That was not a false alarm that FWCanDo started sounding in 2005. It just took awhile for tests to prove that gas drilling in the Barnett Shale is dangerous to your health. Now, in 2009, we finally have 4 important pieces of evidence:
> Dr. Armendariz'/EDF study
> Dish, Texas study
> Westworth Village, Texas study
> TCEQ infra-red videos.
Air and water baseline studies should have been done by the City of Fort Worth back in 2005 before drilling was allowed, but the city refused. Why? Here's what FW Asst. Attorney, Sarah Fullenwider, said in response to that question by me at a Gas Drilling Task Farce meeting in 2005:
"The State of Texas does not require us to do any studies so we aren't going to be doing any."
DY
Read the latest gas drilling disaster denial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram daily newspaper.
DY
Read the latest gas drilling disaster denial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram daily newspaper.
Thanks for posting this extremely important info. If you will, please correct a typo I made. It should read EDF rather than NRDC. EDF, as in, Environmental Defense Fund, is the group that commissioned Dr. Armendariz' air study last year, not NRDC.
ReplyDeleteThe comment by Sarah Fullenwider in 2005 regarding air quality studies is very telling about the City of FW and their drilling policy. She is perhaps the most powerful person at city hall and is the one who crafted the drilling ordinance very carefully to please gas drillers. She controlled the Task Force meetings in favor of gas drillers with a skilled hand. She openly embraces gas drilling reps in public. For example, I have seen her in cozy discussions with the Devon rep, Gilbert Horton, on more than one occasion. He's the same guy that Moncrief left council chambers to congratulate - in the middle of the meeting - after getting the first High Impact permit for Devon. I know this because I was standing nearby when Moncrief burst into the hallway to shake Horton's hand. That single act symbolized for me that urban drilling had been a done deal years before most of us knew what was coming.
In no uncertain terms, Fullenwider and Moncrief told the citizens of FW, "Studies? We don't need no stinking studies!" Don't be surprised when the city announces the recent air studies mentioned in the article are not valid. They have come to far to change course. Full speed ahead!