If you'd asked me yesterday if the gas drilling in the Barnett Shale was killing school children I would have said that seems unlikely.And then this morning I got email from Don Young about schools in Texas exposed to cancer-causing toxins, along with high rates of kids getting cancers.
Read on for today's Don Young Report....
USA Today reported Monday that, exposure to cancer-causing toxins for students near industrial areas is much worse than expected. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, elementary schools in Midlothian, Texas "rate worst in the USA for exposure to caner-causing toxins. The city has three cement plants."
The USA Today study is based on data collected before gas drilling became widespread in the Barnett Shale. Read the entire USA Today article here.
Read more on this subject in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Now, consider this: There are nearly 10,000 producing gas wells in the Barnett Shale and thousands more have been permitted by the Texas Railroad Commission. In Fort Worth alone, over 1,000 natural gas wells have been drilled inside the city limits within the past three years, dramatically increasing air pollution by at least three-fold, according to a peer-reviewed study by Dr. Al Armendariz, of Southern Methodist University.
As he pointed out in a recent lecture, Barnett Shale drilling activities are the largest source of smog (NOx and VOC), greenhouse gases and air toxic compounds in North Central Texas.
How large?
>>>Substantially greater than all area airports, including, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
>>>Substantially greater than all the motorized vehicles in a nine county region.
>>>Greater than three cement kilns???
Good question.
Read Dr. Armendariz' complete report here. (In a hurry? Read Executive Summary on p.1 and scroll to the Conclusions on p. 34:):
Question #1:
If three cement kilns are putting kids in N.C. Texas at unusually high risk of cancer, asthma and other health concerns what will 15,000 new gas wells do to them?
Question #2:
Why are Fort Worth elected officials and the Texas Railroad Commissioners still issuing drilling permits?
Question #3:
Why aren't they enacting a moratorium on ALL drilling until the men and women who own and operate this dirty and dangerous industry clean up their act?
Seriously, 100,000 new gas wells in the city couldn't increase air polution by three fold, let alone 1,000. Natural gas is the cleanest fuel we have. In fact, the greatest act that the epa could do to reduce greenhouse emissions would be to mandate all new 18 wheelers coming off the assembly to run on natural gas. And the wells have nothing to do with burning the fuel, in fact, very little gas actually excapes into the atmosphere from these wells to their sales pipeline. Even the wells that run off natural gass compressors put off very little emissions when compared to your gasoline powered car and the diesel truck blowing black smoke in front of you. Understand as well that the greatest production of methane into the atmosphere is actually from gasses created at landfills. Furthermore, who told you that natural gas and specifically methane (the main hydro-carbon composing natural gas in the barnett) was carcinogenic? There is no link between cancer and gas wells. Now run back to Al Gore and see if he has any more bad science for you.
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