Eight new air monitors are planned for one of the nation’s largest natural gas fields, where drilling has raised questions about emissions effects, state lawmakers said Monday.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has not determined sites or funding sources for the monitors and does not know when they might be in place, although December is a goal, said agency chairman Bryan W. Shaw.
The new monitors operate around the clock to provide emissions data, testing for 45 compounds including cancer-causing benzene, which has been found in elevated amounts in parts of the Barnett Shale, the gas-rich underground rock formation that stretches beneath Dallas, Fort Worth and about 20 counties.
Some state lawmakers said additional monitoring was too urgent to wait until the legislative session starts in January.
Davis has been critical of some of the commission’s past actions, including a delayed disclosure that elevated levels of a harmful chemical were found in Fort Worth. In January, TCEC officials said air samples showed no signs of benzene in Fort Worth, but agency documents made public in May revealed four of eight samples had elevated levels of benzene.