DISH, Texas mayor to visit NYS to report: Living ……. with gas pipelines & compressor stations
Mayor Calvin Tillman of DISH, Texas says the people of his town “have seen the worst of what the natural gas industry is capable of.” DISH hosts eleven massive natural gas compressors, four metering stations, eleven high-pressure gas lines, and numerous gas wells and gathering lines. Its busy mayor had been warning other small cities located over the Barnett Shale that the chaotic growth of gas transmission lines and compressor stations could seriously jeopardize their economic future.
But numerous cases of respiratory distress reported recently by DISH residents have pushed public health concerns to the forefront.
In the face of inaction from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, DISH contracted chemist Wilma Subra, recipient of a 1999 MacArthur Fellows Program “genius” grant, to compile and analyze information gathered in a survey of DISH-area residents who reported health problems thought to be related to air quality.
Subra focused solely on the 16 chemicals detected at levels beyond the state’s screening limits. “They aren’t just a little over the limits,” Subra said. “They’re a lot over the limits.” Sixty-one percent of reported health problems were associated with toxic air emissions detected here, according to an independent analysis released by the nationwide nonprofit group Earthworks Oil and Gas Accountability Project on December 18, 2009.
Mayor Tillman will be sharing his experience at six public events sponsored by a coalition of local groups concerned about the impacts of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region of New York State and Pennsylvania. He will also be meeting with five groups of local elected officials in the Southern Tier.
Tillman, whose position as mayor is unremunerated, has refused any compensation for traveling to central New York. He says, “I would like to reach as many people as possible during this visit.” Tillman will speak to the public on “Air Quality Problems of Pipelines and Compressor Stations in Shale-Gas Production.” Delaware County residents, who will see many compression stations built along the Millennium Pipeline, will have the opportunity to hear the Mayor on Wednesday, Feb 17, at 7 pm at the Downsville Central School. The event is free and open to all.
For a complete listing of events during Mayor Tillman’s visit to New York, please visit http://www.un-naturalgas.org/events.htm
Mayor Tillman’s report is disturbing and vital to hear now, as gas companies prepare for a massive hydrofracking offensive throughout our area that will include the highly dangerous infrastructure such drilling requires.
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