Study: Toxic air emissions released by local fracking

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AUSTIN - Results of a study on possible environmental impacts from air emissions stemming from the South Texas oil boom were announced last Friday during a press conference held at the State Capital.

At the sparsely-attended conference, Wilma Subra of the Subra Company -- which provides technical assistance to community groups dealing with environmental issues -- released the results of a study conducted earlier this year in five South Texas counties, including a dozen sites in Gonzales County

Just weeks after sampling a total of 29 sites in the five-county study area, Subra told an audience in Cuero, “There’s a lot of activity in your area and there aren’t a lot of state agencies policing it, so you’re at the mercy of the drilling companies.”

Sister Elizabeth Reichsbarger, who has been involved in the study and has been organizing community meetings throughout the region, says that while they aren’t anti-drilling, and the communities do benefit from job creation, the public needs to be aware of the environmental impact of the oil boom. The locations selected for the study were based on prior field surveys and input from residents in the area surrounding each of the locations.

Air emissions were monitored using an infrared camera provided by ShaleTest, and canister samples of air emissions were collected and analyzed for volatile organic compounds and methane.

Overall, the study documented the majority of the sites are releasing toxic emissions into the air, and concludes that these emissions are being released on an ongoing basis. Locally, all but three of the sites tested in Gonzales County were documented as releasing toxic air emissions.

“The toxic air emissions documented as being released from production and processing facilities consisted of up to 23 toxic chemicals including Benzene, a known human cancer causing agent,” the report says.

The report also states that, though the chemicals monitored off-site were below the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Short and Long Term Health Effects Screening Levels, “the cumulative effects of the large number of toxic chemicals being released into the air and present in the air around the facilities, pose a threat to the health of the individuals breathing the complex mixture.”

Subra’s report also points out that TCEQ has performed compliance investigations, citing operators for emissions from vent stacks on top of the storage tanks, including a substantial volume of Benzene, along with Propane and other toxic and/or volatile chemicals, several of which are known to cause damage.

“One facility reported vent stack emissions that consisted of… 8,535 lbs. of propane… and over 10,000 lbs. of other volatile organic compounds over a 12-hour period,” the report goes on to detail.

A portion of the discussion between Subra and journalists attending the conference centered around how the benefits of job creation could be balanced with safeguards that will help protect the residents who live in the area and the workers who are surrounded by dangerous pollutants on the job. While Subra and Reichsbarger acknowledged that drilling and fracking activities in the region are here to stay, they also stressed that drilling activities can be made safer by implementing more safeguards.

“A large number of these facilities are releasing toxic chemicals into the air. In order to protect people’s health we must reduce the exposure to these toxins. There are control mechanisms and maintenance activities available today that can be implemented by this growing industry,” said Subra.

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