Photo by: Elizabeth Conley(Staff Photographer)
Poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas is well-known in the oil field for its ability to kill quickly, but less understood are the effects on neighborhoods near oil production sites that are regularly awash in the telltale rotten egg stench.
Studies have linked chronic low-level H2S exposure to neurological and other health problems. Texans living near facilities leaking the gas describe headaches, nausea, eye and nose irritation, coughing, asthma and rashes.
We teamed up with the nonprofit newsroom The Examination to investigate. Here are some of the key takeaways:
Gas leaks from tanks near homes and schools. We used geographic data to map every producing well in the state that belongs to a lease with a reported H2S concentration of 100 parts per million or above – the level used by the Railroad Commission to impose safety regulations. This hadn't been done before. Our searchable map shows how close Texans are to potentially dangerous levels of poisonous gas.
Texas regulators ignore their own rules. The state has a limit for hydrogen sulfide in the air, but regulators broadly disregard it. At two sites in the Permian Basin alone, gas levels exceeded the state limit 1,590 times since the state started measuring in 2020. The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates the oil industry, doesn't map storage tanks or the locations of dangerous hydrogen sulfide concentrations. An estimated 78,000 people live within half a mile of wells in those locations.
Residents struggle to get help. Inspectors return to the same leaking oil tanks again and again as problems persist for years. State inspectors and analysts repeatedly fled one neighborhood that was being investigated for H2S when gas was detected at alarming levels, including in 2022. But the problem persists — an H2S monitor placed by a reporter in one yard measured the gas frequently soaring above the state limit this spring.
The TCEQ hasn't updated its watch list in years. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said it uses its Air Pollutant Watch List to focus resources on areas with "elevated concentrations of air toxics," but the agency hasn't added to that list since 2007, ignoring the shale boom that flooded West Texas with drilling rigs, storage tanks and people. The list doesn't include any site in the Permian Basin.
No comments:
Post a Comment