TCEQ has scheduled a second public meeting on EOG's proposed air quality permit #95412. The official notice is available here.
The public meeting is to be held at 7:00 PM in the Gainesville Civic Center (Main Room), 311 S. Weaver, Gainesville, Texas.
The purpose of the public meeting is to allow the public an opportunity to ask questions about the permit and the proposed industrial sand processing plant.
A couple of fresh questions on the minds of many in the wake of the notice of this second public meeting include:
- Why was such short notice given of the second public meeting? TCEQ mailed the notice on July 3, and it appeared in local mailboxes on July 5, six days before the meeting. No notice of the public meeting appeared in the Saint Jo Tribune.
- Why was the public meeting, which is likely to run well into the late evening, scheduled for the night before the 10 AM beginning of the contested case hearing?
I received my letter on the 5th. This was a ridiculously short notice. I need to make several work and childcare arrangements to make it to the public meeting, and the Preliminary Hearing, which is scheduled for the morning after the public meeting. Perhaps folks at TCEQ did not want to come up to Gainesville was more than once?? That would not be a legitimate reason, of course. I hope that that is not it, but I am quite dismayed at the lack of proper notice.
ReplyDeleteWhatever the official reason for this extremely short notice, it shows that the process is not really on the people's side. Everyone else at that meeting (TCEQ and EOG) will be paid to go. We, as concerned people of Cooke County, are the ones having to juggle our work and family responsibilities to make it to the meeting. Sadly, we are the only ones who really care what EOG's frac sand operation will do to our air and water, and community.
Thank you for keeping up this blog.
New study just released that proves that fracking chemicals can poison aquifers, despite claims by the Industry that the depths of the drilling make that impossible . . .
Deletehttp://www.salon.com/2012/07/09/confirmed_fracking_can_pollute/