Wilson County is lucky enough to have an oil boom going on, after 25 years of almost no activity. A number of issues have come up.

1. Temporary water lines in the County R-O-W. It takes millions of gallons of water to "frac" horizontal wells. Allowing an operator to run a temporary water line can prevents hundreds of round trips of huge water tankers off of a a gravel road. Is anyone allowing this?

2. Agreements with operators about over weight loads. In some circumstances, operators are offering cash, or upgrades to existing county roads. What can we get, and how do we get it without stepping on TXDOT'S toes?

3. 9-1-1 addresses. What can we do to get operators to address their locations? We have already had 9-1-1 calls made, where the rig hands want fire or EMS sent to the XYZ drilling location, on the Jones lease. Our dispatcher has no idea where that is, and all the guys on the rig, all from far away, know is that they are in Wilson County.

4. Seismic lines in the County R-O-W. What rules do we need to protect us? I've written a bunch, but what have other people done?

5. Leasing the County R-O-W. I can review a lease, but concerns should I have that are particular the County Government. Especially where, on our gravel roads, title to the land beneath our R-O-W is often murky.

Is this something that other counties are having issues with? Should it be a topic at the Civil Seminar, or in September?

we typically dont allow lease of county ROW....Unless the lesee qualifies as a public utility. Is there athourtiy to allow it and how do you dfferentiate between oil lines and other private companies who may want to use the ROW for some business in the future?
Suggestion of gps coordinates for rig safety and locating 911 calls....looks like the safety coordinator for the drilling company(and most have em) would be happy to make sure each rig has some identifier.
Just my $.02 worth

I'm pretty much with my neighbor to the West. We don't lease our ROW to any one for anything. Public utilities can force the issue...but short of that the answer is a resounding NO.

We have had the weight issue with the turbine companies. Our only authority is on the county roads, and for those we have made an agreement with the company that they may pass, but the roads will be kept in a condition acceptable for passenger cars and will be "repaired or rebuilt" to the commmissioners' satisfaction at the conclusion of the project. I can share sn agreement with you, if you would like. It calls for dust control, interim repairs and so forth.

My husband was a safety engineer for decades. It is the responsibility of the company to make sure that the county / EMTs can find the rig. They should be checking with you and offering coordinates or location help on all of these - as well as a 24 hour phone number that connects to a human being.

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

In the Natural Resources Code a law requires County government to issue bids for the lease of oil and gas under their property. So under your courthouse you own the fee simple and can lease the minerals. Under a county road that you own fee simple, you own the minerals, you can lease them. Under a ROW where you have an easement for passage of motor vehicles, you do not own the minerals. Under state roads that you bought and paid for so the state would maintain them, the state owns the minerals and will lease it. At least I think I got that right. A look at your deeds will provide far more insight on this issue. If this road just exists, no paperwork - well you are not alone. But the county does not own the minerals.
Once you have production, a natural gas company that has a "common carrier" license from the state will have the same rights in your ROW that AT&T has, in other words somewhat unwelcome and unfriendly to county interests.

County roads are actually more tricky and I suspect I was wrong to suggest you had authority to lease minerals under County roads where you own the fee simple. We have had one situation where we did the research and I did not like the outcome. I suspect the County takes roads on behalf of the state. As a general rule the title folks for the oil and gas company will have it right so your title research is ignored.

In Hansford County we allow waterlines with approval of commissioner. They must have written permission of the the abutting land owner because the fee of the land is still in the land owner. I guess we don't mind a nice 150 bbl a day oil well on the tax rolls.

We require repair of roads but we don't get into permitting on weights or prepaid amounts for permission to mess a road up.

We have had turbine companies offer to pave our county roads. We have usually meet them half way. My commissioners require them to provide the material and the commissioner will grade and pack. My commissioners want to control the width, crown and ditching of the road.

911. Hansford County is flat as a pancake. You can see a rig for 30 miles so I think the rig can be found.

The minerals on most all county roads belong to the abutting owners so our concern with seismic is with the road itself.

I don't think the county can ever "lease" the road for a fee, rent or such. The user either has a public right, or a right as a public utility.

I guess we operate on a premise that if our citizens make money and if there is something that goes on the tax rolls, that this is all is for the common good of the county. I drive across the state going from the northern Panhandle to Dripping Springs (to see my grandchildren, and son and daughter in law,) and I notice that the roads (and everything else) look a lot better in counties with a lots of oil and gas (and wind turbines) so all that traffic on those roads can not be doing that much harm. John

I think that A.G. Op. JC-0238 may answer the question on whether the county can allow temporary water lines on county r-o-w.

I read JC-0238 as saying "it depends." Depends on the type of estate the County has in the ROW, depends on the intent of the Grantor (if any) of the R-O-W, and whether the subsurface estate (if separate from the R-O-W) is being infringed upon by a surface temporary water line.

The permit Wilson County uses specifically states that we are giving the drilling company permission to use our R-O-W, and nothing else. The Drilling Company is cautioned that there may be a subsurface estate owner, and required to indemnify the County against any claims brought by that possible subsurface estate owner.

The safest answer, legally, is for the County to say no to these requests. But fracking a big horizontal well can take hundreds of 18 wheeler loads of water, and one temporary line may be used in the drilling of three or four wells. So a temporary water line may keep two thousand or more (counting both in and out) 18 wheeler trips off the County Roads.

Maybe I am wrong, but I believe a 2009 amendment allows for pipelines to be placed in the right-of-way of county roads.

Utility Code Sec. 181.005 was amended by the 2009 Legislature to allow gas corporations and utilities to place pipelines along a county road in a county right-of-way. Previously, they could only go under a county road, but the new legislation changes that. The good news is that the gas company or utility must comply with safety regulations and get a permit from the Texas Railroad Commission before doing so.

[This message was edited by Ken Sparks on 06-15-11 at .]

I'm bumping this topic to see if anyone has had any new issues pop up.