Friday, May 2, 2014
Why do Denton residents have to spend thousands to detect benzene in their backyards?
There are two things I want to address in this blog.
First,
I have asked Dalton Gregory to remove my endorsement statement for his election from his blog and he
will do so on
Sunday when he returns from a trip. It was inappropriate for
me to issue political endorsements like that when I am working as a member of a
non-profit educational group.
Second,
air quality tests that Denton DAG recently released show benzene at dangerous levels in a Denton neighborhood
near gas wells.
Air
monitoring is so important because in the backwards Texas regulatory system, fracking is treated
as innocent until proven guilty. Even though we know the industry is using
carcinogenic and toxic chemicals, the burden of proof falls on the residents to establish that those
chemicals are trespassing into their
neighborhoods and their bloodstreams.
That
means it is up to local communities to monitor the industry. Southlake, Grand
Prairie, and Hurst all have monitoring programs as part of their drilling
ordinances.
For
two years, DAG repeatedly recommended a program
be built into Denton’s ordinance.
When
it came time for the final vote in January, 2013, Denton City Council, including Councilman Gregory, did
not include a monitoring program in the ordinance. BUT they promised
to make an air monitoring program as a stand-alone requirement. This, they
said, would be even better, because it would avoid the vested rights issue so
that monitoring would apply to all gas well sites – old and new.
I
expected City Council would get to work on this right away. But they didn’t. In
fact, in the fifteen months since they made that promise, they have had one
meeting about air monitoring. Our
elected officials have done nothing to monitor the air and not enough to
protect the health and safety of the people who elected them.
I
know lots of people pushed the issue, but I’ll just speak for myself. I wrote
e-mails and made phone calls. I met with city officials to see how we could
start a program. I wrote blogs trying to spur action. DAG brought Jay Olaguer,
one of Texas’ leading air quality scientists, to Denton to give a presentation
on monitoring. Jay and I tried to work with Denton and other cities to build a
regional consortium for monitoring.
There
was little cooperation and no action.
The
city could have required in the
ordinance that operators pay
the expense of monitoring. Instead,
citizens have to pass the hat to collect the thousands of dollars it takes to
get Summa canister samples. They have to wait for months on end to get a few
hours with one of the only FLIR cameras in the region (these cameras can cost
$40,000 or more).
And
when citizen test results confirm the
presence of toxic chemicals, industry
spouts lies about how the cameras are only seeing heat waves when in
fact those cameras are designed
to detect and make visible only
toxic chemicals, not heat waves.
This is the same old stuff out of the tobacco industry’s playbook.
The city’s failure to implement its own monitoring
system has given industry the ability to say there is no danger, placing the
time and expense and responsibility of proving that there is danger on the
backs of the citizens instead of the city.
We
need to flip this backwards system. Ban fracking until we have proof that it
can be done safely – that it can be done without sending benzene into the homes
where our kids are sleeping, into the schools that they attend and
playgrounds and parks where they
play.
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I don't disagree with monitoring. But monitoring without action is near useless, unless you like to collect data for the sake of collecting data. There's a very expensive air monitor in DISH, but as far as I know, there's no one at the TCEQ monitoring the monitor. Heck, there's no one around to respond when the 'alarm bells' start ringing. If the monitor even had alarm bells. I think it was two Novembers ago, around Thanksgiving when the air monitor detected spikes in emissions. Then mayor Tillman had to call the TCEQ Director to get someone from the TCEQ out to the site. Naturally, by the time the 'investigators' arrived, the emissions had slowed, so any detects were at or below limits. So, monitoring is a good thing. a very good thing. But it needs to come with a hammer.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Hammering the point home with a ban
ReplyDeleteSo gas production is the only source of benzene? If we ban fracking for polluting our air, can we also ban brick production & copper smelting?
ReplyDeleteDo people still drill for wells? I would love to put on in my yard. I think that would really help with water payments.
ReplyDeleteBill | http://www.mudix.com.au
Like most polluters, they know when to set off their flares. Cosden refinery in Big Spring loved thunderstorms. The moment a downpour ensued, the flares were turned up until the glass would rattle on my parent's home overlooking the refinery, and cast everything in a warm glow, a mere 5 miles away. Emissions be damned, the rain would carry the pollutants to the ground and gave the refinery the opportunity to burn off anything that was clogging their stacks.
ReplyDeleteI have more faith in the city council and the citizens to keep you liberals from bankrupting TX. You think wind would be better, but it causes just as many problems, if not more, and it is very inefficient and expensive. Look at the U.K. and Spain. You quote all kinds of problems with fracking, but provide no proof. Toxic chemicals, is too vague. You also have no proof that "toxic chemicals" are in the air or water. With huffington post and other liberal rags touting your efforts, you have no standing with me. You liberals want to ban oil and gas, and you dont care the cost. You should just move to NY or CA with your friend pushing the petition and drive a Nissan Leaf.
ReplyDelete