Another BS air quality study

The latest BS (Barnett Shale) air quality study results are in.  WHO believes someone who is paid by the industry to say the industry is safe?  If you were going to do a real study, wouldn't you hire an independent contractor? Not one who has been bought by the industry?

And WHY would you inform the locations (hand picked, mind you) in advance?  Notice at the sites that found something, it was blamed on nearby ponds and cars on Rosedale.  WHAT?

Read about it in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOU can't afford not to.

Natural gas drilling in Fort Worth and Arlington isn't a major cause of air pollution, according to a study funded by a local industry group.

The Barnett Shale Energy Education Council hired environmental consultant Titan Engineering to test the air quality around natural gas drilling sites.

Ireland said the drill sites were carefully selected. Researchers tested the leftover fracturing water at different drilling sites and used the results to predict which ones were likely to produce high benzene emissions, said Douglas Canter of Titan Engineering.

At a drill site operated by EnCana Oil and Gas north of Tiger Trail in far southwest Fort Worth, the 24-hour sample recorded a benzene level of 1.96 parts per billion by volume. That's above the long-term screening level of 1.4 parts per billion used by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, but that standard is intended for at least a year of exposure.

At the same site, an elevated sample of hydrogen sulfide, a corrosive gas that can be lethal at high concentrations, was found. Further testing led researchers to the conclusion that the source was likely a nearby pond producing the chemical via "bacterial activity in the water," according to the report.

Several other elevated samples of toxic chemicals found at other sites were attributed by researchers to sources other than drilling. For example, elevated levels of formaldehyde recorded at a Fort Worth compressor station near Lake Arlington operated by Quicksilver were attributed to emissions from vehicles on nearby Rosedale Street.