Apache Corp hooks-up with UTA - (Valentine Radio News 2017)

October 24, 2016

Apache Corp hooks-up with UTA

VALENTINE - Apache Corporation issued a $136,000 grant to have chemists from University of Texas at Arlington conduct a baseline analysis of surface and groundwater quality at Balmorhea State Park. Apache, according to CEO John Christmann, is already drilling in the area and could drill 3000 oil and gas wells in the next 20 years on land surrounding the world's largest spring-fed pool. The lead chemist for UTA is Dr Kevin Schug, who co-authored a similar water quality study of the North Texas Barnett Shale play. That study found methanol and/or ethanol present in 29% of the samples taken at private wells in the area. Both these chemicals are commonly used as solvents in fracking solutions. The Barnett study made no mention of injected frack fluids as a possible source of contamination.

Is Mexico a failed state?

VALENTINE - Mexico is America's No.2 trading partner with 531 billion dollars exchanged in 2015 and over 1 million legal border crossings everyday. “Yet, Mexico is in many ways a failed state,” said UT Austin Psychology professor Ricardo Ainsley, who spoke this month in Marfa, “There are areas of ungovernability, massive corruption, extortion, kidnapping, and over 1000 mayors were assassinated in the last decade,” Ainsley said. He further suggested that America is “part of the violence” and that we are “feeding the beast,” not only for our consumption of illegal drugs but also our weapon exports to Mexico.

A Ticket to Ride

VALENTINE - Elon Musk founder of Space X plans to sell round trip tickets to Mars by 2020. The flight may take as long as a year in space compared to Jeff Bezo's Blue Origin plan to take tourists from Van Horn to outer space and back in as little as 20 minutes. Moreover recruiting astronauts and tourists could be difficult. Gloria Leon, a University of Minnesota psychologist told the Christian Monitor, in August, “They miss the smells of nature, or the smell of food cooking. On a Mars voyage, Earth will be out of view. It will be the equivalent of twilight, looking out of the porthole. So there will be boredom – monotony, really – in terms of the environment.”

Lost Tribal Land Sweat

VALENTINE - A sweat occurred in a small community near the Brewster/Presidio County Line last Saturday. The ceremony, performed in a desert willow redoubt was led by tribal leader Juan Mancias of the Carizzo Comida Crudo tribe. Mancias and other members are in west Texas seeking to reclaim lost tribal land from the federal government, that Mancias claims was a violation of the Tehauacana Treaty.

Too late for Trap Springs 

VALENTINE - At the Quarterly board meeting of the Texas Historical Commission this month in Sealy, Trap Springs, an archaeological site that was nominated for official recognition did not make it through the certification process. Trap Springs located in the path of the Trans Pecos Pipeline, near Hovey Road in north Brewster County, showed signs of human occupancy for the past 5000 years according to archaeologist, David Keller. Keller filmed the bulldozing of the site by pipeline operator ETP last month.

Stripes Boycott

VALENTINE - For the third week in a row pipeline protesters stood in front of the Stripes convenience store last Friday in Alpine urging people to boycott the Energy Transfer Partners owned store. Kelcy Warren, CEO of ETP, the Trans-Pecos Pipeline, Sunoco and Stripes is the 83rd richest man in America according to Forbes Magazine with a net worth of 5.4 billion dollars. Stripes is a chain of over 600 stores and includes store brands Aloha, Aziz, Sunoco and MACS. The cluster earned 73 million dollars in net profit during the second quater of this year with 40% revenue generated from gasoline sales and 60 pct from sunglasses, tacos and other assorted sundry.