By KERA News Room
Dallas, TX – Some Benzene Levels High In Fort Worth and Nightly Roundup
Air quality testing at 7 locations in Fort Worth found elevated levels of benzene at 2 of them near gas drilling sites. But Michael Gange, with Fort Worth Environmental Services, says the levels are not high enough to pose a danger.
Gange: The word used in the interim report is that they were surprisingly higher than the rest of the network. Not that they were above any problem area at this point, but that they were surprisingly higher.
Gange says the city is re-testing those sites and it has notified the Texas Commission on Environment Quality.
The site with the highest benzene level is on the near north side, on Mercado Dr. The other is along I-30 west of 820.
The full analysis of the air quality study should be done by June. Fort Worth City Council will get another update next month.
Power Executives Testify In Austin
Electric company executives told Texas state senators today they were disappointed with how their power plants shut down on the coldest day of the year, leaving hundreds of thousands of Texans without power.
David Campbell, the CEO of Luminant, said 11 of the 82
generation units that failed on Feb. 2nd belonged to his company and he
said the newest plants had the most failures because their vulnerable spots weren't known.
The president of NRG Texas, John Reagan, said his company met
its obligations, partially because it had plants up and running
before the cold hit.
Tripp Doggett, the CEO of ERCOT, said his agency had asked for
extra power ahead of the arctic cold front that hit Texas on Feb.
2. But once the storm hit, more than 10 power plants shut down
unexpectedly because they couldn't handle the cold weather.
Senators from the Business and Commerce Committee and the
Natural Resources Committee told the company officials that they
expected power companies to explain what steps they will take to
prevent a repeat of the February outages.
On Monday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioned ordered a
formal inquiry as well.
NFL Adds Another Option
The National Football League offered yet another option to the 400 or so fans who held a Super Bowl ticket but were denied a seat.
The league said fans could be reimbursed $5,000 or actual documented expenses.
Previously, it offered $2,400 plus a ticket to the next Super Bowl, or
a game ticket to any future Super Bowl, plus round trip airfare and hotel accommodations, courtesy of the NFL.
In addition to these ticket holders, thousands of others complained about the long waits to get into the stadium, poor or no security and a general lack of organization.
Two lawsuits have been filed in connection with the game