More than half of public school children in Arlington and up to 7,600 infants and young children in day care are exposed to fumes from natural gas drilling sites, according to a new report published this week.
A yearlong investigation by the national Center for Investigative Reporting raised concerns about the effects of fracking on the children’s health, focusing on Arlington, which is home to 52 drilling sites and hundreds of wellheads.
“It’s hard to find a place in America where as many people live close to dense drilling as here in Tarrant County,” the report reads. “These wells are often near residential neighborhoods, commercial strips and doctor’s offices.”
More than half of Arlington’s public schools and day care facilities are within a half-mile of active gas production, according to the report. Eight day care centers are within 600 feet, the standard setback in Arlington.
Of those, 85% of the public school students are children of color, and more than two-thirds live in poverty.
The center cited scientific studies that have linked proximity to drilling to increased health risks, including childhood asthma, childhood leukemia and birth defects. The exposures can come from the fumes of diesel trucks, generators or drilling rigs.
“No one is held accountable to determine whether it’s safe or not, and yet they allow them to be there,” daycare operator Wanda Vincent, whose daycare is within two miles of 35 wells, told the center. “There’s not any documentation showing we’ve done testing and you’re safe.”
According to the report, most of the wells are operated by TEP Barnett USA, a subsidiary of the French energy giant Total, the main gas producer in Arlington.
Local officials and activists, including Liveable Arlington, a grassroots organization that opposes urban drilling, are increasingly pushing back against the drilling companies.
“Those little children have no voice in this,” Ranjana Bhandari, executive director of Liveable Arlington, said in the investigation. “They are completely at the mercy of this nexus of politicians and an industry that just operates like it’s above the law.”
The Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces the podcast Reveal, published this report in partnership with the Texas Observer and Mother Jones.
