Update From The ‘Frac Sand Sentinel’ — Danger: Heed Fracking Air Pollution Warnings

How is deregulated natural gas flaring impacting Texas? According to a professional photographer who visited the Bakken in North Dakota, flaring is also occurring there in abundance and pouring pollutants into the air. Watch the video from Texas. “Texas Sharon” Wilson readily uses her Flir Camera to demonstrate the pollution affecting those who live near a hydraulic fracturing area. These pollutants are causing illness among the residents. Link to 4-Minute Video
Since the fossil fuel industry is involved in “slowly poisoning west Texas” there is no doubt that pollutants from the Bakken are also polluting North Dakota and nearby mid-western states. “Methane has 80 times the heat-trapping power of CO2”. Sulphur dioxide is released in this process and is a dangerous pollutant. The State of Texas is not monitoring and neither is the EPA. Only one sulphur dioxide monitor is functioning in the Permian Basin where all this is occurring. In actuality, more gas is flared off in the area shown that it takes to power all the residential homes in Texas.
With that information, we know the Bakken in the Williston Basin is producing similar pollutants and in some cases, I am told, releasing methane directly into the air rather than flaring. Accurate information should be shared with the public from the North Dakota hydraulic fracturing fields.
In another related article, black soot carbon particles are being found in the placentas of women who are pregnant and these fetuses are being exposed to pollutants.
While scientists will most continue to study impacts on children and their health as well as the child’s mother’s health, waiting too long could put many lives in a vulnerable status.
Fossil fuels and frac sand must be left in the ground!
(Commoner Call photo by Mark L. Taylor, 2018. Open source and free for non-derivative use with link to www.thecommonercall.org )