“New Report Reveals Toxic Air Near Natural Gas Operations”

As Sharon says, however, this refers to Colorado and New Mexico, and not Ft. Worth, which missed its own deadline to release its massive study of gas air pollution Wednesday in favor of a roll-out Thursday Noon. When it does go up, it should be accessible by way of this website.

The Colo. and NM study contains sampling done by citizens groups at various sites which found:

“…a total of 22 toxic chemicals in the air samples, including four known carcinogens, as well as toxins known to damage the nervous system and respiratory irritants. The chemicals detected ranged from 3 to 3,000 times higher than what is considered safe by state and federal agencies. Sampling was conducted in the San Juan Basin area of Colorado and New Mexico, as well as Garfield

County in western Colorado.”

As you might have guessed by now, the toxins they found were Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) like the ones that the TCEQ decided not to reduce in the proposed smog plan up for a public hearing Thursday night. Yet another reason to come and tell the state it must do more to clean the air, including reducing gas industry VOCs, which are the largest single source of the pollution in the 9-county “non-attainment” area for smog pollution.