Today, my favorite Air Geek made an observation and shared it with me.
The wind is out of the north according to Weather Underground, albeit at 1mph or so. Usually this means the southern tire of monitors – Redbird, Arlington, Midlothian – start to creep up. But tha’s not what’s happening. Instead monitors in Grapevine, Keller and Mecham Field in FW are all over 85. These are usually the monitors that go up when the wind is out of the S-SE, carrying coal, kiln and central city emissions into the NW corner of Tarrant County. That they would trip when the wind is coming from the opposite direction is unusual.
Now, look on a map and tell me what sources are north of the tripping monitors. I don’t think it’s traffic in Denton or Decatur.
If only I had made a screen print of the maps (the maps update so it won’t be the same map from earlier) from right after lunch you would see that the orange sites were in Tarrant County. The north wind was blowing some of that VOC laden air from Decatur and Denton. It’s certainly not the Decatur traffic causing all that bad air.
From EDF’s analysis:
- The oil and gas industry releases about 42 tons of ozone forming VOC emissions per day in Wise County.
- The oil and gas industry releases about 37 tons of ozone forming VOC emissions per day in Denton County.
- 100 tons of VOC emissions are produced daily from all of the cars and trucks in the nine-county DFW ozone non-attainment area.
Here’s a screen capture of the Grapevine monitor.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
- Web |
- More Posts(5121)
Quit with the more-is-better monitoring charade and FIX it already.
Now. Before my daughter gets the same kind of grows-in-through-the-sinuses brain tumor as her friend.
It was cool today, too.
Anon 12:06
AMEN! But, tell me more about your daughter's friend. You can email me. Click on About me.
They don't measure for much of anything, except ozone. For instance, some of the NOX's react with moisture in the air to make things like ammonia. They don't look for ammonia. No H2S or SO2! It would be good to even know the air humidity.
If you want low numbers, get the WCEQ to make the measurements. Now the EPA has fallen into the trap. The contraption must be industry friendly, since I don't hear any polluters fussing about it!!!
My husband returned home on hwy 1171 today and saw miles and miles of nothing> Then he came into north Ft Worth and saw the wells and correlated that to "water availability" in Ft Worth is why the wells are here, otherwise they'd be out in rural areas along hwy 1171. He's worried about a year we get a good drought from now with this drilln making for a real problemo.