Can you say smoke and mirrors?
Geren made clear that his involvement in the letter doesn’t mean he is siding with the environmentalists in the shale drilling debate or that he supports the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent efforts to take over regulation of the state’s air quality.
“I think the EPA is full of crap, and I want to install the monitors, monitor our air and figure out all the problems and address them,” Geren said. “The only way we’re going to know if we’re screwing our air up is to go and test it.”
Star-Telegram
We already know we are screwing up our air! Barnett Shale toxic emissions are in our air. These emissions are making people sick! We need immediate emission controls to stop the emissions thereby protecting public health and maximizing profits.
NOTHING LESS IS ACCEPTABLE.
They will put these monitors in locations away from the offending facilities. Then, when the monitors do detect high levels of toxins, they will say it’s from some other source. This has happened in DISH and Flower Mound. The TCEQ has no intention of taking any substantial action to protect the public.
Keep the damn emissions in the damn pipes!
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.
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An excellent post. How true you are about the worthlessness of the TCEQ. They provide little to no help for the ordinary citizens.
The air monitors are not only expensive-costing $250,000 per and $100,000 annually, they are also quite useless. Unless, of course, you like pretty colors and lines on a webpage, because only you will and your fellow taxpayers will be looking at the monitor. The TCEQ does not monitor their own monitors, and we know this from the exceedences reached in DISH, TX on the night before Thanksgiving. If the mayor hadn't called TCEQ Mark Vickery, the TCEQ wouldn't have had a clue there was a problem. Vickery then dispatched several teams of investigators into DISH, and whaddya know- couldn't find the source, they just know where it's not coming from- any of the gas facilities or equipment.
With all the compressors and assorted shale gas drilling activity in Dish and the surrounding communities, why haven't the RRC and the TCEQ set up base camp there?
So, I see 3 things happening, and in any possible combination of them, based on previous experiences in the region:
1. The monitors will be inaccurate, and under report some important pollutants,
2. The monitors will not look for health affecting chemicals, like CS2,
3. The results will not be looked at carefully, if at all, or someone will say "just average out the readings for a full year, and the limits are never reached!"
If I recall correctly, these monitors are not monitoring several chemicals that are making people sick.
Also, last year didn't the TCEQ incease the "acceptable level" of allowed emissions so more toxins may be in the air.
For the same reason the TCEQ has never set up 'base camp' anywhere. If they did, they would find exceedences, and then find the source, and then have to actually do something about it. The TCEQ only shows up when you call them, and even then, it could be up to 14 hours later (which is better than their previous system of showing up whenever they got around to it.) There's not too many sites that have a high constant level of emissions, so the TCEQ getting out to a site at when that's happening isn't likely to occur. One of the reasons the TCEQ got out to the site near our home in time is because I had prior experience-the operator was venting from a frac tank. I called the TCEQ as the operator was setting their equipment up the second time, and the TCEQ arrived shortly after they started venting.
TCEQ monitoring is highly flawed and (in many cases) biased to the low side. Things like water scrubbers on the inlet side get the water out and the toxins dissolve in the water and the downstream meter is reading "0"!!