A moms’ group faults the Trump administration’s efforts to loosen regulations on methane in the oil patch.
Moms’ group says health of families suffers in shale plays
Mothers across the country are trying to call attention to the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back Obama-era methane regulations.
The Moms Clean Air Force issued a report called “Face to Face With Oil and Gas: Voices From the Front Lines of Oil and Gas Pollution,” which chronicles the health effects families living near oil and gas plays across the country the group says are caused by oil and gas exploration.
The report slammed the administration of President Donald Trump for working to loosen pollution regulations related to oil and gas development. It calls out Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s proposal to revise parts of the 2016 Waste Prevention Rule to revert back to the rules in place prior to the current rule. The rule seeks to reduce the waste of natural gas and replaced regulations that were passed in 1979.
It also takes issue with the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to revisit some parts of the New Source Performance Standards, which would regulate natural gas operations to try to cut their methane emissions.
Misti O’Quinn, who lives in Dallas County near the Barnett Shale, a major natural gas field on North Texas, says two of her three children have suffered with asthma all their lives. She blames the natural gas operations located west of Dallas — where thousands of natural gas wells were active in 2016 — for her children’s ailments.
“It is my hope that this report spurs something that will have our lawmakers looking at keeping safeguards that can get us in attainment and protect our children,” O’Quinn said.
Dallas and every other major city in Texas currently has higher ozone levels than is permitted, making them out of attainment according to the EPA. Ozone can cause respiratory illnesses.
The American Lung Association said 15 of Texas’ 254 counties, including all Texas counties with large cities, scored an “F” for ozone pollution. Included in that list of counties is Houston’s Harris County, which had 60 ozone warnings days, including the only purple alert, the most severe warning that suggests almost everyone should avoid prolonged time outside.
Fort Worth’s Tarrant County had the second most ozone warning days with 48 days, followed closely by Denton County. San Antonio’s Bexar County had the sixth most days of ozone warnings at 24, according to the ALA data from its 2018 State of the Air report.
Air quality monitors are located in less than 1,000 of the 3,068 counties in the U.S., according to the ALA. Only 34 of Texas’ counties have ozone monitoring.
Adelita Cantu, an associate professor at University of Texas Health San Antonio’s School of Nursing, said she recently visited Karnes County — an area at the heart of South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas field — and noted that it has far fewer air monitors compared to the Barnett Shale, which is near Dallas and Fort Worth.
A study on methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas operations released in the prestigious journal Science in June said annual methane emission rates from oil and gas operations are 60 percent higher than previously reported by the EPA.