Some call them landfarms and some call them mudfarms but I call them reckless endangerment of public health and safety.
In May, I posted a story with video about a landfarm in Itasca, Texas which is the home of some of Texas’ best blackland farmland. This landfarm, operated by XTO covered about 100 acres of prime farmland and should have been permitted as a Commercial Facility. Following their typical pattern of industry protector, the Texas Railroad Commission, a taxpayer funded regulatory agency, enabled XTO to cheat the system by issuing enough Minor Facility, 3 acre permits, to cover the entire 100 acres.
To make matters even worse, the Texas Railroad Commission has never tested any of the drilling waste for toxins and, when the District 5 office was asked to test the waste for NORM, they were unable to do any NORM testing because they lost the Geiger Counter. Arkansas found out what happens when industry is left to monitor itself on landfarms.
In my original posting and video, the drilling waste was wet and muddy. Here’s what happens when that stuff dries out.
Does the TCEQ have authority over AIR Pollution? Look at these photos. The wind is out of the NE and blowing this TOXIC DUST into my HOME!!
The AIR SMELLS LIKE DIESEL FUEL, AND IS NOXIOUS. IT IS MAKING ME SICK AND MY LIVESTOCK. THE DUST IS SETTLING ON MY PASTURE AND MY LIVESTOCK IS EATING IT!!
Dick Ross
Itasca, Tx
Dr. Theo Colborn says: Air is the pathway of most concern for drilling chemicals.
We must realize that producing one resource to the detriment of several others is dangerous. Production of natural gas shouldn’t spoil the land we need for growing food, the water we drink, the air we breathe or the quality of life we have fought to enjoy. XTO is a huge, highly profitable company that can easily afford to do a better job. TRC is funded by the people’s hard-earned money and they should serve us before corporations.
Texans like Dick Ross need a Landowner Protection Act. The Oil and Gas Accountability Project assisted New Mexicans in passing the precedent-setting Surface Owners Protection Act (SOPA).
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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This is so disheartening. What are we going to do as a nation to combat the corporations and corrupt and/or understaffed and biased regulatory agencies? It just seems like an impossible task.
It does seem impossible. But we have done hard things before:
abolished slavery
sufferage
this is a fantastic post! the pictures demonstrate without a doubt exactly what's wrong with landfarms, and it's what's wrong with spreading that residual sludge (that has nowhere acceptable to go really) on our dirt roads as 'dust control' here in pennsylvania. how much wool does this industry and it's friendly regulators think they can pull over our eyes???
the stuff doesn't 'vanish' out of sight… it just gets spread out, uncontrollably, to where noone has any longer to be responsible for it and the inherent damage it can and will do. THAT IS WHAT'S IMPLICIT IN THESE SOLUTIONS.
THAT IS WHAT IS UNCONSCIONABLE AND
WHAT OUR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTORS NEED TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ALLOWING!
Come on people, get noisy!!!
Write some letters today. This land is your land, this land is my land… remember?
They (O&G) have their way of doing reprisals in Texas–just look at Freestone County–look what is just recently going on there! It's by a major oil company whose name starts with Ana!