First it was the smell — an annoyance that concerned the residents of the small Texas town. But when the nosebleeds began, Calvin Tillman realized he needed to investigate the effects of hydraulic fracturing.
Featured in the documentary Gasland, the former mayor of Dish, Texas, shared his political and personal battles with fracking with more than 200 people in Morton Hall Saturday, including residents, city officials, and members of the oil and gas industry.
Alongside him, inorganic chemist Thomas Bond spoke about the many myths of the drilling’s benefits.
A consortium of anti-fracking residents asked Bond and Tillman to visit Athens.
Dish is located in the center of the Barnett Shale formation and became the central hub for natural-gas transfer pipelines. When a foul odor began to fill the air, Tillman requested an air-quality test. When the test results were vague and the oil and gas companies refused to listen to him, Tillman took matters into his own hands and did his own assessment.
“We spent 15 percent of our town’s already-tiny budget to get a large air-quality test done,” Tillman said. “Our test showed that countless carcinogens were being released into the air.”
While waiting for the results, Tillman’s children began to wake up with nosebleeds, which were later linked to spikes in chemicals in the air. After acquiring a copy of the initial results, Tillman realized that his independent test showed the same results.
While Tillman focused his talk on his experience with air pollution, Bond spoke about the many other types of environmental contamination that could result from drilling, such as soil and water pollution.
Bond said it is easy for companies to skate by without negative consequences because of the phrasing of laws and the many loopholes in the legislation.
“(The oil and gas) industry is in the innocent-until-proven-guilty mindset,” Bond said.
Dish also has experienced water and soil contamination from leakages and the open pits used for the disposal of excess chemicals used during the drilling technique.
Along with the environmental dangers presented, Tillman and Bond also spoke about the economic myths the oil and gas industry promote.
Tillman said many people in Dish have not seen the financial benefits that were promised to them upon signing their leases because many did not own their mineral rights.
“Many of the mineral rights owners don’t even live in Texas anymore,” Tillman said. “They just get the money because they own what’s under the ground.”
State Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-92nd, who attended the meeting to gain additional insight on fracking, said she would caution any landowner against leasing.
“You need to make sure you have everything together before you sign on the dotted line,” Phillips said.
Both Tillman and Bond also warned attendees of the reality of having an oil and gas company working on their properties and said the companies do not prioritize respect for people’s land.
“To get to what they want, they have to be on the surface somewhere, even if they said they are only going to be on a small portion of your property,” Tillman said.
Officials from American Energy Ohio, an oil and gas company, were in attendance but declined to comment about the presentation.
Though Tillman is no longer the mayor of Dish, he and some colleagues have started a nonprofit organization, Shale Test, which helps fund air, soil and water testing for contaminants.
In the end, Tillman decided to leave Dish to ensure his family’s health. Although the decision was a difficult one, it has proved a beneficial one so far: His children’s nosebleeds have stopped.
“Sometimes you have to ask yourself: Is the juice worth the sweets?” Tillman said.
kg287609@ohiou.edu
