The opening paragraph says it beautifully:
Link fixed.
Blowing Smoke
Fort Worth’s air quality study makes things as clear as smog.
Wednesday, 14 September 2011 08:19 PETER GORMAN
What if you brought your car to a mechanic for a tune-up and he looked it over and said it was in good shape. But then he told you he hadn’t actually checked whether it needed oil, just made a guess based on a chart of cars of similar make and age. And he tested the wear on one tire, so he assumed all four were OK. And he hadn’t checked the transmission because you’d only paid $100 for the checkup and he’d run out of labor-time to investigate those systems. Would you be happy with that or would you want to wring his neck?
UPDATE: I just have to add a comment about this statement by Mayor Betsy Price:
Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price, who took office the day before the air quality study was released, said she sees its flaws but thinks the city can use the report to improve the air quality.
“First, I’m pleased because there are no immediate risks to public health,” she said. “But there are things we can do to mitigate the pollution. We need to implement best practices on drilling. We need more maintenance on equipment and more oversight by the city.”
Mayor Price, did you read the article? You cannot, with any intelligence, say that there “are no immediate risks to public health.”
The Dallas Drilling blog has a great illustration.
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They did an extensive study in Wyoming trying to figure out why their air was on par with a major metropolitan area like Los Angeles.
Guess what the only source they could identify as the cause? They have no other source for these to blame it on.
http://www.subletteexaminer.com/v2_news_articles.php?heading=0&page=72&story_id=1690
http://deq.state.wy.us/aqd/Ozone%20Forum/SubletteCountyToxicsStudy_Overview_Sept152010%5B1%5D.pdf
That’s done all the time with pipeline safety. It’s called Direct Assessment, where a pipeline digs up a couple of spots, then can declare the whole pipeline to not need any repairs.