Deborah Rogers: Fort Worth TX
Excerpt from “Shalefield Stories - Personal and Collected Testimonies”
Published by Steel Valley Printers
January 2014
Exposure: Drilling near her home by Chesapeake
Harm: Water Contamination: 16 Toxic compounds found on her property including: Benzene, Toluene, Xylene, Chloroform, Dichlorodifluoromethane, Disulfides
Human Health Impact: Nausea, Severe nosebleeds, Severe headaches
Animal Health Impact: Asphyxiated goats and chicks
Oversight Failures: • Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) hotline response time was unsatisfactory; TCEQ’s toxic vapor analyzers are not sensitive enough to pick up VOCs
Deborah Rogers, a financial analyst, has a professional knowledge of the many numbers related to the price of natural gas, exportation, and the potential economic impact on citizens in the United States. She calls shale gas drilling “a failed economic model.” While Deborah understands the issues associated with the industry from an economic standpoint, she also has experienced the negative impacts from this industry on a personal level.
Deborah reported egregious odors to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) hotline shortly after drilling began near her home in April 2010 and did not receive a prompt response. Subsequent testing showed that all of the sulfur compounds found on her property were above short- and long-term TCEQ Effects Screening Levels. Carbon disulfide was 300 times higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) normal standard for ambient urban air. Another round of testing found toxic compounds, including benzene, barely below the new TCEQ long-term levels and carbon disulfide about 250 times the norm for ambient urban air.
Deborah has experienced nausea from the strong odors and two massive nosebleeds that began with severe headaches. According to Deborah, “The nosebleeds are spontaneous and very frightening because the blood flows copiously, and within seconds, you are covered in blood-your face, your hands, your clothes. I have never had nosebleeds in my life either.”
The evening after her first environmental tests, two baby goats and 6 baby chicks were asphyxiated. The senior veterinary toxicologist at Texas A&M University wrote a letter of concern after test results concluded that the compounds were problematic to the animals’ health and to the food chain. These compounds, when ingested or inhaled, magnify potency further up the food chain in milk and meat.
For Additional information: www.earthworksaction.org/voices/detail/deborah_rogers
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