I had my bedroom window wide open all night. This morning my eyes were sort of stinging. When I departed here, about a half hour before noon, and saw a broad view of the sky for the first time today, I thought it was foggy.I was wrong. It was smoggy.
The first time I remember smog stinging my eyes was during the 1970s in Los Angeles. Los Angeles has greatly improved its smog problem over the years. I did not know until 1991 that Los Angeles has a range of mountains to the west that looks sort of like the foothills to the Cascades in the Puget Sound zone. All previous times the LA foothills were shrouded in smog.
There are no mountains to shroud in smog in the D/FW Metroplex. The closest thing to a mountain is the skylines of Dallas and Fort Worth. They were hazy, really hazy today.
I got an email yesterday from the individual known locally as The Watchdog. A videographer from the Environmental Defense Fund was going to be in town. The Watchdog was asking for any suggestions of examples of Barnett Shale related problems in the Fort Worth zone. All I could think of was the gas driller water pipeline damage to the levee by Beach Street/Gateway Park and the strange Chesapeake Energy pond that holds who knows what chemical stew by the intersection of Brentwood Stair Rd. and Cooks Lane.
Had I known today was going to be producing eye-stinging smog I would have suggested filming the hazy skyline. Or what I saw when headed north to Southlake today. By I-820 and Trinity Boulevard, on the southeast side of the intersection, a gas drilling operation has been going on for some time. Today there were a lot of trucks and a lot of smoke/pollution spewing skyward. That's what you're looking at in the picture at the top.
Is this what has had my eyes burning today? I can't help but wonder.
That aforementioned Watchdog has re-christened Fort Worth from its former nicknames of Cowtown and Panther City. The Watchdog calls Fort Worth, "Dirty ol' Town." I did not see a single cow or panther today. Dirty ol' Town seems much more appropriate.
My eyes continue to sting. Maybe I should shut the window.
2 comments:
I was out at lunch and looked to one side and thought my sunglasses were dirty, I cleaned them and nothing changed...
On the radio this morning they kept telling people the fire shooting out of the drilling operation at 114 (& I cant remember what, 121, maybe) was safe and the authorities were aware of it...it was causing traffic back up and calls to local authorities.
EDF did get some great footage of the polluted sky above FW yesterday. Today they are in the equally if not more polluted Wise and Denton county areas. Thanks Barnett Shale!
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