By BJ Austin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-884007.mp3
Dallas, TX –
The new EPA chief in this region says changes are happening at a very fast pace a year into the Obama Administration. KERA's BJ Austin says that's just what an audience of gas drilling critics wanted to hear.
Two days after Dr. Al Armendariz was sworn in as EPA Administrator for Region 6 -- Texas and surrounding states -- he "headlined" a meeting of the North Central Texas Communities Alliance - a group critical of Barnett Shale gas drilling operations. The welcome from the large crowd at a hotel in east Fort Worth had more rock star flavor than federal bureaucrat. He told the crowd new rules and regulations are moving fast at the EPA.
Dr. Armendariz: From someone who was outside the agency looking in, and now someone who is on the inside, I'm stunned by some of the things our offices are saying they're gonna do and have already done.
Armendariz lists stricter ozone standards recently announced by the EPA; an overdue revision of the rules regulating what chemicals can be emitted into the air; and of particular interest to this group, a nationwide study of the effect of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water. So-called fracking sends high pressure water and chemicals deep into the ground to fracture rock, and allow natural gas to be captured.
Armendariz says the EPA intends to work with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to improve and ensure air quality in the Barnett Shale and elsewhere. He says the state's pollution permitting process is not up to federal standards.
Armendariz: One of the goals that we have is to ensure national consistency. We don't want there to be a race to the bottom. We want to make sure that every state in its programs meets minimum federal requirements.
TCEQ Chairman Bryan Shaw has said the EPA is targeting Texas because of its economic success - trying to level the playing field for other states. Armendariz denies that. He says it's an unemotional, highly technical, legal process. And he believes the relationship between the EPA and TCEQ will improve.