Regardless of my reservations, they will be “exploring the site for a couple of weeks.” In theory, they will update the Council on their progress, but it is also possible that this will be the last I will hear of their efforts.
Prior to the meeting, the “neighbors were notified,” and in theory they signed off on this plan (but it is possible that if I did not learn about it until the Council meeting, they will also be in the dark until drilling starts next door).
To my question as to why they were planning to drill so close to the center of the city, the younger exec replied: “That’s where the oil is.” They also argued that those locations are on the outskirts as opposed to within a couple of blocks of the main courthouse. It is a pretty small city, so everything is within a couple of minutes’ drive, and most trips touch on U.S. 287, where the drill sites are located.
In answer to where I might find an environmental study for the proposed drill sites, the rotund exec replied: “Texas does the environmental testing. It’s on our website.” I tried to look for a website, but www.palaura.com only has a picture of an oil rig, and no accompanying information of any kind. The parent company also has no accessible website of its own. Meanwhile, when I asked for clarification, he added that the tests he was referring to were “not of this particular site in Quanah. The state only tests if something goes wrong.” This is another element that suggests malicious intent. Why point a researcher to a site without the information you say is located there?
After the meeting, I spoke with the City Administrator, Paula Wilson. I asked her about some of the previous water tests that showed the presence of some chemicals in the water that led the city to be penalized by the testing agency in a previous year. I wondered if these failed results might have been related to oil production in the vicinity. She said the failed tests were caused by pipes that had not been emptied or cleared for a while, and accumulated sediments. She also said that tests that failed in individuals’ houses might have been caused by their pipes being contaminated, and not the main pipe lines operated by Quanah. She explained her position on the matter: “If they strike oil, they provide taxes for the city, but at most of the sites within the city limit, they have not struck oil. Only a few have.” On the bright side, affected residents naturally “make a profit if there’s drilling near or on their land.” She concluded our discussion by joking about the whole oil drilling and potential pollution business: “Ignorance is bliss, I guess.”
Living in Quanah is clearly risky: tornadoes hit it at least a couple of times per decade, 2-3-inch hail falls at some frequency (occasionally seriously denting up cars), wind gusts go up to 65mph, and there are “we are armed; we don’t call the sheriff” signs on some doors. Given all the dangers of poverty and natural disasters, is oil exploration a solution or a problem in this region? These types of conundrums are being faced at an increasing number of oil drill permit application hearings across America. Given that the health of the population is at stake, it is particularly troubling that there are no clear federal guidelines to prevent fracking or other methods that have been proven to cause harm to individuals’ health, or to the health of tectonic plates below us. I had said to Paula Wilson that Quanah’s City Council is the “government” that is charged with assuring the well-being of its residence against potential harm unregulated drilling might cause; she replied that it was not Quanah that had this burden, but rather the state of Texas. I have never attended a state environmental impact hearing before, and I doubt average citizens can easily access these. Seismologists and other environmental scientists should be attending these and helping to screen out deadly extraction methods; if the USDA moderates what goes into our food, surely there needs to be accountability for what goes into our oil production.
Clearly, states that rely on oil and other natural resources cannot deny science, or nature will carry out its own stern replies to rampant overdevelopment in floods and earthquakes. The cost of fixing catastrophes after they strike is always higher for the majority than the profits gained by a few.
Citations
1. Josh Sanburn. "In 2007, Oklahoma Had One Earthquake. Last Year, There Were More Than 900. What Happened? Greed, Politics and the Biggest Oil Boom in Decades." Time 187, no. 10 (March 21, 2016): 36-41. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2018).
2. Lindsay C. Mccallum, et al. "Health Impact Assessment of an oil drilling project in California." International Journal of Occupational Medicine & Environmental Health 29, no. 2 (March 2016): 229-253. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2018).
3. Sarah S. Elkind. 2012. "Oil in the City: The Fall and Rise of Oil Drilling in Los Angeles." Journal of American History 99, no. 1: 82-90. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 16, 2018).
4. Thomas Jemielita, et al. 2015. "Unconventional Gas and Oil Drilling Is Associated with Increased Hospital Utilization Rates." Plos ONE 10, no. 7: 1-18. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed April 15, 2018).
Anna Faktorovich, Ph.D., is the Founder, Director, Designer and Editor-in-Chief of the Anaphora Literary Press, which has published over 200 titles in non-fiction, fiction and poetry.