The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has plans to monitor emissions levels related to the Eagle Ford Shale. The commission will place monitors in 24-Eagle Ford counties. This comes as no surprise as San Antonio is already close to reaching nonattainment. That means San Antonio is close to not meeting EPA standards for emissions. Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston are the only two areas in Texas considered nonattainment areas. If the Eagle Ford development adds significant emissions in the San Antonio metropolitan area, it's not likely the city will stay in compliance with federal standards. With monitors in place, we should know relatively soon. Natural Gas and oil production do not directly contribute to higher emissions levels, but truck traffic and remote power sources do. The use of both will decrease as adequate pipeline infrastructure comes online and as electric utilities bring power to the more remote areas of drilling.
With recent Texas and EPA squables regarding water in the Barnett Shale, it will be interesting to see how this evolves in South Texas. Eagle Ford Shale water concerns have lead headlines to date, but it won't take much publicity from the EPA to bring air quality to the forefront of everyone's thoughts.
Read more about the commissions monitoring at bizjournals.com