The image of the Eagle Ford Shale south and southeast of San Antonio, has been one of oil rigs increasing domestic production and lowering gas prices, and 'Shale-billies' reaping the windfall of oil production on their land with massive royalty checks from oil companies.
But 1200 WOAI news reports a study conducted by UTSA which will be part of a display at the Institute of Texans Cultures opening later this month aims to tell 'The Other Side of the Eagle Ford Shale,' specifically as it affects housing for low income people in three Eagle Ford Counties, Dimmitt, LaSalle, and Zavala
."We've heard stories of people being forced out of their rental houses that they have paid $600 a month in rent for years, because now the owner can rent each bedroom for $650 a month," says Sociologist Dr. Harriet Romo, who headed up the ambitious project.
Romo says the study looked into how the Eagle Ford boom affected not only low income migrant workers, but teachers, first responders, health care providers, the elderly, and long-time residents who suddenly found themselves priced out of an area where they had lived for generations.
She says the oil boom, for example, caused great stress on long established farming and ranching communities.
"As utility bilsl have increased, property values and taxes have increased, the traffic is difficult for people as big trucks come through their towns."
She points out that for decades the Brush Country's main industries were agriculture, mainly cattle and cotton, as well as hunting. Both of those industries, and the lifestyles that sustained them, have been displaced, along with the migrant workers who worked the fields and the ranches.
She says in addition to pointing out the down side of the oil boom, her research hopes to provide a blueprint for future boom regions, wherever they may be, on how to make sure the boom is sustainable, and results in the advantages being more widely shared.
She says Texas has a history of oil booms ending with lower income people and struggling communities left to pick up the pieces, and she wants to come up with ideas on how to make sure that doesn't happen this time.
She points out that one thing that sprouted from the brushy soil during the original boom of 2013 and 2014 was motels and 'man camps' to house the massive number of oilfield workers who descended on the region.
Now that increased automation has reduced the number of workers needed to operate the wells, with some wells completely operated by computer from Houston or San Antonio or even Tulsa, many of those workers will not be returning. She says the small, low income communities in the Eagle Ford, have a wonderful opportunity to turn those abandoned hotels into long term assets.
"Redesign some of the hotels into housing, affordable housing, medical clinics, or homes for the elder and young families."
The exhibit opens at the ITC on May 13.
IMAGE: GETTY