Cooke County — Monday’s vote among Cooke County commissioners to proclaim opposition of EOG Resources getting a permit to coat local roads with chemicals led to more questions, and some answers, on Thursday.

EOG is currently in talks with the Texas Railroad Commission for a permit that would allow the energy company to create “road base” from oil drilling waste products and apply the mixture to private roads in its frac sand mining site in development near Saint Jo.

County officials have questioned the mining site, which still awaits other permits and already is controversial among residents in Cooke and Montague counties due to its alleged environmental threats to air and water.

During Monday’s meeting, officials questioned the site’s road base procedure. They complained the procedure would create more truck traffic in western areas of Cooke County, which could pose danger.

And the road base mixture itself has come into question. Officials are concerned that an asphalt composite of oil drilling by-products, slathered onto local roads, could leach into groundwater supplies.

County Judge John Roane said he has issued a letter to the railroad commission in disapproval of the road base operation.

“We, in no way, oppose EOG or any of their other operations in that part of the county,” Roane said Thursday. “It’s just that one little thing. And in my letter to the railroad commission I have said, in fact, that if a public hearing results from any of the protests that are lodged from the citizens, then perhaps all of the questions that arise could be answered. And a lot of the fears of the citizens of Cooke County could therefore be calmed.”

Roane admitted he still isn’t sure why EOG even needs to create road base.

And though a permit would make it legal, the procedure appears dubious to him.

“We can’t even go and put oil on the county roads anymore because of the environmental problems,” Roane said. “But we don’t exactly know what they want to do on their leased roads.”

EOG Public Relations Specialist K Leonard explained the intentions Thursday in an e-mail. She said the road base operation is a recycling procedure that will provide the roads with a solid surface and will help eliminate dust created by trucks that use them.

If the material wasn’t used for road base, her e-mail added, it would wind up in approved landfill sites.

“Already, some of the landowners with whom EOG has leases have recognized the positives of this process and have asked to be among the first to get hard-surfaced roads on their properties,” Leonard wrote. “Using recycled drill cuttings — which will be processed according to state-prescribed standards before being placed on the road — provides a useful purpose for these materials.

“They are recycled into an engineered asphalt road base material that can be used to build more stable lease roads, which will generate less dust, require less maintenance and will improve driving conditions.”

Roane’s concerns about the environmental factor relate to what current local road practices do and do not allow. “It seems strange that if we can’t even put oil on our county roads, and are limited in the types of compounds we can use, we just wonder what kind of compounds EOG has to be used inside their property that might, over the years, contaminate the groundwater,” he said.

In her e-mail, Leonard explained that road construction is tightly regulated in Texas and assured the procedure will comply with regulations. “Before the engineered road base material can be used, it must meet leachability standards and compressive strength standards equivalent to those used by the Department of Transportation for highway construction material,” she wrote.

Leonard added later that EOG’s road base permit will require daily monitoring of the engineered material. And Roane said though he doesn’t know why EOG wouldn’t simply dispose of their drilling waste, that particular question isn’t crucial to answer.

He’s more concerned about what will eventually be poured onto roads.

“It’s important to the citizens of Cooke County that we find out what it is that’s going in there, and to make sure that we represent the citizens of Cooke County for now and for future years,” he said. “But from the county’s standpoint, we have no problem with EOG.”