Wall Street Journal: Gas Sites Sput Air Worries

This WSJ article is touching on the air quality tests Fort Worth Mayor Moncrief has ordered by an independent company.

On Tuesday, Fort Worth's mayor said the city would follow up on the state-sponsored study with its own air-quality tests and could consider rewriting rules that allow drilling in residential neighborhoods.

"It's time we had some answers," Mayor Mike Moncrief said at a City Council meeting Tuesday evening.

In the past, gas drilling production sites have been monitored individually. There really hasn't been any testing that tells the "big picture". What the total emissions are in an area where there are multiple sites in close proximity.

Michael Honeycutt, director of the commission's toxicology division, said the study didn't suggest that gas production poses an immediate risk to residents' health. But he said the results were concerning because hundreds of wells are being drilled in heavily populated areas, meaning residents could be exposed for years.

"That could turn into an issue, especially with the density of those wells and associated equipment in areas of such population density," Mr. Honeycutt said.

This is the real issue facing communities like Fort Worth, Dish, Flower Mound, Argyle, Bartonville, Double Oak, and others.