Breathing Free While Dallas/Fort Worth Has A Level Orange Ozone Action Day

Today my previous Texas location is having itself a Level Orange Ozone Action Day.

My current location is about 120 miles northwest of my old location.

Apparently 120 miles is distant enough to escape the extreme pollution that pollutes the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

I am looking out my computer room window, right now, at a horizon which has no haze.

Clear blue sky.

I have now been out of the D/FW Metro Mess for almost two months.

Long enough to make note of some interesting changes.

When I lived in Western Washington I never had any allergy woes. Or breathing woes. After my exile to Texas I soon developed various breathing woes. As in clogged up nasal passages which soon had me using nasal spray addictively.

I also had several bouts of extreme allergic reaction to allergens, like pollen blowing in from Hill Country.

And then there's the D/FW dust.

I have a glass topped coffee table that made the move from Washington. At my location in Washington that glass topped coffee table never got dust covered. Soon upon arriving in Texas I found that I was constantly removing the coating of dirty dust from that glass.

I figured my Washington location must have been dust free due to its negative ionizer air filter.

Well, that same glass covered coffee table is at my new location in Wichita Falls. And it is totally dust free after being here almost two months.

Same thing with the water here. At my previous Texas location something in the water was always making a scale like coating. The stainless steel kitchen sink was a challenge to keep shiny. Same with the shower curtain.

Here the water does not leave behind any sort of residue. What are the water treaters doing different here in Wichita Falls which has the water being so much, I don't know, cleaner?

I don't think the D/FW zone is a healthy place to be living, for a number or reasons. That may be true of many highly populated urban zones.

But, I think D/FW, and Fort Worth in particular, may be much worse than the urban norm. Fort Worth is the only large city in the world which has allowed fracking on a massive scale. Fracking puts all sorts of bad stuff in the air. Lots of dust due to trucks. Lots of noise when drilling. Lots of chemicals during the fracking. Lots of air pollutants when the gas is extracted.

Too bad there is not some sort of environmental protection agency monitoring the air we breathe and stopping the worst of the polluters from polluting...

Gas Driller Caused Allergy Driving Mom From Home

On December 18, 2009, I blogged about seeing something appalling while walking in Veterans Park in Arlington.

A Barnett Shale natural gas drilling rig hovered above an apartment complex, appearing to be very close to the apartments.

What about the 800 foot rule between a drilling operation and residences? Did Arlington, a town known to run roughshod over citizen's property rights, not impose any distance rules?

Doesn't the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality over see such things? Well, worded correctly, is the TCEQ not charged with the responsibility of protecting Texans and their environment?

Well, sadly, we've all come to know the answer to that question. The TCEQ has been co-opted and corrupted with the installation of natural gas industry lackeys on the Commission, letting the fox watch the henhouse in yet one more example of corruption in Texas.

After I blogged about that noisy, too close, drilling operation in Arlington, I heard from Lynda, the daughter of the nice lady I talked to who was being made miserable by the around the clock noise coming from her new neighbor.

Let me interject before I get back to Lynda. Why is it if you call 911 to report that someone is disturbing the peace, as in drilling in the middle of the night, why is this not treated by the police in the same way as it would be if an individual were producing an equally noisy decibel level?

Back to Lynda.

I heard from Lynda again today. The situation has grown more dire for her nice mom. Here's what Lynda had to tell me...

Hi Durango...

Lynda the "nice lady's daughter" again. Yes, I was a passenger in the VW.

My Mom, the nice lady has already started to have allergy problems and her apartments smells of chemicals. My daughter went to visit today and after 10 minutes, had a sore throat and runny nose and complained that my Mom's apartment smelled of chemicals. It then hit me that my Mom's recent severe allergy problems and asthma as well as headaches could well be caused by the chemicals being released from the gas drilling at the tower sitting so close to her apartment.

I then called the EPA who said I needed to call the Texas Railroad commission. I am now awaiting a call from an attorney. from the railroad commission. If nothing else, I am hoping that the property will be forced to allow her out of her lease which expires in April because with her health problems, she cannot stay there.

Whatever became of Dr. Al Armendariz? The new head of the EPA in this region. There were such high hopes, with he being the guy who had shown that the gas drilling was causing some heavy duty, dangerous pollution, that the TCEQ and the corrupt local governments, like the City of Fort Worth and its Conflicts of Interest corrupted mayor, Mike Moncrief, would somehow be giving a good sound spanking by the federal government and a no longer toothless EPA.

Where was the EPA and Dr. Al Armendariz when Fort Worth mayor, Mike Moncrief, put on his bizarre dog and pony show to announce that there is no pollution being caused in Fort Worth by the gas drillers?

It is all very perplexing. I am getting real tired of being perplexed all the time.

Fosdic Turtles Like High Humidity While My Eyes Burn With Morning Sickness

That is a herd of Fosdic Lake turtles and the bird they worship, sitting on a log. I like turtles. I think they may be the only reptile that I like.

Plus, they make really good soup. There is no warning not to eat the Fosdic Lake turtles, like there is not to eat the Fosdic Lake carp.

Due to some rain and temperatures in the 80s it is very humid out there. I'll go check with WeatherBug to see what the Heat Index is. Okay. Checked it. Real temperature 84.5. With the high humidity Heat Index having it feel like it is 89.5.

Which explains why I overheated slowly walking the paved trail around Fosdic Lake looking for spare change on the ground. I found 12 cents and 4 golf balls. A very lucrative walk. Plus that turtle I caught for lunch.

Two of my corespondents are knocked out today, ailing at home. I think the symptoms sound like morning sickness, but this is being vehemently denied. My secondary diagnosis is poisoning from exposure to pollution spewing from the thousands of Barnett Shale Natural Gas wells in this urban zone experiment to find out if such heavy duty poking into Mother Earth, in an area where millions make their home, is a healthy, sane thing to be doing.

Every day there seems to be fresh reports of Citizens of the Shale (that's what we love to call ourselves. Or was that a Chesapeake Energy ad slogan? I don't remember) who are claiming that fumes from the gas wells are making them sick.

Currently I seem to be having a constant kicked in the gut feeling. This could be purely psychosomatic. Or I may be suffering from the male version of morning sickness. Or it may be being caused by the air that I breathe. I am also having a burning sensation in my eyes that is similar to what I experienced decades ago in Los Angeles, back when the LA smog was thick and orange.

So, that's the hell I'm living this Thursday in Texas. Turtles, burning eyes, steamy heat and I'm 12 cents richer. No wonder I'm such a happy guy.