CARRIZO SPRINGS - The Eagle Ford Shale is transforming South Texas, but the oil boom is straining health care, education and social services.

Health care centers are losing administrative staff to oil companies at the same time that some health needs aren't being met. Formerly poor school districts are becoming property rich but struggling to deal with larger, sometimes transient student populations.

Nonprofits like the San Antonio Food Banks are swamped with more requests for help, a group of speakers told members of the Eagle Ford Task Force Wednesday.

Texas Railroad Commissioner David Porter formed the task force last year by to ensure regulators can keep up with developments in the shale.

'A strain on capacity'

Dr. Carlos Moreno, CEO of Vida Y Salud Health Systems in Crystal City, said it may be a challenge for companies to keep a healthy workforce and for families to stay healthy. He said there are more patients now, and "there is a strain on capacity."

Also, he's seeing more patients with serious health issues such as diabetes, high blood pressure or who are obese. He said the Eagle Ford region is lacking in parks, playgrounds and ways for people to keep fit, which may account for some of the problems.

His clinics also are seeing a spike in sexually transmitted diseases.

Moreno said the Vida Y Salud clinics already have partnered with some communities to find more ways to promote fitness, such as through 5K runs and play events for children. There is a "desperate need," too, for mental health professionals to treat problems like depression, he said, because "you can't find that at any price."

Monty Small, CEO of Atascosa Health Center in Pleasanton, spoke about how hard it is to attract health care professionals to the region because of a severe housing shortage. His center has a new doctor arriving at its soon-to-open Three Rivers clinic, but there is no place for her to live there, so she'll have to commute from a larger town, Small said.

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Eagle Ford boom strains health care, schools