{"id":726,"date":"2011-02-22T11:49:42","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T11:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/texasenergyexchange\/?p=726"},"modified":"2011-03-30T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T14:40:11","slug":"interim-report-on-fort-worth-natural-gas-air-quality-study-leaves-biggest-questions-unanswered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/02\/22\/interim-report-on-fort-worth-natural-gas-air-quality-study-leaves-biggest-questions-unanswered\/","title":{"rendered":"Interim Report on Fort Worth Natural Gas Air Quality Study Leaves Biggest Questions Unanswered"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Fort Worth City Council received an interim report on its Natural Gas Air Quality Study<\/a> initiated last August. \u00a0Unfortunately, this interim report was short on details about the most unique aspect of the project \u2013 the direct measurement of emissions at the point of release.<\/p>\n

The interim report only presented high-level summaries of results of sampling at 66 sites out of 170 sites where emissions were detected in Phase I (no emissions were detected at another 31 sites).\u00a0 Stated differently, the interim report provided no information about nearly two-thirds of the sites with detectable emissions.<\/p>\n

Notably, the report identified two well sites where the measured emissions, if extrapolated to an entire year, would exceed the state\u2019s limit under the \u201cpermit by rule\u201d used by most gas producers.\u00a0 These findings not only warrant rigorous investigation by regulatory agencies, but also detailed analysis of the effects on the health of surrounding neighbors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was therefore disappointing to hear the City staffer that is managing the study dismiss these elevated emissions as \u201ca permitting issue\u2026not necessarily a health issue.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 While the final analysis may conclude that these emissions don\u2019t pose a health threat to neighbors, there is no basis to downplay the significance before performing the necessary analyses.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other part of the first study phase consisted of ambient air monitoring.\u00a0 The report\u2019s executive summary emphasized that no pollutant concentrations exceeded short-term<\/span> health benchmarks.\u00a0 No mention was made of long-term health benchmarks.\u00a0 Presentations on earlier monitoring campaigns by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality values considered the long-term Effects Screening Levels (ESL), so it was surprising that a similar approach was not used here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Using the long-term benchmark, two 24-hour samples at Site 4 (located north of downtown) contained benzene levels exceeding TCEQ\u2019s long-term benchmark of 1.4 ppb (and a third was just barely under that value).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While a final report on the entire project was originally due on March 25, the project timetable had to be extended late last year when the initial funding ran out before less than half of the targeted well sites had been sampled.\u00a0 The bad news was that finishing the work would cost the city an additional $400,000 and the final report would be delayed until June 30.\u00a0 The good news was that last week\u2019s interim report with the results of the first phase of work would be provided.\u00a0 Sadly, the interim report failed to deliver the details and raw data necessary for the Phase I results to be properly interpreted and analyzed.\u00a0 As the Star-Telegram put it last week:\u00a0 \u201cFort Worth must wait and wait.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, the Fort Worth City Council received an interim report on its Natural Gas Air Quality Study initiated last August. \u00a0Unfortunately, this interim report was short on details about the most unique aspect of the project \u2013 the direct measurement of emissions at the point of release. The interim report only presented high-level summaries …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693,181],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-natural-gas","category-texas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInterim Report on Fort Worth Natural Gas Air Quality Study Leaves Biggest Questions Unanswered - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2011\/02\/22\/interim-report-on-fort-worth-natural-gas-air-quality-study-leaves-biggest-questions-unanswered\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interim Report on Fort Worth Natural Gas Air Quality Study Leaves Biggest Questions Unanswered - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, the Fort Worth City Council received an interim report on its Natural Gas Air Quality Study initiated last August. \u00a0Unfortunately, this interim report was short on details about the most unique aspect of the project \u2013 the direct measurement of emissions at the point of release. 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