We Deserve Facts on Marcellus Air Quality Impacts

There has been a sudden burst of activity in the media in recent days regarding air and water pollution from the heavy industrial sites involved in the Marcellus Shale drilling process.

Beyond the drilling sites themselves, the focus has been on compressor stations and processing plants, as well as the wastewater impoundments where millions of gallons of hazardous waste from far beyond the local community are being hauled in at an alarming rate. The enormous natural gas processing plant in Chartiers Township operated by MarkWest, the midstream company for Range Resources, has been the center of much of the attention.

Following last month’s problems which included large clouds of black smoke visible for miles away, a new problem related to a power failure caused more heavy black smoke emissions last week. MarkWest said the problem requires specific manufacturing of parts and could take several months to fix, asking residents to be patient. In a move that surprised nobody who has ever dealt with them, the PA Department of Environmental Protection said they have no intention of taking any specific action to ensure the problem is fixed.

Keep in mind, the DEP actually told us last month’s problem was a planned flaring of a gas well, apparently assuming we was too stupid to know there are no gas wells to flare at the MarkWest facility.

Residents living in the vicinity have come forward with similarly troubling stories about the problems near the facility. The common response seems to be either an “explanation” about what’s happening that would insult the intelligence of a toddler, or genuine surprise that anything could possibly be going wrong after days of flaring and heavy black smoke.

These problems put Washington County in the headlines around the world with an August 25 article by the Associated Press describing the efforts of the Southwest PA Environmental Health Project to determine the health impact of living near these industrial operations.

To date, the project has discovered 27 cases in which residents developed symptoms and illnesses after nearby natural gas operations began. All 27 cases are confined to Washington County residents who have had no underlying medical conditions that were likely to have caused the symptoms in question, but who live near probable sources of drilling-related water and air pollution.

According to the Associated Press article, “A previous DEP report found some of the state's highest levels of gas drilling air pollution in Washington County, including toxic compounds such as benzene, toluene and formaldehyde. Long-term exposure to benzene can affect the immune system and cause cancer, while toluene can cause excessive sleepiness, confusion and, with long-term exposure, brain damage.”

That’s serious stuff, especially for at-risk populations like senior citizens and small children. Unfortunately, the default position whenever a debate begins over possible health impacts from drilling-related industrial activity is to start arguing over the facts in an attempt to discredit people and distract from an important debate.

The gas industry is infamous for using big corporate dollars to attack the messenger if they don’t like the message. It’s been happening for years in Washington County and likely won’t stop anytime soon. But we deserve the facts; that’s why I am writing legislation which will soon be introduced in Harrisburg to mandate air quality monitoring systems be placed near all natural gas compressor stations, processing plants and centralized wastewater impoundments.

Under this legislation, air quality monitoring systems would be required at all current and future sites. In addition, the facility operators would be required to install and maintain monitoring systems at their own expense as a condition of their permitting. Further, this legislation would require that all air quality levels recorded by monitoring systems be made publically accessible through a real-time display posted on the Internet.

I believe requiring air quality monitoring systems to be placed near natural gas compressor stations, processing plants and centralized wastewater impoundments will hold everyone to a higher standard and ensure that air quality is safe for residents living nearby. If you support the gas industry and think claims of health impacts are ridiculous, you should be all for this proposal; it will give the drilling companies a chance to put their money where their mouths are, or more accurately where our mouths are breathing every day. If there are no serious problems, the results will be self-evident.

If we are going to have an honest, fact-based debate about the impact of drilling-related operations in our communities, the public should have access to the facts in an unfiltered way. This will also be useful for operators who contend their facilities are not impacting the air quality; if there is no impact, it should be clear for everyone to see.

This is too important for the usual war of words and public relations games. If people living in this area are at risk, we deserve to know the truth so we can find the problems and do our best to fix them before it’s too late. In order to do that, we don’t need more opinions; we need hard facts, which is exactly what my legislation would provide.

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