear assignment of regulatory jurisdiction over oil and gas exploration. It may take months to determine whether an environmental issue is the responsibility of the Railroad Commission or the TCEQ. Instead of an environmental safety issue being addressed immediately by the state, it lingers, possibly endangering the health and welfare of our citizens. The legislature should consider this being a call for the establishment of a memorandum of agreement, an MOA. You've heard of them before, or an appropriate vehicle we believed with respect to air quality jurisdiction between the Railroad Commission and the TCEQ, where the left-hand does indeed know what the right-hand is trying to do. Regulations be similar to the current agreement in place for water quality, so it's not an unknown, unprecedented type of approach, but it's something we think is worth looking at. It would clearly define the mandates for each agency and facilitate the sharing of information. Furthermore, I think it would help to define local regulatory authority over gas drilling operations. Secondly, the issue of pipeline safety has been and continues to be a major concern to the people living within the boundaries of the Barnett Shale. Unless pipelines cross city-owned properly, municipalities have little knowledge or control of the location or the construction of pipelines. Citizens are not down here monitoring where those pipelines are going to go. So we believe that the legislature and we would ask them to consider to direct the Railroad Commission to adopt rules that extend regulatory control to local governments for routing of pipelines so cities can ensure that these pipelines are not near heavily populated residential areas. Give us the tools. Let us do the job. Third, we ask the Texas Railroad Commission to consider enacting regulations that require centralized production facilities for tank batteries, compressors, and gas pipelines from well site and saltwater inspection wells. We believe that this will reduce the number of those facilities and their impacts on urban development. Fourth, we would respectfully request the Texas Railroad Commission consider adopting regulations that would encourage the use of the joint use of gas well sites as well as pipelines. This will help minimize the number of drill sites and the impact on our residents. Finally, there is one additional critical concern, resources. There is far too much self-monitoring by the oil and gas industry itself. Self-monitoring is symptomatic of the root problem at the state level of insufficient resources. That's why they're doing so much of the self-monitoring. And it is imperative that staffing for the Railroad Commission and the TCEQ for that matter be adequate to ensure that these agencies effectively regulate drilling production operations. They don't have enough folks to get the job done. And I think everyone on that panel in which you serve is aware of it. I'm talking about the regulation not only of urban areas like Fort Worth, but throughout the state, throughout the state. Not only must the Railroad Commission and the TCEQ regulate these oil and gas facilities that are in place today, it's got to keep up the pace with the enormous industry growth. As mentioned earlier, you've already got another big shale field in play. That is going to continue to grow. There is no doubt that the American oil and gas industry is going to grow as the cost of foreign oil and gas rises. Consequently, the state through the Railroad Commission and TCEQ must be proactive, not find itself having to be reactive. Thanks to advances in technology, drilling production will continue and increase. It will continue to expand in areas that have never seen a drilling rig before, just like our city. Fort Worth City Council has an obligation and a duty to do everything within our authority to protect the safety and the sanctity of our communities. The state carries that same duty and responsibility, Mr. Chairman. We believe that there are actions the state can take that will allow drilling and production to continue while mitigating negative impacts to our residents and our natural resources like our air and our water. So, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the economic impacts of the Barnett Shale have indeed been a blessing. That additional new wealth in our city has helped us to weather this difficult economic storm that we're trying to dig ourselves out of right now. Make no mistake. However, as local and state officials, it is our responsibility to adopt regulations that guarantee the safety of well-being to our citizens and to their property. So we want to thank you for your time. This morning, Mr. Chairman, either I or staff members are certainly here to answer your questions. I know you've got a lot of speakers today. Again, I thank you all for your service to this state. We welcome you to our backyard. We're very proud of this city. We're very proud of our quality of life here. We are blessed. We are truly blessed to have the Barnett Shale, which has helped us through some difficult times, but we have to have your help to meet the challenges ahead. So thank you again, and I'd be happy to respond to any questions you might have. Thank you for your testimony.