February 18, 2014

Understanding Eagle Ford shale’s impact on air quality

This morning,the Weather Channel, InsideClimate News, and the Center for Public Integrityreleased a documentary on the air quality impacts oil and gas development in Texas’s Eagle Ford shale.

By Melissa C. Lott

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

This morning, the Weather Channel, InsideClimate News, and the Center for Public Integrity released a documentary on the air quality impacts oil and gas development in Texas's Eagle Ford shale. They also released a series of infographics on sources of air emissions during development, including the following:

According to a new documentary, the air quality impacts of development in Texas's Eagle Ford shale are not well monitored or documented. Those involved in the 8-month investigation by the Weather Channel, InsideClimate News, and the Center for Public Integrity claim that the five permanent air monitors in the 20,000 square mile Eagle Ford shale development region were not enough to accurately track the impacts of higher drilling activity. In their press release, they made no comment on whether or not air quality monitoring throughout the United States - in their opinion - is sufficient.

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To see the entire documentary - link.

Note: infographic by InsideClimate News and used with permission.

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