Fracking and Environmental Injustice: Assessing Exposure to Pollutants among Texas Schoolchildren

• In Event: Environmental Risks and Disasters: Considerations of Justice and Productivity

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is commonly used to inject sand, water, and chemicals into the ground to extract natural gas from shales. Proponents of fracking argue that it can increase tax revenues and promote economic development (Sovacool, 2014), but it often imposes negative impacts on adjacent communities due to groundwater contamination, air pollution, resulting earthquakes, and noise pollution (Kovats et al., 2014). Consequently, the siting of fracking wells can impose environmental injustices on proximate communities, raising questions about how siting decisions are controlled at the state and local levels. Previous research has highlighted the disproportionate siting of fracking facilities based on race and socio-economic status, but as fracking development continues to expand, more work is needed to identify resulting injustices for other vulnerable groups and understand the policy structures which lead to these impositions.

Fracking is increasingly a source of concern in Texas. While cities nationwide have banned fracking, Texas’ natural resource code pre-empts municipalities from doing so, placing all power to regulate oil and gas operations with the state (Harvard Law Review, 2015). Further, unlike much of the country where shales are located far from cities, many fracking sites are located in and around major population centers in Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the fourth largest region in the country. This confluence of fracking resources and dense population creates the potential for added environmental harms, heightening concerns for previously underexplored groups such as schoolchildren who are both more vulnerable to pollutants and unable to influence decisions about the siting of negative facilities.

We compile geolocated data on active fracking sites from the Texas Railroad Commission and school data from the US Department of Education to investigate the extent of environmental injustices imposed by fracking interests on communities across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Using spatially weighted statistical modeling, we measure the rate of exposure to fracking wells experienced by school children and assess the extent to which these hazards are disproportionately imposed on schools with higher rates of poverty, lower performance, and higher shares of minority students. The results will shed light on the extent of self-imposed health risks current fracking siting practices are imposing on school children in North Texas and the extent to which these risks represent environmental injustices for more vulnerable schools. Furthermore, they will shed light on the effects Texas’ state policy stripping local governments of the ability to regulate fracking in their jurisdictions is having on local-level communities, opening wider debate over the merits of federalist policymaking.

References

Harvard Law Review. (2015, December 10). H.B. 40, 84th Leg., Reg. Sess. (Tex. 2015). Harvard Law Review. https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-129/h-b-40-84th-leg-reg-sess-tex-2015/

Kovats, S., Depledge, M., Haines, A., Fleming, L. E., Wilkinson, P., Shonkoff, S. B., & Scovronick, N. (2014). The health implications of fracking. The Lancet, 383(9919), 757–758.

Sovacool, B. K. (2014). Cornucopia or curse? Reviewing the costs and benefits of shale gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 37, 249–264.

Author

• Evan Matthew Mistur, University of Texas at Arlington
  Presenting Author