Hydraulic Fracturing in Texas

Fracking in the Texas Barnett Shale region has raised serious worries about air and water contamination in the northern part of the state. The Barnett Shale formation underlies the city of Fort Worth, 5,000 square miles and at least 17 counties. Some experts have suggested the Barnett Shale may have the largest producible reserves of any onshore natural gas field in the United States. More than 17,000 gas wells have been drilled in the region thus far.

The Trinity-Woodbine aquifer is also underneath most of North Texas, extending to Central Texas and into the Hill Country. It is the water source for much of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Opponents of fracking say the Natural Gas Drilling industry is putting the aquifer at risk.

The town of DISH in Denton County has recently become a flashpoint for the controversy. DISH is a conservative town of about 200 that is home to several natural gas wells and a large complex of pipelines and compressor stations. In the fall of 2009, the town paid for air quality testing that found high levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

This prompted the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency involved in air pollution, to install a monitor in DISH in April 2010 that provides hourly data on air pollution. So far, the monitor has not detected any levels above state or federal guidelines. But many residents of DISH believe that drillers in the area simply took steps to clean up their operations when they found out the monitors were coming.

In June 2010, test by the Texas Railroad Commission showed arsenic, barium, chromium, lead and selenium in a residential water well in DISH. The tainted water turned up at a home in DISH shortly after a nearby gas well was drilled. Follow up tests are pending, but the Railroad Commission ordered drilling companies in the area to conduct pressure tests on their wells.

DISH mayor Calvin Tillman recently released a statement expressing frustration with drilling operations in his town, saying that "we are finally getting our air cleaned up, and now our water is showing signs of pollution,  we take two steps forward and three steps back".  These results clearly show a correlation between the natural Natural Gas Drilling process and water contamination, and this industry should no longer make claims that they have never contaminated a water source, the statement said.

Tillman was among the people featured in the HBO documentary "GasLand", in which he was seen talking of his fears that someone would accidently “blow up the town” someday. The mayor has been crusading to protect air and water in DISH from fracking since 2007, but recently said he's ready to give up. According to The Texas Tribune, Tillman is preparing to leave the town entirely, along with his job as mayor.

“We’re mostly a good group of hardworking, honest folks," Tillman told the Tribune. “We’re not a group of radical tree-huggers. We’re hardworking, tax-paying honest American Texans, and we’ve been wronged.”

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