Taylor McKinnon From: Sent: To: Cc: Subject: Olin Macnamara Tuesday, April 25, 2017 9:56 AM 'Dixson, Ashley' Travis Baer; William Thompson; Clay Woodul; Diane Beckham RE: Choke Canyon Reservoir Wells Ashley, Thanks for this update, please feel free to contact me as needed. Will stand byt& wait for the inspection(s) to see where they might lead us. Best regards, Olin Sent: Monday, April 24, 2017 5:09 PM Cc: Travis Baer <Travis.Baer@rrc.texas.gov>; William Thompson <William.Thompson@rrc.texas.gov>; Clay Woodul <Clay.Woodul@rrc.texas.gov>; Diane Beckham <diane.beckham@rrc.texas.gov> Subject: Re: Choke Canyon Reservoir Wells I have passed Mr. Baer's and Ms. Beckham's info on to Esteban (Steve) Ramos with the City of Corpus Christi. I'm sure he will give someone a call soon to coordinate; I believe the City has a boat at the project and will be able to accommodate the site visits to areas still underwater as well. I am continuing to compile information relating to plugged wells at Choke Canyon to see whether we can more closely determine which wells these areas may be from; I do see that we documented coordinates for many of the wells we had plugged that may help narrow them down to a more precise location than what was on the old maps. I'll be in touch when I know more. Thanks, 1
On Thu, Apr 20, 2017 at 8:35 AM, Olin Macnamara <Olin.Macnamara@rrc.texas.gov> wrote: Hi Ashley, Sounds good, thanks for this update. Please relay that we will be waiting for their contact with the idea of either a coinspection with RRC or access information if the on land areas are fenced. Our field personnel are equipped with laptops in their trucks which contain a version of the RRC mapping system and are GPS enabled, however we do not have access to watercraft. If a boatride is necessary to witness or inspect any the bubbling areas in the lake, I m hoping the folks there will have a boat available and will give our folks a ride? Best regards, Olin Olin Macnamara, P.G. Railroad Commission of Texas Oil & Gas Division, Field Operations 512 463 7070 Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2017 8:24 AM Cc: Travis Baer <Travis.Baer@rrc.texas.gov>; William Thompson <William.Thompson@rrc.texas.gov>; Clay Woodul <Clay.Woodul@rrc.texas.gov>; Diane Beckham <diane.beckham@rrc.texas.gov> Subject: Re: Choke Canyon Reservoir Wells Hi Olin, 2
We are having a conference call with the City of Corpus Christi on Monday, and will ask for a POC to contact Mr. Baer and Ms. Beckham. We are still searching and retrieving records to learn more about Reclamation's well plugging contracts; I've been preparing maps and documents for the conference call so I haven't been able to research them a lot, but I think they will be helpful and I'll provide everything I can. I hope I will be able to fill in some record gaps. I'll let you know more next week. Thanks, On Tue, Apr 18, 2017 at 3:52 PM, Olin Macnamara <Olin.Macnamara@rrc.texas.gov> wrote: Ms. Dixson, Could you please provide contact information for the person or department at the City of Corpus Christi? I would like to get this info to our district office to arrange inspections. Note that the lake locates in McMullan county, RRC district 1, and Live Oak county, RRC district 2, however both of these districts are covered by the San Antonio office. 3
Better yet, if you would have the person with the city to contact our district office in Corpus Christi, perhaps a coinspection of at least the on land site(s) could be arranged. I recommend emailing or calling Mr Travis Bear, San Antonio office director, or Ms Diane Beckham, assistant director. They are cc d herewith or can be reached at 210 227 1313, extensions 15 & 17, respectively. I cannot speak to the actual processes, funding, or timeline of plugging of these wells, if that is what is actually the cause of the bubbling, but I will bring your info to my supervisors. I can say that getting a local inspection of the sites is the first step forward, whatever the final result might be. Plotting your pinned locations onto the RRC GIS system yields little information; yes there are mapped wells nearby however 2 of those are not ID d (as discussed) and the one that is shows to be a drilled dry hole, TD of 300ft, from 1979. Please cc me on any emails to the district simply to keep me informed. Thanks, Olin Sent: Monday, April 17, 2017 3:14 PM Cc: Travis Baer <Travis.Baer@rrc.texas.gov>; William Thompson <William.Thompson@rrc.texas.gov>; Clay Woodul <Clay.Woodul@rrc.texas.gov> Subject: Re: Choke Canyon Reservoir Wells Hi Olin, I forgot to clear up the information on the points I have labeled 08010; we believe only one of them is correct, but we aren't sure which one. The GPS coordinates were provided by the City of Corpus Christi, who operates and maintains the dam and reservoir under contract with the United States. That well lies on privately-owned minerals, so I believe it falls under your purview. I understand it, along with the other well in Live Oak County, is currently on dry land due to low water levels, but I don't know whether anyone has located them. We are hopeful that at least the 08010 well could be re-plugged utilizing funds from the State Managed Plugging Program, if it needs to be re-plugged; I doubt we would be able to locate an owner since the well is believed to be so old. 4
The remaining wells in the kmz are in federally-owned minerals under federally owned surface (but were on privately-owned land and privately-owned minerals when they were drilled and abandoned), which is why I am trying to determine whether we would work with the Railroad Commission or the BLM, which regulates oil and gas exploration for Federally-owned minerals, to determine whether the wells should be re-plugged. I just want to have a clear direction before any of us proceeds with any action on the issue. If the Commission and BLM agree the Commission is the appropriate agency to work with, we will likely have the City work with the Commission, but if the Commission and BLM agree the BLM is the appropriate agency to work with, Reclamation will likely work with the BLM. Please let me know how we should proceed with this issue, and let me know if you have any questions. I appreciate your help! On Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 1:13 PM, Olin Macnamara <Olin.Macnamara@rrc.texas.gov> wrote: Ashley, 5
I ve received this message & the Google Earth locations, 4 cited areas of bubbling. I ll see what I can do to assist. Just curious, was the GPS data utilized here collected by USBR personnel, or reported to ya ll? I understood you to say that there has been bubbling at these locations for some time and that no sheens have been reported, correct? Do you know if inspection of the lake bottom has been conducted or is even possible at these locations? While we do have inspectors in the field, they are typically land bound, but I ll check with the 2 district offices involved here for anything they might have or know maybe from any previous citizen notice or some such. RE the attached: Plots of the GPS coordinates you provided for one of the wells (the western most one, located in McMullen county). From our conversation I m sure you ve spotted each of these on the RRC s GIS already; I will do the same in attempt to locate any data on any nearby well. Be advised that those wells spotted on the GIS with the GIS source location as Commission s hardcopy map are subject to the potential inaccuracies of the time. As such, they might be spot on accurate, or totally incorrect, or somewhere in the middle of these extremes. I have seen it all ways on these old wells. I ll be back in touch. Best regards, Olin Olin Macnamara, P.G. Railroad Commission of Texas Oil & Gas Division, Field Operations 512 463 7070 Sent: Monday, April 17, 2017 12:42 PM Subject: Choke Canyon Reservoir Wells Hi Olin, 6
These are the kmz for the old wells we spoke about this afternoon. They line up (at least approximately) with dry holes on the Railroad Commission's GIS, and would have been drilled when the land and minerals were privately-owned. We would like to look into having the wells re-plugged but are unsure whether plugging would fall under the jurisdiction of the Commission or BLM (since the minerals are now Federallyowned), and whether they could be plugged using a state cleanup fund, since we believe them to be very old wells that likely no longer have a responsible party. I've been running the issue with BLM as well, but I don't think I've found the right contact quite yet. I'd appreciate any help you can provide. Thanks! 7