PRESS STATEMENT: December 5th, 2012 For more information: Dallas Residents at Risk Claudia Meyer, Mountain Creek

Neighborhood Alliance, 972-816-1005 Zac Trahan, Texas Campaign for the Environment, 214-599-7840 Dallas officials are considering new fracking applications for drilling sites on the shores of Mountain Creek Lake tomorrow, and the City Plan Commission could hold its vote on these as soon as December 20th. Neighborhood leaders and environmental groups are urging the Commission to recommend denying these gas drilling applications until Dallas has a new, more protective city ordinance in place. Advocates say theres a huge elephant in the room that must be addressed before fracking goes forward: Dallas has still not passed its new gas drilling ordinance. For two yearsever since the last gas drilling application was denied by the City Plan CommissionDallas has had an unofficial moratorium on drilling while city officials have considered how to craft a new ordinance. A special task force was appointed, testimony was heard, experts were brought in, studies were considered, other city ordinances were referenced, recommendations were fought over and voted on, and a final report was sent to Council earlier this year. If city officials have now decided to forget about all of that and simply move these new drilling applications forward under the old ordinance, then what was the point of the past two years? Some have suggested that Dallas officials believe they are legally obligated to consider the current applications under the current ordinance. If that were true, fracking wouldnt have come to a standstill two years ago. To the contrary, City leaders have repeatedly promised to put a new ordinance in place before moving ahead with drilling. The City Plan Commission has not voted on any drilling permits in the meantime. The Citys task force continually considered how its recommendations for the new ordinance would affect the drilling sites that are currently proposed. But even if this legal obligation does exist, the Council should certainly put an official moratorium in place now to prevent having this grandfathering problem arise again before the new ordinance is passed. By moving the fracking applications forward now, the City Manager, Mayor Rawlings and a few Council members are attempting to push this tough decision right back onto the City Plan Commission. They have failed to write and implement a new ordinance, so theyre now trying to pass the buck. Everyone has agreed for years that the current ordinance doesnt do the job of protecting Dallas residents. Even the gas industry spokesperson, Ed Ireland, publicly called for 600-foot setbacks during his August 1st City Council presentationtwice what the current ordinance requires. Neighborhood and homeowner groups, community leaders and environmental organizations have called for far stronger protections. And yet the Mayor and Council have refused to act and are hoping people will simply forget that it ever happened. All residents deserve clean air and water and a healthy environment, and Mayor Rawlings and the City Council should take responsibility for protecting our quality of life.