Oklahoma

The Farmers Union Cooperative Royalty Company has announced a new pilot project to help establish best management practices on new oil and gas drilling sites. Funded through private donations with federal and state assistance, the practices are to be created with assistance from local conservation districts and county offices of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, in cooperation with the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission.

"We hope this pilot project will challenge other industry organizations to participate in efforts to advance the vital conservation of our natural resources," said Hal Clark, current chairman of the Farmers Union Royalty Company board of directors.

The practices, aimed at containing drill site contaminants to protect vegetation, thereby reducing soil erosion and helping to protect water quality in runoff, are to be incorporated into conservation plans for the construction of new wells. The plan would stay with the site until the eventual capping of the well and dismantling of the location. The pilot project will test the program in two as yet unnamed counties and, if successful, could then be expanded across the state.

The Farmers Union Cooperative Royalty Company is dedicating the $10,000 pilot project in the memory of the late Vernon McNally who served as chairman of the board of directors of the company for 16 years. McNally had also served on the board of the East Woods County Conservation District from 1949 until his death in 2002.

"Vernon McNally dedicated his life to the wise use of Oklahoma's natural resources through his work in conservation and oil and gas production," Clark said.

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Hal Clark (center), chairman of the board of the Farmers Union Royalty Owners Company, presented Clay Pope, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts, with a check to kick off the new oil and gas site conservation pilot project. The project is dedicated to the memory of a former FUROC chairman, the late Vernon McNally. Mike Thralls, executive director of the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, who will cooperate in the project, joined the others for the presentation. (Courtesy photo.)

Date: 4/21/05