Tell Texas Governor Abbott to stop fracking companies from poisoning our water!

Sign this petition to tell Governor Abbott of Texas that you will not accept an inept and biased organization as the only line of defense between dangerous chemicals and Texas groundwater. 

Under the Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan area and it's surrounding counties, there is a 5,000 square mile geological formation where 20,000 wells are drilling in shale at great depths (a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking). But there is evidence from the most comprehensive groundwater study ever conducted in the US that those wells are likely contaminating water in the region.  

Dangerous compounds like benzene, cyclohexane and arsenic were found in concentrations 10 to 20 times above the EPA's maximum acceptable levels. Benzene can be harmful to the central nervous system and cause leukemia, arsenic can cause multi-organ failure and death and cyclohexane is a volatile (explosive) organic compound. The combinations of compounds found are associated with fracking wastewater, suggesting that fracking wells are the source of groundwater contamination.

The Texas Railroad Commission is the state agency responsible for oil and gas industry oversight and enforcing laws meant to keep water safe from fracking. The problem is these water protection laws are not being enforced. Rule 13 is a law that requires drillers to cement off the pipelines in areas called "potential flow zones" where drilling can cause harmful chemicals to be released into the water supply. Because cementing off areas costs money, at least a few operators have tried to get around the law by claiming they did not find these flow zones where the TRC says they exist. The commission does not investigate these claims, relying instead on the oil and gas companies own reports.

The community can lodge complaints about violations of rule 13 (the law keeping groundwater safe), but last month just such a complaint was filed and then dismissed after only 3 days. A lawyer for the TRC admitted that the complaint was dismissed because the organization does not have the qualified personnel (a geologist with local knowledge) to evaluate whether a violation occurred.

By their own admission, the only organization making sure the fracking industry doesn't harm the environment or endanger human lives does not know how to! Tell Governor Abbott to require the TRC to fully investigate all complaints filed by signing this petition.

Not only is the TRC incapable of evaluating safety issues, it is also headed by three commissioners with no experience or stated interest in environmental protection, despite that being one of the two purposes of the commission. It's even more suspicious that each of the three commissioners received more than half of their campaign funding from oil and gas insiders. The chairman has even been recognized several times by the oil and gas industry as their "man of the year." All of this points to three commissioners with very little motivation to enforce any rules that would force oil and gas companies to spend money in order to keep groundwater safe.

Tell Governor Abbott to protect Texas water from contamination by fracking by appointing competent and qualified safety oversight personnel.