Downwinders at Risk, a group formed about 20 years ago to fight air emissions at Midlothian cement plants, says the U.S. EPA and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality should require electric compressors at Barnett shale well sites and natural gas transmission lines. The compressors commonly run off natural gas. The organization said it will present its recommendations, including a call for additional pollution controls on the cement plants, at Monday's Air Quality Technical Committee meeting at the Arlington offices of the North Central Texas Council of Governments. The Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club is also expected to address COG regarding "reasonably available control measures" to help bring the North Texas non-attainment area into compliance with ozone limits.
Downwinders at Risk Director Jim Schermbeck said "we have an excellent case for why the EPA must require the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to do more than sit and watch as the Clean Air Act is willfully violated again." He said the area is failing to make progress toward meeting new federal smog standards.
The meeting is at 10 a.m. June 16 in the Transportation Council Room at COG's headquarters at 616 Six Flags Road in Arlington.
-- Jim Fuquay
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