Following Pollution Incident, Activists Say Fort Worth Should Enact More Regulations On Fracking To Protect Neighbors

Arlington TX

17 March, 2022

5:29 AM

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By Haley Samsel | Rachel Behrndt, Fort Worth Report March 16, 2022 A little over a year ago, John MacFarlane recognized an opportunity to bring environmental activists together to work on an issue weighing heavily on his mind: the impact of renewed natural gas drilling on air quality in Tarrant County. In Arlington, environmental advocacy group Liveable Arlington was leading opposition to new gas well permits from TEP Barnett, a branch of French energy giant TotalEnergies. But the battle had yet to be fought in Fort Worth, the heart of the Barnett Shale drilling boom in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Alongside other members of the new Environmental Justice Coalition of Fort Worth, MacFarlane, an executive committee member of the Greater Fort Worth Sierra Club, began meeting with City Council members last year to discuss potential changes to Fort Worth's gas drilling ordinance. The ordinance was last updated in 2020, according to the latest official copy available online. After learning of a pollution incident at the Mount Tabor drill site in east Fort Worth's Stop Six neighborhood, MacFarlane decided it was time to ramp up the coalition's efforts. On March 7, he sent a list of recommendations to all council members and requested immediate action "to reduce health and safety risks to our community," including higher rates of childhood asthma in the region. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.