The Texas Dish That Is Incredible & Inedible

I don't know why I paid no attention to all the incoming DISH, Texas information when it first came at me. Barnett Shale burnout? Maybe. I picked up just the gist, that being more accusations of Barnett Shale activity poisoning the air, killing animals, ruining lives.

Maybe I tune it out because no matter how big the latest offense might be, it seems nothing is done about it.

This week's FW Weekly's cover article, titled "Sacrificed to the Shale" is the first indepth look I've had at what has people upset about DISH. And now that I'm up to speed on DISH I'm more aggravated by what is happening in DISH than I was about what happened in Arlington so Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys could have a new stadium.

DISH's first claim to notoriety came when the town agreed to change the name of their town from Clark to DISH (spelled with capital letters) in exchange for the DISH Network providing all DISH residents free basic cable for 10 years and a free DVR from the DISH Network.

The short version of what has gone wrong in DISH is several of the Barnett Shale natural gas exploiters decided the somewhat isolated Denton County town of DISH was a great location for gas compressors. I believe there are now 7. They are very noisy, 24/7. Like a jet engine type of noisy. Pipelines bring un-odorized gas to the compressors, where it is compressed, odor added and then pumped out on more lines.

Eminent domain was used to take land for the pipelines, leaving the property of several people in the DISH area with property sliced up and useless.

And then farm animals began to get sick and die.

And then vegetation, like hardy trees began to die.

And then people started feeling sick. Some moved.

And then it was discovered that emissions from the compressors put a dangerous level of nasty chemicals into the air.

No Texas regulating agency seems to do any regulating of these type bad behaviors.

The EPA, as in the Federal Government is starting to get a bit cranky about how lax Texas is regarding what is spewed into the air that people breathe.

So, there you have the short version. Read FW Weekly's article to get the whole picture.

Read Texas Sharon's Blog for a lot more info about the DISH Scandal and other nefarious Texas gas woes.