Newsletter - Full Edition - August 2015

Parents and Supporters Turn Out
to Protest Fracking Near Children's’ Schools 

PicturePhoto by Tom Jefferson
On Wednesday, July 15, under a beautiful blue sky, a group of over 70 parents and their supporters protested the placement of Rex Energy gas wells approximately one-half mile from their children’ schools on the Mars Area School District (MASD) campus.  The rally, sponsored by Marcellus Outreach Butler, a founding coalition member of Protect Our Children, decried the practice of situating unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) and related infrastructure, often referred to as “fracking,” close to schools throughout the state.  

Several schools in Butler County located near gas drilling activities, the MASD schools being but an example, demonstrate the seriousness of the issue.  The campus holds five schools where about 3,200 students attend, along with faculty and staff.  Another Butler County school, Summit Elementary School of the Butler Area School District (BASD) is an especially egregious example as there are 32 fracking wells within a two-mile radius upon completion of the well currently being completed, and a compressor station is planned nearby.  Also a BASD school, Connoquenessing Elementary School sits a little over 1,000 feet from a fracking site.  Seneca Valley School District’s secondary school campus with approximately 4,000 students and staff sits 1.1 miles from Markwest’s Bluestone I and II gas processing plants, contiguous to another but permitted separately as if each was the only facility at the site.  Sadly, Bluestone III has just recently been permitted and Bluestone IV is planned for 2016, all abutting each other.  The plant sits in low, creek bed terrain where air pollution tends to dissipate slowly.

A newly released mapping tool by Healthy Schools Pennsylvania and Women for a Healthy Environment shows an alarming 75 public schools that have a total of 350 unconventional gas wells within a one-mile radius of the school building.  There are 41 compressor stations situated within a one-mile radius of schools (three schools each have three compressor stations within a mile).  The risks from this industrial activity are becoming ever clearer.

Speaking at the protest, Raina Rippel, Executive Director of the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, who has been working for the past 4 years with a team of public professionals, researchers, and healthcare workers to address health concerns plausibly linked to unconventional natural gas development, stated: 
"In relation to the Mars School District, and many similar schools in our region and state, the following statements are increasingly understood to be true:
  • Setbacks distances between vulnerable populations and gas drilling industrial activities are inadequate.
  • Schoolchildren are at risk.
  • The body of evidence proves this to be true—we can now characterize the short-term health impacts, and we can safely predict the long-term health impacts."

Eva Westheimer of the Center for Coalfield Justice and a Steering Committee member of Protect Our Children, a coalition comprised of over 30 member groups, provided a statement of the Coalition’s position:
"The Protect Our Children Coalition is dedicated to protecting school children from the health risks of shale gas drilling and infrastructure.  The science is clear, young people are more at risk of harmful exposure from pollutants involved in shale gas development.  

Our school boards, townships, and state government have a responsibility to protect the health and well-being of the future of our Commonwealth. Shale gas infrastructure has no place near schools or where children gather, learn, and play!

It’s quite simple actually: we want our schools to be safe environments for students and teachers. From the dangerous chemicals and pollutants of well pads and compressor stations, to the increases in truck traffic and diesel pollution, industrial zones have been set up next to many schools in our state. This is not a safe environment for students or teachers."

Thaddeus (Ted) Popovich, co-founder of Allegheny County Clean Air Now and board member of GASP, compared the pollution generated by fracking to that produced by coke production:  
“The air contaminants associated with hydraulic fracturing are the same as those linked to the coking of coal or for any fossil fuel operation. These include benzene (think leukemia), toluene (think birth defects), ethyl-benzene (think blood disorders), xylene (think nervous system damage), nitrous oxides (think asthma), methane/coking gas (think death).”

Crystal Yost, a western Pennsylvania field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force and parent with children attending school on the Mars campus, expressed her concerns with respect the well site near the schools: 
"The oil and gas industry is the largest source of methane emissions in the United States.  Along with methane, the wellheads, condensate tanks, diesel engines and infrastructure like compressor stations, processing plants and pipelines emit VOCs, such as benzene and xylene which are recognized carcinogens.  In addition, well sites emit large amounts of particulate matter, a known trigger for asthma. This chemical concoction is what we expose our children to when we place them next to these sites. We have been told the air quality on Rt.228 is poor due to the heavy truck traffic and almost 30,000 vehicles that pass through here each day. Why would we knowingly make the air worse for our children?"  

Another MASD parent, Patrice Tomcik, had similar concerns:
"Unconventional gas drilling creates pollutants throughout the entire process of development and production, including all the permanent supporting infrastructure.  The scientific studies published to date have given cause for concern about placing this industrial activity so close to children who are a vulnerable population to health effects.   As a parent, I cannot condone placing a known health and safety risk near children’s schools.  We just want to Protect Our Children."

Students are concerned as well.  Andrew Guidarelli, a June graduate of Mars High School, had the following to say about his doubts regarding our nation’s current energy policy and what he believes would be the best energy option for his generation’s future:
"As a nation, the United States has accomplished many incredible feats. We are the country that built the federal highway system, sent a man to the moon, and just recently, flew a spacecraft four billion miles away to Pluto. Yet in the energy field, we continue to lag behind countries like Denmark, who just last week announced they produce 116% of their energy from wind power. If America is the world's greatest country, why can't we put solar panels on top of school buildings? Why can't we lease out farmers' land for wind turbines instead of potentially deadly gas drilling wells. The technology is there, and the need is there. With the willpower, America can become a world leader [in the clean energy field] if it wants to.  But we have to want to."

At this time, the Geyer well construction is at a standstill as a legal challenge by two nearby residents and two environmental groups has been filed to pursue an appeal of the Middlesex Township Zoning Board ruling.  The Zoning Board has ruled to allow recently revised ordinances that permit drilling in 90% of the township’s zones to stand, which permits the establishment of the fracking wells near the schools.  In response to the legal challenge, a group of leaseholders have filed a suit of their own against the appellants and another parent for allegedly making false statements at public meetings, creating a work stoppage at the wells and preventing them from realizing their royalties from drilling their land. 

The ACLU has deemed this a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP suit) and is assisting the SLAPP suit defendants in this matter.  Regardless of the outcome of the appeal or the SLAPP suit, more communities will undoubtedly join the struggle to safeguard their most precious treasure, their children.

(For a more detailed report on the rally and the lawsuits, read the City Paper article here.    With respect to Kim Geyer's comment in the article regarding there having been no regulations for the oil and gas industry in place in 2009, MOB would like to remind readers that Act 13 of 2012 was written as an update to the state Oil and Gas Act of 1984.  Regarding evacuation zones for well fires, emergency manuals mandate a standard 1-2 mile evacuation radius for gas well fires.  The half-mile perimeter for the Greene County well fire was due to the remote location of that well.  Then-DEP Secretary Chris Abruzzo said at the time: “We don’t have any real concerns that there are people in the immediate area that may have been harmed either because of the initial explosion or ignition or from vapors.  This just demonstrates why making sure that the location of well pads is done responsibly because at the end of the day, the most important thing for all of us is the protection of our citizens.”  Emphasis ours.)

The Invasion of Butler County

The following was submitted as a Letter to the Editor to the Butler Eagle by MOB member and Butler County Commissioner candidate Michael Bagdes-Canning.  It is reprinted here with permission from the author.  Also with permission from the author and at the request of local anti-residential drilling group Section 27 Alliance, Butler Township has been added to the author's litany of "local officials acting irresponsibly..."

To the Editor,
I have often wondered what a captured community would look like, a community that was under the crippling heel of an invader. Would the local press be nonresponsive to local peoples and do the bidding of the invaders? Would local government carry water for the invaders and sell the locals down the river? Recent weeks have helped me see.

On Saturday, Marcellus Outreach Butler hosted one of the foremost experts in the world on ultrafine particles and the Butler Eagle didn't see fit to cover the event. Dr. Michael McCawley, a scientist, not an anti-fracking advocate, outlined the catastrophic consequences of ultrafine particles on human health (childhood asthma, cardiopulmonary disease and cancer) and then shared research that links the production of ultrafine particles and shale gas extraction and infrastructure. Considering the steady drumbeat of scientific studies that have been released in this same vein in the last several weeks, McCawley's information was not surprising. What is surprising is the lack of interest by the self proclaimed "Butler County's great daily newspaper." Coupled with recent editorial decisions to cheer on this killer industry and to misrepresent and smear local residents trying to protect their homes and children, the Eagle is nonresponsive to the needs of the locals and doing the bidding of the invaders.

Government agencies carrying water for invaders has a long and tragic history. Butler County government entities selling locals down the river adds another chapter.

The Woodlands has been without water for over 4 years and dependent upon a water bank for over 3 and not a penny of local impact fees have been sent their way. About the only thing folks from the Woodlands have gotten from Connoquenessing Township and Butler County is a smearing of their character and a denial of science. If having your wells poisoned by nearby drilling isn't an impact, what is? But they aren't the only locals being sold down the river. Middlesex, Franklin and Butler townships and Connoquenessing Borough have also seen local officials act irresponsibly when it comes to protecting residents.

The Butler School District acted recklessly in September, 2013 when they didn't cancel classes at Summit Elementary when the Kozik Brothers well was flaring 500 feet from the playground and 900 feet from the school. The recklessness continued this spring when the Butler Area School District decided to expand that school, putting more children in harm's way. One of Dr. McCawley's findings points to the risk to health when one is so close to a well (and a flaring well is even more problematic). Right on cue, XTO decided to expand the operation at the Kozik site. Of course, Summit isn't the only Butler Area school in close proximity to an active well. Connoquenessing Elementary is a mere 1900 feet from another well pad. And Butler isn't alone; unfortunately, children in other local school districts have also elected to put children at risk by leasing school properties and other school districts (and private schools and daycare centers) are threatened because of reckless neighbors.

Butler County is an invaded community and the local press and government bodies do little more than act as cheerleaders and enablers. If the Eagle won't dig for truth and local politicians won't do our bidding, it's time for change. It's time for the Eagle to act like a "great daily paper" and it's time for the rest of us to kick the bums out.

Michael Bagdes-Canning
Cherry Valley 

Take Action - Sign a Petition

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Pennsylvanians Against Fracking steering committee member Food & Water Watch has obtained documents from the Pennsylvania Department of Health showing that the agency has had a clear pattern of responding inadequately to fracking-related health complaints. In many instances, the Department of Health responded to serious health complaints by pushing the complaint onto another agency or suggesting that individuals seek out expensive tests on their own dime.

Much of this negligence occurred before Governor Wolf came into office, but the problem is now his responsibility. Governor Wolf must act immediately to halt fracking in Pennsylvania now, and put forward a plan to help individuals already adversely impacted by fracking.

We're asking our friends everywhere to join us in calling on Gov. Wolf to protect the people of Pennsylvania.  Please sign and share our petition!
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An online petition urges the PA Department of Environmental Protection to include a one-mile setback between the property boundaries of oil and gas infrastructure and the property boundaries of school properties in its revisions to state regulations for above ground oil and gas operations. 

If you haven't done so already, please sign and share this petition to keep our schoolchildren safe from the harmful effects of oil and gas operations.

Fracking in the News

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In the past few weeks, two major studies conducted in heavily-fracked areas of Pennsylvania have indicated dire health consequences for people, and in one study, especially children, who live in close proximity to shale-gas drilling and infrastructure.  

In the report “Health Hazards to Fetuses, Infants, and Young Children in Heavily-fracked Areas of Pennsylvania,” Joseph J. Mangano of the Radiation and Public Health Project found disturbing links between hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and health effects in children younger than five years old, including higher incidences of infant mortality, perinatal mortality, low-weight births, premature births, and cancer in children ages zero to four than what was found in the rest of Pennsylvania.  

The other study, conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University, found that residents of two northeastern Pennsylvania counties with a high density of active shale gas wells were more likely to be admitted to the hospital for heart, nervous system and other medical conditions than residents in neighboring areas with no drilling.  

While the authors of both studies were careful to state that neither study is in itself conclusive, and that more studies need to be done (and they have been and will be), there is a growing mountain of evidence within the medical community that strongly suggests that shale-gas drilling and infrastructure should be kept, at the very least, one mile away from vulnerable populations like our children, if not further... 
Connoquenessing neighborhood turns to Web to raise money for clean water. Read more...
Donate here.
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Tests find radiation in tributary of the Monongahela.  Read more...  
Fracking health complaints received little follow-up from the Department of Health. Read more...
As drillers pull back hiring, training programs shift focus.  Read more...
Surprising Countries Where Solar and Wind Are Booming.  Read more...
Despite the majority of more than 50 speakers asking the South Fayette Township commissioners to vote against restricting natural gas drilling solely to industrial areas, commissioners voted 4-1 Wednesday for the plan.  Read more...
DEP seeks record fine of $8.9 million from Range Resources. Read more...
Fracking could be delayed for up to two years across UK after Lancashire council rejects test drilling.  Read more...
10 key excerpts from Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment.  Read more...
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The EPA’s Fracking Study, Explained.  
Read more...
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American Medical Association blasts secret shale records.  Read more...
Pope Francis: The Cry of the Earth.  A blog by Bill McKibben.  Read more...
Video of the FREEDOM FROM FRACKING concert that took place on May 16 at Mr. Small's in Etna.
AUGUST
  • A presentation by Duquesne University scientist John Stoltz on water contamination in western Pennsylvania linked to unconventional drilling and hydraulic fracturing in shale deposits. Sponsored by Marcellus Outreach Butler.  Watch for announcements via e-mail or on the MOB website re: the exact time, place and details for this event.
  • A "Stop Fracking Near Our Schools" march and rally, sponsored by Protect Our Children and Marcellus Outreach Butler, on Saturday, Aug. 29 in Butler city.  March will start at the Junior High School building on East North Street in Butler at 12 noon and end with a rally in Diamond Park, Main Street, Butler at approx. 1 pm.  Watch for updates and further details on this event via e-mail or the MOB website.
SEPTEMBER
Third Annual Fossil-free Energy Fair & Electric Car Cruise!
September 12, 2015
11 am - 5 pm
Kohl's lower parking lot at Cranberry Commons
(Rt. 228), Cranberry Township, PA 16066