Railroad Commission Renews Permit For South Texas Oil And Gas Waste Facility Despite Locals'

[TexasTowelie]

Railroad Commission Renews Permit For South Texas Oil And Gas Waste Facility Despite Locals’ Complaints


The Texas Railroad Commission voted Tuesday to renew the operating permit for an oil and gas waste facility that locals say is polluting the community’s air.

Blackhorn Environmental Services’ Orange Grove disposal facility about 40 miles northwest of Corpus Christi accepts waste from oil and gas production like fluids used in hydraulic fracturing and sediments that settle in the bottom of storage tanks. It has been a source of frustration for locals ever since it began operating two years ago. They’ve filed complaints about foul smells in the air, nausea and headaches that they said they hadn’t experience before the facility opened.

Those complaints were acknowledged during Tuesday’s Railroad Commission hearing on whether to renew the facility’s operating permit for another five years. Local landowners protested the renewal primarily because of air pollution they say is coming from the facility. But Austin Gaskamp, a technical examiner for the Railroad Commission, said during the hearing that the agency doesn’t deal with complaints about the air.

“The concerns about odor and air quality are not within the jurisdiction of the Railroad Commission,” Gaskamp said.

Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/railroad-commission-renews-permit-for-south-texas-oil-and-gas-waste-facility-despite-locals-complaints/