When controversies have arisen over natural gas drilling and its impact on air and water quality in North Texas, Alisa Rich has often been a key player.
The environmental scientist isn't well-known to the general public. She's the owner and sole employee of her business, Wolf Eagle Environmental, based in her home in Flower Mound. But Rich has been centrally involved in several high-profile cases.Rich tested the methane-contaminated water well of a Parker County couple, which eventually led the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a Dec. 7 emergency endangerment order against Fort Worth-based Range Resources. The EPA said two of Range's natural gas wells "caused or contributed" to methane contamination of two residential water wells in Parker County. Range has denied polluting the wells and challenged Rich's testing methods and conclusions.A study by Rich showing elevated levels of air pollutants and toxins such as benzene led residents of Dish, in Denton County, to complain to the state that they were breathing polluted air and suffering negative health effects from natural gas compressor stations.A study by Rich in 2009 at the Westworth Village farm of Deborah Rogers, which produces goat cheese, concluded that natural gas operations could be responsible for elevated levels of air toxins near Naval Air Station Fort Worth. A review of the study by a Carrollton firm, hired by the city of Fort Worth, was highly critical of her work.Rich did air testing for a couple in rural Parker County and a homeowner in east Fort Worth, in both cases citing environmental issues linked to gas operations. The couple sued Range Resources and the homeowner sued Chesapeake Energy. The companies have contested their claims and Rich's findings.Rich's professional qualifications, testing methods and research findings have been challenged by energy companies and expert witnesses hired by them; former Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams; and Gene Powell, publisher of the Powell Shale Digest, a staunch backer of Barnett Shale drilling.Still, Rich largely stands by her findings, which critics of gas drilling have cited in calling for tougher environmental regulation of the industry. "I would like to see the industry invest less money in their marketing propaganda and direct that funding towards technical equipment that can reduce emissions, rather than try to convince individuals that emissions do not occur and that industrial mining is 'safe,'" Rich said, referring to natural gas extraction. "Industrial mining is neither safe to the occupational workers nor to individuals subjected to carcinogenic emissions and surface contamination of radioactive materials from mining natural gas."Rich, 54, formed the company as Wolf Eagle Environmental Engineers and Consultants in 2004 with two other people, including an engineer. They left the firm several years later, and now she contracts or consults with other professionals.In addition to gas drilling issues, Wolf Eagle's website lists a variety of other work, including providing environmental oversight of asbestos and mold remediation and developing presentations for EPA educational and training programs. The website lists work done for the Trinity River Authority, Fort Worth Transportation Authority, University of North Texas Health Science Center and others.She is scheduled to receive a Ph.D. in environmental science from the University of Texas at Arlington in August. She earned a master's degree in public health from the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth in 2008 and a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 1994.CriticismsThese are among the criticisms of Rich's testing methods and findings:In 2009, Fort Worth's Environmental Management Department, concerned about that Rich's findings at the Rogers farm, hired Industrial Hygiene and Safety Technology of Carrollton to review her work. IHST said that Rich's work was of "limited value" in evaluating potential hazards from nearby gas operations, that her ambient air sampling was "rudimentary in scope and design" and that the sampling results "appear to be inconclusive at best."Potential pollution sources "other than gas well operations" appeared "to have been ignored" by Rich and "no samples were collected for hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen or other inorganic compounds strongly associated with gas well operations," IHST said.Rich's comments on potential chemical hazards "were generally exaggerated and speculative, not representative of the hazards posed by the actual concentrations of compounds detected, " IHST said. It concluded that Rich's study failed to provide "sufficient evidence to demonstrate adverse impact" to the Rogers farm from gas operations.Richard Bost, an environmental engineer for Houston-based Environmental Resources Management, testified July 1 in a civil court hearing in Fort Worth that Rich's study of air emissions around Range Resources' natural gas operations near the home of Scott and Rebecca Law outside Aledo was "fatally flawed." Bost was hired as an expert witness by Range, and is seeking to have Rich disqualified as an expert witness for the Laws.Bost said Rich improperly relied on a single 24-hour outdoor sample, when she should have done more-extensive sampling. That prompted Range attorney Andy Sims to remark, "You simply cannot put one air sample out and draw any conclusion. It's kind of like if you have Josh Hamilton at the plate, and he strikes out, and you conclude he's a bad hitter."Hamilton, a Texas Rangers outfielder, led the major leagues with a .359 batting average last year.In Dish, where Rich's air testing showed elevated levels of air pollutants and toxins, including benzene, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality installed an air monitor that has generally shown low levels of potentially toxic chemicals. Range Resources has questioned the water and air testing Rich did in 2010 at the Parker County home of Steve Lipsky, whose water well was contaminated with methane, the primary component of natural gas. After her testing, the EPA issued an emergency order against Range.In its legal fight against the EPA, Range cited an Aug. 12, 2010, e-mail that Rich sent Lipsky in which she outlined a "strategy" to get the EPA involved in the well-contamination issue. The Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, already was investigating.Rich defends her workRich contends that her testing methods and work meet accepted professional standards.She said she follows approved methodology of ASTM (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials), as well as EPA guidelines.In regard to the IHST report challenging her work at the Rogers farm, Rich questioned the credentials of the Carrollton firm, telling the Star-Telegram, "It's an industrial hygiene company. ... Their specialty is not ambient air monitoring."Regarding her work for the Laws, she defended her conclusions that emissions of various sulfides came from the natural gas operations about 735 feet from the couple's home. In court papers filed July 1, attorneys Jason Smith and Art Brender, representing the Laws, said Range was "trying to throw mud" because it is "fearful of the opinions offered by Rich."The attorneys said, "Rich's opinions are consistent with and supported by peer-reviewed studies," including a paper by Al Armendariz, when he was a Southern Methodist University professor, that raised concerns about air emissions in the Barnett Shale. Armendariz is now the Dallas-based regional administrator for the EPA.Rich has, however, issued an amended report regarding the Law property in which she has removed her findings that levels of volatile organic compounds exceeded acceptable standards and that indoor testing at the home raised environmental concerns.Her attorneys said she would "only offer limited opinions regarding sulfides detected in the air" outside the Law home, but state District Judge Tom Lowe of Fort Worth ruled Friday that she would be excluded from testifying as an expert witness.Regarding her testing at the Lipsky property, Rich told the Star-Telegram in February, "I stand by the readings that I got. ... I'm very confident that our readings were accurate."She said her son, David Sawka, suffered respiratory failure while taking water samples there as a result of "incredibly high concentrations" from what "was probably a combination of methane with other chemicals as well." Methane is the chief component of natural gas."He wasn't able to breathe," Rich said. "His airway constricted. He turned blue and dropped to the ground." She said there wasn't time to take him to a hospital, so she stuck his head in a refrigerator for 25 minutes to inflate his lungs.He went to a doctor the next day and continued having "adverse health effects" such as shortness of breath and abdominal pain, Rich said. He quit working as her technician in December and is now in college, she said.In urging Lipsky to get the EPA involved, Rich said she was concerned about a "dangerous situation" that the Lipsky family faced. "I think the EPA was more than justified in issuing the endangerment order. ... I would like to have seen it issued earlier," she said in February.The Texas Railroad Commission concluded in March that Range's gas wells were not the source of the water-well contamination. The three-member commission agreed with findings by Range and commission staff that methane in the wells likely migrated from the shallow Strawn formation, into which gas wells were drilled in the 1980s. Range and the EPA are still fighting over the issue in federal court.Rich's supportersMelanie Sattler, a University of Texas at Arlington associate professor who chaired Rich's Ph.D. dissertation committee, has generally expressed support for Rich's testing methods and conclusions in court depositions. Sattler holds bachelor's degrees in civil engineering and physics from Texas A&M and a master's degree in environmental health engineering and Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She focuses on "environmental engineering and in particular air quality" as a UTA professor, she said in a Feb. 18 deposition.Jim Ashford, an east Fort Worth resident who sued Chesapeake Energy over emissions and noise from a company operation near him, said he has high regard for Rich, who did air sampling for him."I'm of the opinion that she really knows what she's doing. ... She just seems really competent," Ashford said. "She was very thorough."Most, or many, of the people who do the air-quality type stuff also do work for the [oil and gas] industry. There's a lot of money there. God forbid you start talking badly about somebody who could be a client."In a Sept. 29 court deposition, Rich was asked, "What individuals support your work?"She answered, "Dr. Al Armendariz," referring to the EPA administrator.Rich said in an e-mail to the Star-Telegram in June, "On several occasions Dr. Armendariz and I have discussed issues regarding my work/findings/Barnett Shale etc."The Star-Telegram sought comments from Armendariz regarding Rich and her work in air emissions testing. EPA spokesman David Bary said, however, that Armendariz "is not familiar enough with her or her work to comment."Deborah Rogers, who hired Rich to do air testing at her farm, declined a Star-Telegram request to comment on Rich or her work."If you want to talk to me about shale gas economics, fine, but there are plenty of other people who are more qualified than I to speak about Alisa Rich. I hardly know her," Rogers said in an e-mail.Credentials overstated?Rich's critics say she has also exaggerated the professional qualifications of herself and her firm, Wolf Eagle Environmental, on its website.Rich has acknowledged, in a court deposition and a Star-Telegram interview, that she incorrectly said at a public meeting in Flower Mound that she had a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington, when in fact she only was a doctoral student and had not received her Ph.D.According to a transcript of the March 12, 2008 meeting of the Flower Mound Oil and Gas Board of Appeals, of which Rich was a member, she said: "I have a Ph.D. in air pollution control design" and, moments later, "I have a doctorate in air pollution."Rich, in a deposition taken Jan. 18, said, "That was a misstatement that I made ... and I have recanted that statement since then."Rich was working on her Ph.D. at UTA in 2008 but her dissertation was not approved by a faculty committee until this year. Rich is expected to be conferred the degree in August, said Sattler, who chaired her dissertation committee.The transcript from the Flower Mound meeting also quotes Rich as saying, "I'm a specialist in the oil and gas. I am not only a specialist, I am a consultant to oil and gas."In the Jan. 18 deposition, however, Rich said she had never worked for an oil and gas company as a consultant and "no oil and gas company has ever called my firm to employ us."Williams, the former railroad commissioner, castigated Rich at a March meeting of the panel that regulates the oil and gas industry.He said Rich had been "holding herself out as an engineer and doesn't have one lick of an engineering degree."Rich has acknowledged that she quit using the firm's original name -- Wolf Eagle Environmental Engineers and Consultants -- after it was challenged by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers in 2010 because she is not a licensed professional engineer and no engineers were in the firm.Rich shortened the firm's name to Wolf Eagle Environmental.An engineer co-founded the firm in 2004, Rich said. But she said she bought out the engineer's interest in "approximately 2008."Although not an engineer, "I can hire an engineer to do any kind of engineering I want," Rich told the Star-Telegram. As Wolf Eagle's only employee, she said she does "almost all the field testing and document development myself." She said she sometimes might need to collaborate with other professionals, such as a toxicologist or chemical engineer.Views on natural gasRich, who grew up in Arizona, said she has had a lifelong interests in health and environmental issues, but delayed getting an education in those fields while she worked at other jobs and focused on raising her children.That was "both a financial cost and a career cost -- but it was without a doubt, given the situation, the best for our family," she wrote in an e-mail.Rich said her doctoral dissertation concludes that the Dallas-Fort Worth area has an air-quality problem worsened by emissions from natural gas operations. She said the industry should do more to cut emissions, such as using electricity rather than gas to power compressor stations when electric power is available.Nevertheless, when asked whether she was against natural gas drilling, Rich responded in an e-mail: "Absolutely not! I support individual land owners' right to mine their minerals AND I support the oil and gas industry. Our society needs the products from the O&G industry -- we would be momentarily crippled without them."In a Jan. 18 court deposition, Rich said she "could very well be a consultant to the oil and gas industry if they would like to hire me." In a Sept. 27 deposition, she said, "There are certain [oil and gas] operators that are not conscientious, but I'm not anti-gas at all. I'd be happy to work at Chesapeake." (Chesapeake Energy is the second-largest Barnett Shale producer).Rich acknowledges receiving "enormous criticism ... over the past few years," but said, "I plan on continuing my work at Wolf Eagle."Jack Z. 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