| |
Blowing in the wind?
This is West Texas: There's dirt and there's wind.
That mean's a lot of dust flying around.
But can there be too much dust, an unnatural amount?
Greg Garrison thinks so. He lives on East Gonzales Loop, across from the Lariat Services yard.
He believes there is and he believes the culprit is not Mother Nature, but Lariat.
"It started when they started breaking ground on the property across the street," Garrison said. "It's been constant ever since."
Garrison has lived on East Gonzalez Loop since 1986, long before the appearance of the Lariat yard. It's his contention that unpaved and untreated areas of the Lariat yard, combined with almost constant truck traffic, produce clouds of dust that waft northward across the street to his residence.
Garrison isn't a transplant to West Texas. He was born and raised in Fort Stockton, and he said he knows it's typically dusty.
But he claims this problem is something far worse.
"It's piled up inside the houses," Garrison said. "You know, I've had dirt, all kinds of dirt, inside the house. I've lost electronics, the computers locked up. I had to have them cleaned out. I've had air conditioners go out. I've gone through eight vacuum cleaners."
Lariat is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SandRidge Energy Inc.
Ross Kirtley, vice president for SandRidge and a member of the management team for Lariat, said he had no comment for publication regarding the matter. He said he had nothing to add to the reports from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, saying Lariat has done everything it has been asked to do by TCEQ.
Jed Barker from TCEQ's Midland office confirmed Kirtley's statement.
"There was finally confirmed a dust nuisance," Barker said. "We wrote the company up. They paid a penalty and they put down black emulsion as a cover for the back portion (of the yard). As far as we're concerned, that has solved the dust problem.
"Everything is fine. We've not had issues with the company since. They've done everything we've asked them to do."
The incident has not been the only complaint filed against the Lariat yard. Barker said TCEQ cannot release the names of complainants, but did say, to his knowledge, all the complaints regarding the Lariat yard on East Gonzalez Loop have been filed by one individual.
Garrison claims by his own estimates to have filed at least 25 complaints against the Lariat yard in the last three to four years with TCEQ.
Barker said any individual is free to continue to file complaints. Any complaints, he said, will be investigated on a priority based upon the severity of the conditions alleged.
Garrison said TCEQ does investigate, but often takes weeks to come to the yard. By the time a TCEQ investigator shows up, he claims, the conditions have dissipated or been otherwise resolved.
Barker said it's not realistic to expect the TCEQ to be able to respond immediately, given its staffing levels and financial resources.
"We have taken (the individual's) complaints seriously, as we take all complaints," Barker said. "We have gone down there. ... If we're down in that area for something else, we'll swing by there, even without a complaint."
Garrison, who said he formerly worked for Lariat at the yard, said it's not only TCEQ that he feels has been lax in being environmentally responsible. He has contacted several different company officials to attempt to remedy the problem.
"I tried talking to Malone Mitchell at the time. He wouldn't give us the time of day," Garrison said. "I called the Amarillo office and tried to speak with those people up there. I started talking to Abel Gutierrez up here, to no avail.
"They said, 'Welcome to West Texas.'"
Garrison hasn't limited his efforts to just TCEQ or Lariat.
He's contacted several county officials about the dust, as well as companion concerns regarding the litter and noise he claims emanates from the yard.
"We have done everything to try to satisfy Mr. Garrison and nothing has satisfied him," Pecos County Judge Joe Shuster said. "The fact is, we don't have ordinance-making power to address the issues that he brings up. We've tried other measures ... but it seems to be that nothing is to his satisfaction."
Garrison has also talked to his neighbors and he claims that several have told him that they have the same problems. He also said he had Precinct 2 conduct a survey of residents to ascertain the scope of the dust problem and its effects.
While Garrison said that more people in the vicinity of the Lariat yard are affected than just his family, TCEQ has reported that only one individual has filed a complaint.
A random survey by The Pioneer of several residences on the southern and western sides of the yard revealed no one who thought the dust rose to the level where a complaint was justified.
"There's dust and noise," said Aurora Torres. "But they're just doing their job. They can't do nothing about it. That's just the way it is and it doesn't bother us that much."
Nora Almodova, who lives on the north side of East Gonzalez Loop just west of the Lariat yard, said there was dust. And she said her allergies and those of one of her sons, who has since graduated from high school and joined the military, were likely caused by the dust.
But Almodova said she's unwilling to join Garrison's actions against Lariat. She said she has never filed a complaint against Lariat and has no intention of doing so.
"The dust is bad," she said. "But what can they do. There's not much they can do. I don't ... complain. Why? That's life. We're out here."
|
