Air Quality in the Barnett Shale - Part 19: Dr. Sattler's Deposition - Down with bad science!

Here is why I am critical of the work performed by Alisa Rich of Wolf Eagle Environmental and Dr. Sattler, of UTA.

From Fort Worth's NBC station:

"When you start actually looking at the levels of carbon disulfide, it's shocking," said Deborah Rogers, who has been involved in the league and monitoring natural gas drilling for the last several years. "People are going to be concerned."

Please read my post on TICs.  It is doubtful that carbon disulfide is present in the air.  Carbon disulfide is a TIC and is not positively identified nor is it quantified in the GC/MS test method used for the other contaminates.

The study makes the following recommendations for all Fort Worth ISD leases going forward:

1.Setbacks of approximately one mile from the school boundaries are needed to ensure that emissions of carbon disulfide (neurotoxin), benzene (carcinogen) and other drilling toxics do not exceed 8 hour limits for short term health benchmarks (See Dispersion Modeling Results).

Now whether setbacks are appropriate is not being questioned by me.  However, basing the one-mile setback on work performed by Rich and Sattler is.  Carbon disulfide is a TIC and its identity and quantification unverifiable.  Benzene concentrations from ambient air samples were backed in to the air dispersion model - generating an emission rate for that source.  Background benzene - that which is not from the source being modeled - was also included in this calculation generating a potential emission rate that would be higher than if the actual emission rate was known.  See my post on backed in data

Furthermore, Rich and Sattler compared these model contaminant levels to ESLs -which are for permitting and 70% lower than they need to be - and not to AMCVs - which are for ambient air.  See my post on ESLs & AMCVs.

Now I am in favor of a lot of the proposed requirements, such as green completions and substitution for toxic chemicals (depending on cost/benefit).  I think they are within reason, and if everyone is required to do them, that cost can be factored in as the cost of doing business.

So here is what really bothers me about bad science and those that should know better willingly feeding it as fact to the masses.

From the Star-Telegram Barnett Shale Blog

DISH Mayor Calvin Tillman, an outspoken critic of current drilling practices in the Barnett Shale, was the subject of a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer last week.  The story ends with a peek into Tillman's latest worry: 

Though Tillman's blood and urine came in below levels expected for the general population, he is still worried. "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to live here," he said earlier this week.

Tillman's water tested positive for traces of three contaminants, all below federal legal limits for public water: styrene was 3,700 times below the limit; ethylbenzene was 28,000 times below the limit, and xylenes were 47,393 times below the legal limit.

"The most disturbing is the toxins found in our water," Tillman said in an e-mail. "They should not be there at all. Not sure what to do about that."

Well I can tell you what you should not do about that.  Don't contact Alisa Rich, Wilma Subra, Dr. Sattler, or Wolf Eagle Environmental for advice.

You see, even when there is nothing there some people still worry.  So giving others this worry by telling them something is there does nothing more than bring in consulting dollars while causing more worry.

And from a public health point of view, worry causes stress, stress causes disease.  The worry over nothing is more likely to harm you than the air or water you are exposed to at your home.

Here's to good science in the future.


Next Post: Air Quality in the Barnett Shale - Part 20: Dr. Sattler's Deposition - The Gaussian Model

.