Texas town welcomed drilling, now fears pollution

DISH, Texas

Many in the town on the rural plains of Fort Worth didn’t even bother to ask whether the drilling might sour the air above the gas-rich rock formation called the Barnett Shale. “Nobody even thought about that kind of stuff,” Mayor Calvin Tillman said.

By the time state regulators started testing the air around Dish, there were 15 wells inside the town limits and more than 12,000 spread across the massive shale. Results of those tests, released late last year, found elevated levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene near Dish, spooking residents who now fear that what once looked like found money could end up harming their health.

AP