Losing To Pollution: Fracking In Denton, Texas

Fracking: The oil industry practice of hydraulic fracturing. There are a total of 280 oil wells inside Denton city limits, which will go on producing under the ban. Activists and students from my university, The University of North Texas, were heavily active in the campaign to stop fracking within Denton, Texas during 2014 and 2015. Kathy Mcullen was the honorable citizen to initially spread the word out about the traumatic damage caused by local oil wells. "McMullen collected $3,700 from her neighbours for air quality monitors, and for water and soil samples. She kept a log of the odours coming off the well. The wells went in anyway. Under Texas law, McMullen had no say over oil and gas activity because she did not control the mineral rights – and neither did any of her neighbours. But McMullen, though exhausted, refused to let it end there. “I think that was the thing that just kept me going all these years: who the hell do they think are? By any stretch of the imagination, why is it OK to allow heavy industrial use right close to a hospital and a playground?” she said. “From the wellhead to the swing set was 536ft.”" This middle class, suburb of Dallas is being overrun with detached conservative upper-class men who have no personal connection with the college town, other than their investments: "Supporters of Denton's fracking ban "accused me of violating my conservative principles, arguing that since a local government passed a measure, any attempt to overturn it would be using 'big government' to squash dissent," state Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, wrote in a recent op-ed in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "They have it backwards, because 'big government' is happening at the local level."" While I lived in Denton, I had experienced many respiratory problems that have completely disappeared after moving to NEW YORK CITY! Also, on windy days, if I were outside for an hour or two in Denton, my skin would break out into itchy rashes. No doctors could tell me exactly what was wrong, they all assumed it was an allergic reaction to something in the air. I asked around wondering if anyone else at school was suffering from these symptoms and sure enough, every single one had been experiencing some irritable reaction to the area and would report it clearing up once they left Denton for a few days or so. The distance between the fracking and school, hospitals, neighborhoods, etc. is not enough. How much worse does the town's atmosphere and citizen's physical well-being have to get in order for real change to take place and not be ignored by big government business?