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Agencies answer drilling questions
By Chris Roark, roarkc@acnpapers.com
LANTANA – It took a while, but some of the residents who attended a town hall meeting Thursday in Lantana got some answers from state agency representatives regarding gas drilling and its health impact.
Residents from Flower Mound and other Denton County cities filled the auditorium at Tom Harpool Middle School to hear presentations from the Texas commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), The Railroad Commission of Texas, the Texas Department of State Health Services and the North Texas Groundwater Conservation District.
State Rep. Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound) and Denton County Commissioner Andy Eads hosted the town hall meeting.
Once questions finally began, many of them centered around gas drilling issues going on in Flower Mound. Jeff Whittaker, a Flower Mound resident, asked if it’s true that there is a difference between dry gas and wet gas. Flower Mound officials have been told the town has dry gas, which is less dangerous in terms of producing benzene, which has been linked to cancer.
“When you look at dry gas, you’re going to have less of a benzene concentration,” said Tony Walker of the TCEQ. “That’s not to say there won’t be any benzene. But through that process, we have found that part of the Barnett Shale, closer to Tarrant County, there is a dryer content. As you go away from that area, you get more of a higher moisture content, and as you go from that, you can get a higher level of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).”
Sue Ann Lorig, another Flower Mound resident, wanted to know how often gas facilities are inspected, saying it’s not done enough to help with pollution.
Gil Bujano of the Texas Railroad Commission said the commission inspects 100,000 sites a year and that there is a priority system in place, adding that in high-concentrated areas have a higher priority.
“We just don’t have the manpower to inspect them as much as we would like,” Bujano said, adding that some sites are inspected multiple times a year but others could go as much as three years between inspections.
But he said that the commission will inspect any well “at the drop of a hat” if it is brought to the commission’s attention.
“I want to know, without looking and checking at each well, that it’s being regularly maintained,” Lorig said, “and that it’s more often than three years. I would think a lot more often than once a year.”
Another Flower Mound resident from the crowd then asked why so many facilities are permitted if there are too many to be inspected. Bujano responded by saying people should lobby their local legislator for more help on the Texas Railroad Commission.
Flower Mound resident Patsy Mizeur provided another perspective, asking how much benzene is emitted when someone puts gas into their car compared to the amount released during a drilling activity.
Walker said a gas station study has shown that 11,000 parts per billion (ppb) are released when a vapor recovery device is not used. He said he expects the ppb to be closer to zero when a vapor recovery device is used.
Shannon Eldridge, toxicologist for the TCEQ, said studies show that 6,000 ppb of benzene can cause blood changes, and that’s after breathing in the benzene several hours a day for several days in a row. She said that’s considered short-term exposure, which is equivalent to pumping gas.
For comparison’s sake, the ppb numbers for the two drilling sites noted as having high levels of benzene per a TCEQ study of the Barnett Shale that was released Wednesday were 15,000 and 1,100. Both of those were in east Wise County. However, Bujano noted that one of those sites yielded a high level because of a capping issue. Both sites have since been repaired, according to the TCEQ.
Thursday’s meeting was called in part because of plans to build natural gas compressors and a commercial disposal well in a neighborhood near Argyle.
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