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Texas Moves to Install Air Monitoring Station to Study Fracking Emissions




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.

During the summer, a group of researchers affiliated to the University of Texas at Austin circuitously navigated through the Eagle Ford Shale for 12 days in a modified vehicle that could collect samples through the special air monitoring equipment. The researchers wanted to know if gases emitted during fracking as well as emissions from the fracking equipment, was drifting into the city of San Antonio and increasing the levels of the ozone.

The TCEQ published the results of the scientists’ study, which showed that the amount of hydrocarbons leaking into the Bexar County from Eagle Ford Shale rose significantly. Fortunately, the levels of nitrogen oxides, which generate the ozone, remained stagnant. However, the fact that the researchers were unable to detect any nitrogen oxides doesn’t mean none was leaking into San Antonio and polluting the environment.

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.


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