Dec. 2--FORT WORTH -- A new group wants to lobby the state and local government for more regulation of natural gas drilling in the Barnett Shale.

The North Central Texas Communities Association was put together by several longtime opponents of urban gas drilling. But the organizers say they want to reach out to rural areas and build on the recent success that some activists have had.

About 60 people attended the association's meeting Tuesday.

State environmental officials -- prompted in part by pressure from local residents -- recently began conducting air tests near natural gas sites and have found evidence that cancer-causing chemicals are being released into the air.

Also, the Fort Worth school district backed off plans to build an elementary school and community center next to a drilling site in Rosemont Park. And city officials announced last week that a gathering pipeline may be moved out of a low-income neighborhood along Carter Avenue in east Fort Worth.

"We consider Carter Avenue to be a litmus test," said Esther McElfish, one of the group's organizers. "If it can happen on Carter Avenue, it can happen anywhere in the Barnett Shale."

The Carter Avenue pipeline would have run beneath the front yards of more than 30 homes. Chesapeake Energy may build the line along Interstate 30 instead after more than a year of pressure from local politicians and homeowners.

"It always feels like when money comes to town, the poor get poorer," said Michael Hatcher, who lives on Carter Avenue. "That's why I feel they targeted our area."

More than 12,000 wells have been drilled in the Barnett Shale, a gas field that lies under 19 North Texas counties. About 2,000 have been drilled in Fort Worth.

Residents have complained for years about noise, pipelines, and air and water pollution, among other issues.

Calvin Tillman, the mayor of DISH in Denton County, spoke by video. His town sits next to five large compressor stations. The natural gas industry denied that there was an air pollution problem until testing paid for by the town found high levels of carcinogens in the air, including benzene.

"Currently, the industry is not doing it right, and the regulatory agencies that are over them are not making them do that," Tillman said.

Tillman has called for a moratorium on natural gas drilling until better rules can be put in place to protect property owners and mitigate air pollution. The association's organizers also collected signatures on a petition to restrict drilling inside Fort Worth to industrial zones.

MIKE LEE, 817-390-7539

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