What's Fort Worth Smokin'?: Part 2: Dr. Aremendariz Speaks

Interesting incoming from that tireless Dynamo Don Young regarding the air that we breathe here in Fort Worth, air with added goodies, thanks to all the Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers. When the Carter Avenue fracking took place and I blogged and YouTubed it, I got a dismissive comment from a Chesapeake shill telling me it was perfectly harmless and I was an alarmist.

We are all Guinea Pigs.

Below is Sunday's Don Young message....

Remember this?

Frack-job near Carter Ave. in east Fort Worth, TX, Jan. 2009.

Back on January 11, I posed the question, "What's that you're smokin'?", in reference to the plume of smoke/vapor/fumes/??? that escapes from a drill-site during the fracking phase. What is in that, "cloud of stuff", that we all breathe every day?

I put the question to SMU Professor, Dr. Al Aremendariz, whose research of air quality in the Barnett Shale has, in my view, cast a dark shadow over the "clean burning" myth.

His response and "final revised" report follows:

Sorry for the long delay in reply. I’d been working furiously to try and get the final revised version of the emissions inventory I was working on completing for EDF. In case you haven’t yet received a copy, I’ve attached one to this email.

After drilling the main well bore, engines, water, sand, chemicals, and pumps are brought to the site to frac the well. Towards the end of the frac process and for a small number of days afterwards, the gas companies will let the well go through a “completion” process. During this time, the well is often let to vent to the atmosphere. During the venting, large amounts of natural gas, water, sand, oils, etc., will rise to the surface.

If you are seeing a “smoke” or some other cloud during the venting process, its possible that in the visible cloud droplets and in the invisible gases around the droplets are mixtures of any of the following: water droplets, water vapor, hydrocarbon liquids, hydrocarbon gases, chemicals used during the fracturing process, small bits of sand, and ?.

I would be surprised if anyone has actually gone out and sampled the cloud of stuff. So, until there is a better understanding of what might be in it, it’s probably best to avoid getting directly downwind of a well venting process.

In a follow-up email to me, Dr. Armendariz pointed out that, whatever is in the plume "will dilute over space and time." He continued, "With these relatively unstudied emissions, its pretty hard to know exactly what the potential dangers are, and how the emissions compare to any nearby roads, highways, etc."

Good luck,
Al

There you have it. Without legitimate studies of "frack fumes", north Texans will continue to be guinea pigs while Fort Worth fat cats and a dirty industry rake in billions of dollars a year. Remember that next time you see a frack-job on your planet.

New question: Whose going to do the studies and when?

DY