TX State Agency Botched Benzene Readings From Ft. Worth Drilling, Said Nothing For Weeks

[hatrack]

The state agency in charge of testing for air pollution gave inaccurate test results to the city of Fort Worth about toxic emissions from gas wells in January, and when it realized what it had done, it failed to notify the city or the public for weeks, according to an audit made public this week.

A top official at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality acknowledged Thursday that the tests were wrong but said the agency has learned from the mistake. "The way we do our sampling has got to change, and it has," said John Sadlier, the agency's deputy director.

Elected officials in Tarrant County reacted strongly to the news, with some calling for investigations into what happened and legislation to make it a crime for public officials to withhold information that could affect public health. Calvin Tillman, the mayor of the Denton County town of Dish, went so far as to call for a federal investigation into the environmental commission. Federal officials are already are at odds with the agency over several other pollution issues.

At issue is a series of tests that the agency conducted in December in Fort Worth after activists raised questions about the amounts of benzene and other toxic compounds released from natural gas wells. Sadlier presented the results to the Fort Worth City Council on Jan. 12, saying, "Based on this study, the air is safe." Sadlier said the samples showed that none of the sites exceeded either the long-term or short-term screening levels for 22 airborne toxic compounds. However, state officials later discovered that the tests had been done with equipment that wasn't sensitive enough to measure some of the compounds at the long-term levels. When the samples were analyzed using more sensitive gear, three of them were found to be above the screening level for benzene for long-term exposure -- a year or more. The elevated samples were taken at a compressor station at Lake Arlington and at a location on Shelby Road near Race Street.

EDIT

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/05/27/2223239/texas-agency-gave-inaccurate-air.html