Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association

Today or in the next few days, you may receive a blanket mailer from Vantage Energy regarding their application to drill an initial 7 of an anticipated 50 wells at a drill site located in Wedgwood Square at the corner of S-820 and Granbury Road.

This mailer includes a statement of support which Vantage Energy wishes you to sign and return in a postage paid envelope so that the company can present it to Fort Worth City to support the company's drill site permit application.

Here is what you should know now and why Wedgwood Square asks you to WAIT to sign and return this waiver:

Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association has NOT reviewed and does NOT endorse residents' signatures on this waiver or any other document presented to you at this time, as it was NOT negotiated with the Neighborhood Association and as the company did NOT inform the Association that they would be mailing this document to residents and did NOT seek neighborhood input or support to do so.

There are approximately 50 high-impact homes located in Wedgwood Square that will back up to this drill site and that could be impacted due to proximity.

The 2008 SFWA/Vantage lease agreement requires separate written agreements between Vantage Lessors within 1,000 feet of a drill site and the company, in advance of drilling to address drilling setbacks (how close some operations can be to homes) and other environmental protections included in the agreement that the company wishes to have exception to.

The City of Fort Worth requires a hearing for drill site permits when a company has not obtained the high-impact waivers from residents within 600 feet of a potential drill site, per the City's Drilling Ordinance. Vantage Energy filed its application for permits requesting a hearing in anticipation of not obtaining these waivers from the residents within 600 feet of their site.

Wedgwood Square began negotiating high-impact waiver agreements for residents leased to Vantage Energy and was making progress addressing concerns such as toxic emissions testing/capture/mitigation and pipeline location/quality testing/safety, which could protect everyone. Remember there is no magic wall around these drill sites, not at 600 or 1,000 feet that will keep emissions or other safety and quality of life issues contained within the area.

Vantage Energy ceased discussions and negotiations on this waiver and stated that the company would seek "statements of support" (like the one you received by mail) to counter the lack of high-impact waivers that the company did not obtain from homeowners within 600 and 1,000 feet of the drill site, per the Vantage Lease obligations and City Ordinance requirements.

Wedgwood Square Neighborhood Association is NOT against drilling and recognizes the company's self-created time constraints and the fact that the majority of Wedgwood Square residents are leased to Vantage Energy with a primary term expiring in the Fall of 2011.

However, Wedgwood Square wants to be sure that all of our residents are safe and protected at such close proximity to this industrial activity and further wants the company to honor its commitments set out and agreed to in the Vantage Lease and imposed by the City's Drilling Ordinance.

Therefore, Wedgwood Square asks that you WAIT to sign this statement of support until Vantage Energy honors its obligations in an honest and ethical manner, negotiates and obtains its high-impact waivers and works together with the Neighborhood Association to complete this process.

According to witnesses who attended both the Overton South and Foster Park meetings referenced in the letter forwarded to you by Vantage Energy, the attendance was not at all close to 100% of the residential population of these neighborhoods and therefore it is questionable that Vantage has truly obtained close to 100% or even 30% of these neighborhoods' residents' signatures on statements of support.

Further, Vantage Energy has approached a few of Wedgwood Square's high-impact property owners with poorly worded and non-protective waiver agreements that were not negotiated with or even reviewed by Wedgwood Square Officers. The Vantage Representatives who approached our homeowners with these waivers made false statements that the company had worked with the neighborhood to produce the document and that the neighborhood was supportive of the document and further made questionable claims that the City of Fort Worth would override the community's wishes even if these residents chose not to sign these waivers.

Wedgwood Square is disappointed in Vantage Energy's actions and will work hard, as it always has, to protect this community and its residents.

Please contact Wedgwood Square with your comments or questions.

Thank you Wedgwood Square!