Gas Wells Causing Air Pollution

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has a serious problem with air pollution. It is so bad that the federal government is forcing Tarrant, Dallas and the surrounding counties to take action to bring it under control. Until now, most of the blame has fallen on automobiles and certain local industries (such as the huge cement plants south of Fort Worth).

Drivers in the area must pay extra to test their car emissions, and make repairs to keep those emissions within acceptable limits. Even so, it looks like more onerous changes may soon be on the way for metroplex drivers. But it looks like another cause of a significant amount of the air pollution may have been ignored -- the production and transport of natural gas.

All gas wells must be accompanied by a storage tank. To the naked eye, these storage tanks seem innocuous enough, but infrared viewing of the tanks show a significant amount of volatile organic compounds are escaping from these tanks. These volatile organic compounds contribute to the areas ozone problem to the tune of about 38 tons of pollution every day.

This means it would make up at least 8% of the metroplex's air pollution. And it's not just the tanks leaking pollution. Compressors used to move the gas along a pipeline are also leaking the same kind of pollution into the air.

This 8% would be bad enough, but there is a push on right now to vastly expand gas production in the Barnett Shale (see above figure for the area this covers). There is even new drilling going on in residential neighborhoods and the downtown area of Fort Worth. The result of all this new drilling will be to enlarge the amount of metroplex air pollution from gas tanks and compressors.

We already knew of the ugliness, the environmental destruction, the danger of leaks and explosions, and the poisoning of ground water caused by gas drilling, and now we learn it is also significantly contributing to air pollution.

Drilling for gas in or near metropolitan areas may enrich a few people, but it is expensive and dangerous for all the people in that area. It is time for the Railroad Commission and area leaders to act in the best interests of the people.