Texas Moves to Install Air Monitoring Station inside the Eagle Ford Shale to Study Fracking
13 October 2014, 06:11
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Texas has moved to respond to complaints of air pollution due to
fracking activities in South Texas, with the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality (TCEQ) installing an air monitoring station inside
the Eagle Ford Shale.
The station, the first in the area, will be installed in Karnes County, an area where thousands of oil wells have been sunk over the past few years. Until recently, the sole monitoring station was located in the outer part of Eagle Ford in the city of Floresville, reported News 4.
Over the summer researchers tried to measure how much of that air pollution is blowing up into San Antonio. News 4 Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila was the only reporter to go along on that project, and now the results have been released. A team of researchers from UT Austin spent 12 days driving around the Eagle Ford Shale taking air samples in a special air monitoring SUV.
“This is a Chevy Suburban that we have outfitted with equipment that measures air pollution,” said Dave Sullivan, who headed up the research team.
We went along as they took samples upwind and downwind from the heaviest oil and gas drilling areas. They’re trying to determine if gases released during the fracking process, and emissions from the equipment, are drifting into San Antonio and increasing our ozone levels. Ozone causes breathing problems for people with respiratory conditions.
“Knowing there are certain triggers that are going to trigger my asthma, that's a big concern to me, a very big concern,” says Trish Perez, who takes breathing treatments for her asthma.
Nitrogen oxides, which are usually produced by equipment and vehicle exhaust, tend to be hot and float higher into the air. The researchers believe the oxides wafted up and blew past the mobile monitor into San Antonio. TCEQ paid the UT-A researchers $100,000.
The station, the first in the area, will be installed in Karnes County, an area where thousands of oil wells have been sunk over the past few years. Until recently, the sole monitoring station was located in the outer part of Eagle Ford in the city of Floresville, reported News 4.
Over the summer researchers tried to measure how much of that air pollution is blowing up into San Antonio. News 4 Trouble Shooter Jaie Avila was the only reporter to go along on that project, and now the results have been released. A team of researchers from UT Austin spent 12 days driving around the Eagle Ford Shale taking air samples in a special air monitoring SUV.
“This is a Chevy Suburban that we have outfitted with equipment that measures air pollution,” said Dave Sullivan, who headed up the research team.
We went along as they took samples upwind and downwind from the heaviest oil and gas drilling areas. They’re trying to determine if gases released during the fracking process, and emissions from the equipment, are drifting into San Antonio and increasing our ozone levels. Ozone causes breathing problems for people with respiratory conditions.
“Knowing there are certain triggers that are going to trigger my asthma, that's a big concern to me, a very big concern,” says Trish Perez, who takes breathing treatments for her asthma.
Nitrogen oxides, which are usually produced by equipment and vehicle exhaust, tend to be hot and float higher into the air. The researchers believe the oxides wafted up and blew past the mobile monitor into San Antonio. TCEQ paid the UT-A researchers $100,000.
