FW Weekly article on Titan’s Barnett Shale air study

The Barnett Keeps Bubbling
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Peter Gorman

Despite the deceptive headline from the BSEEC, it’s clear the TITAN Engineering Barnett Shale air study doesn’t pass the smell test. The FW Weekly gives a more complete picture of the study origins and the many flaws.

We still don’t have an explanation from BSEEC or TITAN for the high levels of formaldehyde. It seems this is one time when Ed Ireland isn’t talking.

One point he didn’t want to discuss was the high levels of formaldehyde found at two of the sites tested. “The report discusses that issue,” he said, and would not elaborate.

Now we have a clearer picture of how heavily involved TITAN is with industry.

“TITAN Engineering has close financial ties to Chesapeake Energy. They are the testing firm of choice for Chesapeake whenever Julie Wilson [a spokesperson for the energy giant] wants to prove that a person’s contaminated property isn’t the result of Chesapeake drilling,” Rogers said. “Even more importantly, Doug Canter of TITAN, the person in charge of the recent testing, told everyone at a recent Fort Worth League of Neighborhoods meeting that he gave all of the owners of the sites to be tested a three- to four-week heads-up on when and where the testing would occur. Now you can clean up a lot with that kind of notice.”

DISH Mayor Calvin Tillman, whose town is at the epicenter of the Barnett Shale furor, agreed with Rogers and also had other concerns.

“The real issue is that despite the study being designed not to find anything, there were still loads of chemicals that were found,” he said. “Other studies that have been done by DISH and elsewhere have had the element of surprise to them. This was a best-case scenario [for the industry], and there were still chemicals in the air. So I think this study, despite how industry is portraying it, clearly shows there are things to be cleaned up.”