Earlier this month our team went out on shrimp boats in the Gulf to observe emissions from liquefied natural gas export terminals in Louisiana. While the main concern of the shrimpers is that since the export terminal was built, shrimp catches have fallen dramatically, they also get a front seat to the air pollution. One of the captains was discussing air pollution concerns and said that when they report the air smells to the LNG operators they are told they are imagining it. The captain said, “Then give us some air monitors and prove it.”
This is a fundamental issue we have in America. Industries are allowed to pollute, deny the pollution, and then say there is no data to prove there was any pollution. It happens after hurricanes. It happens when refineries have fires. It happens during oil spills. No air quality monitoring means they can deny the issue.
As Sharon Wilson has said for a long time, the reason this is possible is because the pollution is invisible until viewed through the lens of an optical gas imaging camera. Invisible pollution with little to no monitoring is one way the oil industry is able to pollute and poison without being held accountable.
Our new report Unmonitored and Unregulated: How Texas ignores oilfield pollution explains how this is playing out in the Permian oil fields and across Texas. There simply isn’t enough air monitoring. However, a quick review of the news from Texas the past few months tells the story of serious oilfield pollution issues that are directly harming residents. As our report highlights, one of the real risks from oil and gas production is the gas hydrogen sulfide. It is a deadly gas that smells like “rotten eggs” and even at levels well below what will kill a person, it can cause serious harm. So let’s review the problems we are learning about concerning dangerous oilfield air pollution in Texas — unfortunately we aren’t learning about these from the regulators or the industry but via citizen complaints, journalism and academic studies. 
In June the Houston Chronicle and The Examination published several articles together including one that posed the question, “Is leaking hydrogen sulfide a risk to Texans living near oil wells?” It is an impressive series of articles which included many alarming facts and some that are simply hard to believe.
“State inspectors and analysts repeatedly fled one neighborhood that was being investigated for H2S when gas was detected at alarming levels, including in 2022. But the problem persists — an H2S monitor placed by a reporter in one family’s yard detected the gas frequently soaring past the official state limit this spring.”
The regulators ran away because they were scared for their health due to the high levels of hydrogen sulfide. And yet the monitoring these people have is from a reporter putting a monitor in their yard.
Earlier this month when an old well in Toyah, TX began erupting with fluids, it also subjected the local community to the tell-tale “rotten egg smell” of hydrogen sulfide with residents complaining of symptoms one would expect from hydrogen sulfide exposure. The regulatory response?
“An investigator told her the sensors had not detected any pollutants in the air, but the agency said the complaint was still under investigation.”
As usual the regulator says no pollutants detected. Perhaps the only way to tell if oil and gas pollutants are detected in your neighborhood is to watch for when regulators flee the scene because they are worried about THEIR health.
Last month we learned of a new study about emissions from a sample of oil wells in Texas. The study found dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide as the oil wells were simply venting gasses instead of capturing or flaring them.
“It was off the scales. Methane was off the scales and hydrogen sulfide was off the scales,” said one of the study’s authors.
What did the regulator’s air monitors show? Well there is only one in the area. And it doesn’t test for hydrogen sulfide. See how that works?
Earlier this month there was a major hydrogen sulfide leak at a Houston refinery that killed two employees and sent another 13 to the hospital. Local residents also were diagnosed with hydrogen sulfide poisoning.
Initial reports on how the response was handled show a familiar pattern.
A local official, commissioner Adrian Garcia, has admonished Pemex for poor communication during the incident. He said the company failed to provide a spokesperson in the early stages of the incident and didn’t pass on air quality information from monitors within the refinery. This lack of information “left the community worrying whether they were safe,” Garcia said.
Also earlier this month Inside Climate News published the article, “How Texas Diminished a Once-Rigorous Air Pollution Monitoring Team.” The article details how the regulators who should be monitoring air pollution have done even less since the beginning of the fracking boom. The article features insights from former TCEQ team leader Tim Doty, who worked with us on our new report. This is one of the insights:
“It’s all smoke and mirrors,” said Tim Doty, a former mobile monitoring team leader who spent 28 years at the TCEQ. “They’ve convinced the [state Legislature] and the general public that they’re actually doing something of value when it couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Our report notes the lack of adequate air monitoring in the massive Permian basin and recommends greatly expanding the air monitoring network. Unfortunately it appears the most common way people in Texas learn if they are being poisoned by the oil industry is when the symptoms become acute or fatal.
Texas politicians need to do their jobs and protect the people of Texas. Regulators need to stop fleeing the scenes of these crimes and then abandoning the citizens to guess how badly they are being poisoned.
As the shrimp boat captain said, if the oil people say there is no pollution, “Then give us some air monitors and prove it.”
