Today's National Public Radio and New York Times coverage on the health risks of natural gas drilling
Posted November 3, 2009 in Health and the Environment
Today, National Public Radio's Morning Edition aired a story on the health impacts to Texans living near natural gas operations in the Barnett shale region. This powerful story focused on the impacts of compressor stations, including air contamination and low frequency noise. Compressor stations pressurize natural gas to help it flow through a pipeline. Residents near these stations report dizziness and black-outs, a father and infant with ruptured ear drums, and dying horses. These impacts could be mitigated with air pollution control equipment and noise protection, yet companies are not being required to protect the public.
The New York Times published an editorial on hydraulic fracturing, which discusses the link to water pollution and supports an EPA investigation and the FRAC Act--legislation to close the Halliburton loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act. The loophole exempts hydraulic fracturing from federal regulation and oversight.
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Comments
Louise Hertz — Nov 7 2009 06:16 PM
Glad to see that this issue is getting more attention. We live over the Marcellus shale, on Cayuga Lake, and foresee enormous damage to ground water, lake water, air qualtiy and infrastructure if drilling is permitted, especially if the drilling is unregulated.
Amy Mall — Nov 9 2009 12:06 PM
Thank you for the comment. I went to Cornell and appreciate the resources at stake in your area. You may also be interested in my colleague Kate Sinding's blog, which is more specific to the New York situation: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/ksinding/