When money from Barnett Shale natural-gas drilling started pouring into rural Johnson County a few years ago, there was no doubt good times had come.
The natural gas industry has drilled about 14,000 wells in the Barnett Shale - including this one next to Grapevine Mills - and has permits for about 3,000 more.
"We got hit like a rocket ship" by all that new prosperity, former County Commissioner R.C. McFall told a crowd at an EPA public meeting on possible new air-pollution rules for the oil and gas industry.
But eventually there were drawbacks, such as the haze of air pollution that started obscuring the horizon.
After a while, he said, he no longer had a clear view from his house of two local landmarks: the twin reactor-containment domes at the nearby Comanche Peak nuclear power plant.
"I'm very concerned about our air," McFall told the crowd of nearly 200 people who filled the council chamber at Arlington City Hall for the first of two four-hour sessions. Many were from environmental or industry groups.
Industry representatives argued for state controls by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Railroad Commission, but also for keeping an eye on the industry's economic health.
Environmentalists and residents of drilling areas called for a federal regulatory crackdown.
"We support continuing to work with our state agency," said Debbie Hastings, vice president for environmental affairs with the Texas Oil & Gas Association.
But Timothy Ruggiero of Decatur, who said toxic pollution from gas drilling has turned his home into an environmental pollution disaster zone, argued that only the federal government can keep people safe – a hard conclusion for a conservative, he said.
"I've long lost any faith in Gov. [Rick] Perry's TCEQ or the Railroad Commission," Ruggiero said.
The Barnett Shale, a huge gas field that covers 23 counties, including western Dallas County, is among the nation's hotspots for drilling, providing about 7 percent of current U.S. natural-gas production.
With intense natural-gas drilling under way in several parts of the country, two environmental groups sued the EPA to force it to examine its national air rules governing the industry. The EPA agreed to review and consider rewriting the rules as part of a settlement in January.
Under the settlement, the EPA will propose any rule changes by Jan. 31 and take final action by Nov. 30, 2011. The agency is not obligated to make any changes.
Finding, extracting, processing and distributing natural gas can involve leaks of toxic or smog-causing chemicals at many points from the well to the pipeline. Emissions from operations in the Barnett Shale have raised neighborhood concerns about harmful chemicals as well as broader questions about their impact on North Texas' smog.
The gas industry has drilled about 14,000 wells in the Barnett Shale and has permits for about 3,000 more, according to the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the industry. However, that is just a small percentage of the potential emissions sources associated with natural-gas production.
A preliminary state inventory has found 48,621 pieces of equipment in the Barnett Shale that could produce air emissions.
All those numbers added up to economic opportunities and environmental pollution worries for those who attended the EPA meetings.
Industry representatives told federal officials that state agencies closely regulate oil and gas operations in Texas.
They argued that natural gas is cleaner than coal or gasoline in every category of pollution, boosts domestic energy independence and puts money in Texas' public accounts.
Rich Varela, senior vice president of the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association, told the EPA that state rules have protected the public while keeping the industry healthy.
"We are not opposed to regulation; we are opposed to any regulation that is not supported by scientific data," said Varela, a former executive director of the Railroad Commission.
Environmentalists agreed that natural gas is a better choice than other fossil fuels such as coal or gasoline. They added, however, that the environmental costs of producing natural gas greatly reduce its desirability.
Those costs must be lowered with tougher regulations, said Sandra Breakfield of Dallas, treasurer of Downwinders at Risk, a North Texas clean-air advocacy group.
Until then, she said, "it can't be considered a clean energy source."
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