Research for Impact: Someone Has to Understand Air Pollution in West Texas
7 minute read
The Impact Series spotlights urgent questions and real-world issues that need fresh thinking—and real research. Each post breaks down a problem, explores why it matters, and reveals where curiosity can turn into action. If you’re looking for something that sparks your interest and pushes you to do more than just learn—this is where you start.
The Public Health Issue We Can’t Ignore
Thousands of elementary school students in West Texas may be exposed to unknown amounts of ozone gases and carcinogens on a daily basis.
The Permian Basin is the largest petroleum-producing region in the United States and one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions on the planet. The mostly rural area spans about 75,000 square miles across 61 Texas counties and the southeastern corner of New Mexico. Few studies have examined the petroleum industry’s impact on the region’s air quality. However, public health experts estimate that air pollution from oil and natural gas activities in the area cause roughly 10,000 asthma attacks and hundreds of deaths per year.
For reference, in Midland, TX, there were more air pollutants measured between 2015 and 2020 than in Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio combined, according to a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) report.
The TCEQ operates more than 200 air quality monitoring stations across the state of Texas, but only 6 of those are located in the Permian. Out of those, 4 are located within 0.5 miles of an elementary school, raising questions about how exposure risks are being assessed.
While major steps have been taken in New Mexico to improve air quality and monitoring, relatively little progress is being made to protect residents in the Texas portion of the region.
A group of scientists including researchers from Texas A&M have been raising warnings about the long-term public health implications of unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) methods. These include fracking, which has increased in usage throughout the Permian Basin over the past decade.
Until real action is taken on the Texas side of the Permian Basin, air pollution may continue to pose long-term health risks for West Texas students and residents.
Why This Might Not Leave You Alone
If you live in West Texas, this problem could have lasting implications for your community.
Take the town of Odessa (20 miles southwest of Midland) as an example. The TCEQ has an air quality monitor at Hays Magnet Academy, an elementary school located just off of Route 20. The monitor sits at the intersection of Barrett and E Monahans Streets, about a quarter of a mile from the school. According to data from the commission’s website, the monitor detected elevated levels of benzene — a cancer-causing pollutant — in the air on every single sampling day from January to September 2025. Other non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs), such as ethane and propane, were also present in the samples. Then, in October 2025, the monitor suddenly went offline.
Another monitor is located at 11695 W Westmark St, near Murry Fly Elementary School (about fifteen miles northwest of Hays Magnet). It collects measurements of NMHCs and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs) every hour.
Real-time data collected in April 2026 reveals frequent simultaneous spikes of benzene and other harmful compounds between 5:00 and 8:00 AM. The readings appear consistent with volatile emission plumes from industrial oil flaring. In April 2026 alone, benzene levels spiked above 1 part per billion by volume (ppbv) five times, reaching a maximum of 2.30 ppbv.
Benzene is a known carcinogen and has been directly linked with increased risk for leukemia, according to the American Cancer Society. Children are particularly susceptible to the harmful risks of prolonged exposure to the compound.
What’s more, pollutants can linger in the atmosphere and travel hundreds of miles downwind before evaporating. Oil and natural gas developments in the Permian Basin have even had adverse impacts on both human health and vegetation in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. According to researchers, intensive drilling operations and natural gas flaring were major drivers contributing to high ozone levels in the park.
If you’re beginning to wonder how and why these conditions are allowed to persist, stick with that train of thought. It’s that type of inquiry that can help build momentum towards change.
What We Actually Don’t Know Yet
Right now, information is just beginning to emerge about how exactly UOGD activities in the Permian Basin have affected air quality over the long term.
A new report released on April 8, 2026 is just the first installment following a 3-year long study, with additional findings to be published in the near future.
One of the lead authors of the paper is Gunnar Schade, an associate professor at Texas A&M University in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. According to Schade, few previous studies have focused on complex, long-term datasets. Thanks to his team, scientists are starting to understand how pollutant emissions have changed over the past decades (since 1997) with changing technology and regulations around UOGD operations. However, many questions still need to be addressed.
One of the study’s goals was to identify long-term trends in pollutants stemming from drilling and flaring in the Permian Basin. According to Schade, one of the primary challenges is data density variation among the study sites. Much of their data comes from the TCEQ, which they combined with satellite-based measurements.
While the broader study spans multiple locations in Texas, the first report that has been released focuses on the New Mexico side of the Permian Basin. The researchers “observed exceptionally high hydrocarbon concentrations and identified air quality impacts from multiple UOGD-related sources including gas flaring and midstream facilities.”
What we don’t know yet is how emission trends have developed in Texas over the past decades, and how those emissions may have impacted the long-term health of residents and students in the communities closest to UOGD activities.
To sum up: in Texas, available data remains limited and, in many cases, difficult to interpret in isolation.
Why This Hasn’t Been Solved (Yet)
Pollution in the Permian Basin is a byproduct of the oil and natural gas industry, so it’s tied up in regulatory debates at the federal and state levels of government.
In the Permian, ozone gases result from hydrocarbon emissions during oil and gas operations, as well as nitrogen oxides expelled by the diesel trucks and engines around the facilities. Ozone, which typically accumulates in the atmosphere in large urban areas, is particularly hazardous for children, the elderly, and people with lung diseases like asthma.
Oil and gas production in the area tripled between 2017 and 2024, leading to a simultaneous increase in ozone emissions. In 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicated that the Permian Basin was in violation of federal ozone standards. Such a decision would have required state regulators to overhaul production processes in order to more strictly limit emissions. The Texas Oil and Gas Association immediately responded by calling the announcement “an attempt to undermine domestic production.” Soon after, following the industry pushback, the EPA downgraded the issue from “active” to “pending.”
According to Sharon Wilson, an optical gas thermographer who monitors fracking in Texas, the EPA’s decision to back down allows oil and gas companies to continue freely releasing methane and other ozone hydrocarbons. “Sometimes,” she said in a 2023 interview, “the hatches on top of the tanks are left open and any gas in the tanks comes blasting out… The whole sky is engulfed by this cloud of hydrocarbons.”
According to an oil and gas attorney in Monahans, TX (35 miles southwest of Odessa), “There’s absolutely no enforcement that I’ve seen. There’s absolutely no one willing to do anything about it.”
According to these experts, the problem doesn’t have a simple fix, and it won’t be disappearing anytime soon. Addressing this issue involves complex regulatory, economic, and environmental trade-offs, which may contribute to slow progress.
The Questions That Are Still Sitting There
The issue of air quality in the Texan Permian Basin intersects with questions around public health policy, atmospheric science, biogeochemistry, and more. Some of the most pressing questions are:
How have long-term benzene concentrations near Permian Basin schools changed since UOGD expansion began?
Which UOGD activities drive the VOC spikes detected near schools in Odessa and Midland?
Why did the Hays Magnet Academy monitor go offline in October 2025, and what governs TCEQ monitor activity?
How far does the current six-monitor network fall short of accurately characterizing childhood exposure risk across the Texas Permian?
What enforcement mechanisms exist after the EPA downgraded the Permian Basin ozone violation, and to what extent are they being used?
How do childhood asthma and leukemia rates in Midland and Ector counties compare to similar communities farther from UOGD activity?
These questions point to areas where further investigation is required. They’re real challenges that should be addressed for the long-term health of these Texas communities.
If This Is the Kind of Question You’d Stick With
If you find that one or more of the questions above has caught your attention, then that curiosity could be a useful starting point. You don’t need to be an expert in atmospheric science or an environmental lawyer to drive progress: there are numerous entry points for exploring these questions further, with any background.
If you are drawn to even one aspect of just one of these questions, you have the option right now to dive deeper into the data. You don’t have to know the answer before you start investigating. This could be your chance to help work towards real, evidence-based solutions that address decades-long challenges within Texas communities.
This Is What Acting Can Look Like
Taking action rarely leads to immediate fixes. In the case of West Texas air quality, acting can take many forms. In addition to the ongoing scientific project at Texas A&M, other Texans are conducting research through investigative journalism.
In 2024, reporters from the Houston Chronicle and The Examination released an in-depth story revealing how communities like Odessa are exposed to extreme, frequent spikes of hydrogen sulfide and other toxic compounds. The journalists expose state regulators for not installing enough air quality monitors and for failing to enforce statewide regulations.
In addition to research and journalism, education is a crucial area where students can take real action. One of the key gaps that the Examination article exposes is the near-total absence of air quality data collection near schools in and near Odessa. There’s an opportunity here for students from the Texan Permian Basin to take inspiration from their peers in Houston, where communities have been working to improve access to and education around portable air quality sensors.
A mentor can go a long way in helping you design a plan of action that fits your strengths and interests. Through Polygence, you can work with an expert to brainstorm, share and develop ideas, and build your own research project with real impact for your community.
The Question That’s Still Open
Clean air is essential for communities in West Texas. Unfortunately, there’s a persistent gap that exists between what we know and what is being done.
Pollution from toxic ozone gases and known carcinogens may be putting residents in the Permian Basin at risk for chronic diseases and long-term health challenges, highlighting the need for continued investigation and engagement.
If you’re a student in Texas, your neighbors need somebody to take action. They need someone who is ready to dig deep — to mine the data in search of facts and, hopefully, a piece of the solution.
The first question to answer is: will that person be you?