FORT WORTH — Federal environmental officials are scrutinizing oil and gas operations in Texas and around the country, with new rules for the industry coming in about 18 to 24 months, according to the new EPA Region 6 director.

Al Armendariz made one of his first public appearances in North Texas Thursday night as the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regional director for Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and 66 American Indian tribes. Armendariz, an environmental engineer, most recently worked as a faculty member at Southern Methodist University.

Armendariz

“The agency is completely different than it was a year ago,” Armendariz told a crowd of about 250 area activists and political leaders, who broke into applause at the remark.

The meeting, the second of the newly formed North Central Texas Communities Alliance, brought together those concerned about the effects of natural gas drilling on human health and the environment. State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, Tarrant County Commissioner J.D. Johnson and Dish Mayor Calvin Tillman were among the public officials in attendance. State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, and Rep. Chris Turner, D-Burleson, sent members of their staffs to the meeting.

Among the nationwide initiatives, residents could expect more protection of human health and the environment from a new, lower ozone standard and new operating rules for the oil and gas industry, Armendariz said.

The EPA recently settled a lawsuit brought by environmental groups in Colorado that claimed the agency had not updated those operating rules as required. The EPA agreed to finish the rules in the next 18 to 24 months, Armendariz said.

Those rules, known as Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) standards, could create rules for emissions such as benzene and other toxic substances that have been found locally at natural gas facilities by both state and private inspectors.

Currently, when a well site, compressor or tank battery is emitting benzene or other toxic compounds, even at high levels, operators are violating no federal environmental law, Armendariz said.

Only the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has rules for workers related to such exposures.

“With the combination of ozone and MACT, that will give us tools to get emissions reductions from oil and gas,” Armendariz said.

Nationwide, the EPA will again study hydraulic fracturing — the technique that has made extraction of gas from the Barnett and other shale formations possible. The process suspends sand, chemicals and toxic substances in fresh water, shooting the mixture down a well hole under high pressure to fracture the rock and release the gas. The process is currently exempt from certain federal rules designed to protect drinking water.

The agency’s previous study of the drilling technique, which led to the exemption in 2005, has increasingly come under fire. EPA scientists have said they can’t properly investigate claims of contamination by hydraulic fracturing because of the exemption.

Armendariz said it wasn’t clear whether the study would focus solely on the fracturing process or whether it would be a cradle-to-grave look — from how the fresh water is obtained through to how the wastewater is handled.

The EPA also is revamping its national enforcement priority list. Oil and gas operations are being considered among about 20 other possibilities, Armendariz said. While the public comment period has officially closed, he said that residents can still e-mail the EPA and let the agency know if they consider enforcement of oil and gas rules a priority.

The agency also is revisiting a decades-old law, the Toxics Substances Control Act of 1976, to see whether its reform would give the agency new tools to protect human health.

The law regulates commercial products and the chemicals put in them, but the agency has not been able to use it effectively, he said.

They are revisiting the law because of problems like bisphenol-A in plastic, which, because of its toxicity, manufacturers recently agreed to remove from baby bottles. Reforming the law could affect how chemicals are used in natural gas extraction, Armendariz said.

Statewide initiatives

The EPA is reviewing the state’s air permitting process. Federal officials expressed concerns to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about the lack of aggregation of emissions in the Barnett Shale area, Armendariz said in an interview.

Sites such as the complex of compressors, dehydrators, meters and other natural gas facilities in Dish have not been permitted the way most major industries are.

Most equipment is permitted “by rule,” which means operators can claim they are not emitting more than 25 tons of volatile organic compounds per year, and therefore avoid the public permitting process that comes with a new source review.

In addition, EPA scientists have questioned whether emissions projections consider all emissions, since huge surges of emissions are possible during malfunctions as well as setup and shutdown, he said.

“Some compressors are very small — not much bigger than a vacuum cleaner,” Armendariz said. “Some compressor stations with a lot of equipment — if they are big enough — could require a minor source review air permit.”

Burnam, a member of the Texas House, criticized recent mobile monitoring by state environmental officials of the air quality around natural gas facilities in Fort Worth. During the meeting, he released an analysis showing that not only had the readings been taken in cold weather, but at a time when production at those facilities was less than average.

Armendariz said he agreed that, in order to best measure possible short-term exposure, measurements should be taken when emissions are likely to be at their highest — in the summertime, when production is at its peak — but he also said the state’s study of Barnett Shale emissions problems was a good start.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.

Eyes on Drilling

Even though the EPA’s “Eyes on Drilling” hotline is run by the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 3 office, operators will take calls from North Texas and route them to the appropriate local enforcement officials, according to EPA Region 6 Director Al Armendariz. Call 1-877-919-4372 if you observe what appears to be illegal disposal of waste, or any suspicious oil or natural gas drilling activity. Reports may also by sent by e-mail to eyesondrilling@epa.gov.