{"id":237011,"date":"2026-04-06T10:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/237011\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:39:08","slug":"as-new-gas-wells-are-built-arlington-residents-grapple-with-the-consequences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/237011\/","title":{"rendered":"As new gas wells are built, Arlington residents grapple with the consequences"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published<\/p>\n

2026-04-06 05:00<\/p>\n

5:00<\/p>\n

April 6, 2026<\/p>\n

am<\/p>\n

America\/Chicago<\/p>\n

ARLINGTON, TEXAS \u2014 In early December, drilling resumed near Mother\u2019s Heart Learning Center.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Newly installed gas wells dot property at 2020 S. Watson Road, less than one mile from the day care. One day in December, the sound of fracking machinery was so cacophonous that children couldn\u2019t play outdoors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For gas companies and stakeholders, the project is poised to be an economic windfall<\/a>. But many Arlington residents and experts say it could come at the expense of the community\u00a0\u2014 especially its children.<\/p>\n

In January 2025, the Arlington City Council unanimously approved a permit allowing French oil and gas company TotalEnergies to install 10 new gas wells in East Arlington, which has a heavy concentration of Black and Latinx residents. It marked the first time in over a decade that the city council approved a permit for a new drill site after years of community opposition.<\/p>\n

Named Maverick, the new site also lies near three schools \u2014 Johns Elementary, Adams Elementary and Thornton Elementary. Five wells owned by the same company already occupy the plot of land near the new drilling site, which the company has owned since 2008.<\/p>\n

Hydraulic fracturing \u2014 or fracking \u2014 is used to extract gas by pumping pressurized water, sand and chemicals into bedrock. Texas policymakers have lauded the activity as a boon to local communities, garnering $2.48 billion in state tax revenue in 2025, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Arlington is choked with hundreds of these gas wells. The city, which sits atop the Barnett Shale, is a modern-day Golconda. \u00a0<\/p>\n

But fracking has drawn sharp criticism from health experts, who say it could be linked to severe conditions like preterm births, congenital anomalies, lung diseases and childhood cancers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The practice has also elicited backlash because of its role in accelerating the global climate crisis through greenhouse gas emissions. TotalEnergies has been embroiled in legal controversies for years, and its troubles have mounted in recent months. As of February, it is facing a historic civil climate case in France<\/a>, brought on by a coalition of French environmental groups and more than a dozen municipal authorities.<\/p>\n

The company has rejected proposed limits to its fossil fuel production. \u201cIt makes no sense at all to prevent TotalEnergies [from] producing oil and gas that the global energy system still uses today,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/a> \u201cThe courtroom is not the right place to advance the energy transition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 19th interviewed Arlington residents about the impact fracking has had on their lives. They shared their fears about their grandchildren\u2019s health, their experiences living in neighborhoods impacted by fracking and their reservations about TotalEnergies expanding operations in the city.<\/p>\n

Devastated residents throughout Arlington<\/p>\n

\"AIngrid Kelley is among community members speaking out about concerns over fracking and its potential effects on children\u2019s health. (Nitashia Johnson for The 19th)<\/p>\n

Ingrid Kelley, 69, has grown tired of the gas wells sprouting throughout North Texas. Several sit less than a mile from her house in East Arlington, and a pungent lingering scent of sulfur and something else that she can only describe as \u201crotten\u201d has settled into her neighborhood. She fears what might happen to her 4-year-old grandson, who lives with her and attends Mother\u2019s Heart Learning Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t project and trace what all is going to affect him and all those that live around there and all those that are around these sites,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to project what\u2019s going to happen, how many people are going to have increased cancer risk, respiratory disease, cardiac disease \u2014 all the things that go along with being premature or having congenital heart disease that affect you the rest of your life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her grandson \u2014 who was born in Arlington with a congenital heart disease \u2014 has had to undergo intermittent nebulizer treatment since he began attending Mother\u2019s Heart in 2024, a treatment typically reserved for those who have lung complications. He had no prior respiratory complications, Kelley said. Kelley won\u2019t open windows at home, fearing contaminated air from nearby fracking sites will seep in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like one big science experiment here,\u201d said Kelley who, in 2016, became involved with Liveable Arlington, a grassroots organization targeting fracking in the city<\/a>. She is now on the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Edgar Bunton, who is in his 60s, moved to his home in southwest Arlington six years ago and lives less than 600 feet from more than a dozen wells. His wife began to experience frequent and unexplained migraines. Two of his grandchildren who live near these gas wells have respiratory complications, which Bunton attributes to the wells.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really got on board because of my grandbabies,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The adverse health effects of hydraulic fracturing on children have been studied over the decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a cumulative risk issue, because this is not just one chemical at a time people are being exposed to,\u201d said Meagan Weisner, a senior health scientist at Environmental Defense Fund and a former public health epidemiologist who has studied health impacts related to oil and gas development in Colorado. \u201cThis is dozens of chemicals coming from more than just one site because they\u2019re already near other wells.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Weisner, the contaminants released are dangerous to nearby residents not only during the drilling phase, which emits numerous toxic chemicals, but also after.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of parents that were reporting their children were feeling ill during the pre-production phase,\u201d Weisner said, which encompasses drilling. \u201cSo it would not surprise me at all if these residents in Texas that are close to these 10 wells experienced adverse health impacts because of their proximity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Children in particular are uniquely susceptible to harm. \u201cWe saw health impacts in children extended out to two miles from the pad,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if that would be the exact same in Texas, but we saw adults had reported significant adverse symptoms within a one-mile radius but, for children, it was within a two-mile radius, and that does track along the lines of children are just much more vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 19th reached out to the City of Arlington for comment. In an emailed response, the city only said that the drill site was approved because \u201cit met the 600-foot spacing requirement from protected uses, as outlined in the City\u2019s Gas Drilling and Production ordinance.\u201d<\/p>\n

TotalEnergies did not respond to questions from The 19th.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before energy companies descended on Arlington, the sprawling land behind Phil Kabbakoff\u2019s house was decorated with oak trees. When the company Chesapeake Energy arrived in his neighborhood, they were leveled and reduced to kindling. Now, a towering drill rig owned by TotalEnergies looms behind the 84-year-old\u2019s home in their place.<\/p>\n

Kabbakoff resides in the Glen Springs subdivision of southwest Arlington, the same neighborhood where Bunton\u2019s grandchildren developed respiratory illnesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of these houses now are leased, and so people come and go, and we don\u2019t know who they are,\u201d he said. \u201cWe used to know everybody on the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like other residents, he was upset that more gas wells were installed by Mother\u2019s Heart. \u201cWe were up in arms about it all the way around,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Kabbakoff would like to see sustained changes made to fracking practices in the city, he believes that Arlington elected officials will only continue to value the interests of gas companies despite protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re never going to change, not this council,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know anything about it. Nobody\u2019s researched it. They could care less. They know they make money from it, and that\u2019s all they\u2019re worried about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Sacrifice zones are safe spaces for polluters\u2019<\/p>\n

\"GiantA fracking site sits approximately five miles from Ranjana Bhandari\u2019s home in Arlington, Texas. Residents say nearby drilling activity raises concerns about potential impacts on children\u2019s health.
\n (Nitashia Johnson for The 19th)<\/p>\n

In 2005, landmen arrived to secure land for mineral ownership and drilling rights from Arlington residents. Ranjana Bhandari, founder of Liveable Arlington, was approached and ultimately declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is almost 20 years ago,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause I was a mother \u2014 I had a young child \u2014 I didn\u2019t think that it made any sense to have that kind of pollution around our children.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the onset of the fracking boom in Arlington, Bhandari spent hours poring over reports from other regions that experienced similar fracking booms, hoping for a glimpse of what this new development might mean for her city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVery quickly, they built 56 drill sites here, and they were spread out all over the city,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s literally one everywhere you see, one every few minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

She read studies about cancerous pollutants linked to childhood leukemia coming out of states like Colorado. In the neighboring city of Fort Worth, she saw reports that air quality was slowly deteriorating because of drilling-related emissions of benzene, a carcinogen with proven harmful reproductive effects on women and fetuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBenzene is a serious, serious cat,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a category one carcinogen. There\u2019s no safe amount of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ABy 2015, families in Arlington, Texas were so overwhelmed by the noxious fumes of drill sites and the effects of fracking that rippled throughout the city, Ranjana Bhandari decided to intervene by creating Liveable Arlington. (Nitashia Johnson for The 19th)<\/p>\n

Bhandari recalled a particular moment when she and her family stopped at a red light directly across from one now-defunct drill site around 2011. Within minutes, she said, they began to feel sick. \u201cThat was my first inkling that we weren\u2019t just looking at climate harm.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discovery was bleak to Bhandari. By 2015, families in Arlington found themselves overwhelmed by the drill sites\u2019 noxious fumes and the effects of fracking that rippled throughout the city \u2014 so much so that they decided to intervene. She created Liveable Arlington the same year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were a mothers\u2019 organization \u2014 mothers and grandmothers concerned about children\u2019s health \u2014 and, through our campaigns and over the years, started learning many new things,\u201d Bhandari said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focused on the science. We focused on the community,\u201d she continued. \u201cI started it as a concerned parent. We were much more focused on fracking near children, fracking near day cares and schools, and so some of our most successful campaigns and most of our advocacy was to stop expansion of fracking around eight sites in Arlington, which are right next to day cares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now 61 years old, she has seen the very problems she once read about penetrate her own community. And the repercussions have been more consequential for some communities than others. More often than not, Bhandari said, they\u2019ve settled disproportionately in majority Black and Latinx neighborhoods, like the one where Mother\u2019s Heart is located.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burdens of fracking were so unequally distributed,\u201d she said. \u201cThe other bigger picture that people seem to miss when they say, \u2018It\u2019s OK to put it somewhere else, just not near me,\u2019 is that you always will preserve a safe place. Sacrifice zones are safe spaces for polluters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published 2026-04-06 05:00 5:00 April 6, 2026 am America\/Chicago ARLINGTON, TEXAS \u2014 In early December, drilling resumed near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":{"0":"post-237011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}