Operators reported 7,812 pieces of stationary equipment in Denton County known to emit greenhouse gases or toxic compounds. Only Tarrant County, with 8,659 pieces, and Johnson County, with 10,859, have more.
In all, the Barnett Shale has around 49,000 pieces of pollution emitting equipment according to the Denton Record Chronicle:
County ranks third in Barnett Shale inventory
State ordered count of natural gas equipment
Sunday, August 8, 2010
By Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe
And if we aren’t careful, all that equipment will be grandfathered in under the proposed new TCEQ rules.
Don’t miss your opportunity to make a public comment.
PUBLIC COMMENTAn information session on the state’s new permitting rules for oil and gas equipment will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 31 in Austin, with public participation at teleconferences held at TCEQ’s regional centers around the state. Formal comments, however, must be submitted in writing to Michael Parrish, MC 205, Office of Legal Services, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, TX 78711-3087.
The EPA also is accepting public input on the review; however, the formal public comment period won’t open until after the proposal is released, likely at the end of January. Questions can be directed to Bruce Moore by calling 919-541-5460 or e-mailing moore.bruce@epa. gov (include “oil and gas: public” in the subject line). Written input can be submitted by e-mail to ccg-ong@epa.gov. Updates can be viewed online at PUBLIC COMMENT
An information session on the state’s new permitting rules for oil and gas equipment will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 31 in Austin, with public participation at teleconferences held at TCEQ’s regional centers around the state. Formal comments, however, must be submitted in writing to Michael Parrish, MC 205, Office of Legal Services, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, P.O. Box 13087, Austin, TX 78711-3087.
The EPA also is accepting public input on the review; however, the formal public comment period won’t open until after the proposal is released, likely at the end of January. Questions can be directed to Bruce Moore by calling 919-541-5460 or e-mailing moore.bruce@epa. gov (include “oil and gas: public” in the subject line). Written input can be submitted by e-mail to ccg-ong@epa.gov. Updates can be viewed online at www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/oilgas/oilgaspg.html.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This equipment needs to be reported to the Tax appraisal district in your county. Taxing this stuff will significantly reduce the overbearing home taxes in Texas! Anybody know what they found in Booger County?
I think they found at least one person who speaks loudly and clearly to protect his family, home, and the rest of us. Thank you for not being silent. Not sure on the Booger County inventory. I'm sure Denton County remains behind in the collection of tax revenue from the gas sites, Pritchard & Abbott was behind about 2 years the last time I talked to them, but it has been a while. Continuing thanks to Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe for her investigative and informational reports and to Sharon for posting for the world to see. I wonder how many times Williams has visited your site today? Jana
Here is Tarrant County's TCEQ inventoried gas drilling equipment in the Barnett Shale. This identifies almost 50,000 opportunities to prevent pollution of which 10% of that is here in Tarrant County. The other big players are in Denton, Wise, Parker, & Johnson counties. We have about 5,000 opportunities to control emissions in Tarrant County on the following equipment…..
438 separators vented into the atmosphere
3 oil storage tanks
133 condensate storage tanks
2,926 produced water storage tanks (not to mention the associated truck fracing traffic)
12 slop storage tanks
41 glycol dehydrators
289 stationary gas fired engines
3,855 piping component fugitive areas
31 process vents
868 blow down vents
59 heaters/boilers and
1 flare
http://www.edf.org/pressrelease.cfm?ContentID=10489
The Environmental Defense Fund says that the oil and gas industry has 37 tons of VOC emissions per day in Denton County and 42 tons per day in Wise County. Average in the other big three counties at around 40 tons each and figure about 200 tons per day in the Barnett Shale. If the five big players represent half of the inventory emission sources, then the remaining 20 counties listed in the inventory would total around 400 tons of VOC’s per day in the Barnett Shale. Throw in Beaumont Port Arthur’s oil and gas daily emissions of 145 tons, and let’s not forget to add Houston/Galveston/Brazoria’s 289 daily tons. Then we need to account for the East Texas attainment counties that contribute 846 tons per day. Altogether the state of Texas belches 1,680 tons of VOC’s per day. Wow that’s at least 613,200 tons per year! We really do it big in Texas don’t we? We also lead the nation with 523 significant pipeline disasters in the last ten years.