Environmental groups map proximity of well sites, kids
Say Pa. children face toxic emissions risk
A new map and analysis claims almost 311,000 Pennsylvania children — including 73,000 in Allegheny County — attend daycares or schools within a halfmile of oil and gas wells or processing facilities, and therefore face increased health risks due to toxic emissions from those facilities.
The map, released Thursday by Earthworks and Moms Clean Air Force, both national environmental organizations, also shows there are 1,118 schools and more than 1.5 million Pennsylvanians residing within a half-mile of the state’s 108,000 oil and gas production and processing facilities.
Citing peer-reviewed studies in Pennsylvania, Colorado and Utah, the environmental
organizations say that unhealthful oil and gas production emissions, including methane, benzene, toluene, xylene and hydrogen sulfide, can put children at increased risk for cancer, respiratory illness, blood disorders and neurological problems and can increase fetal defects.
“As a nurse, the data is concerning,” said Laura Dagley, a registered nurse and medical advocacy coordinator for Physicians for Social Responsibility. “That exposure puts the general population at risk, but children are most at risk because they inhale more air, and therefore more pollution, per pound of body weight than adults, they’re outside more than adults and their organs are still developing.”
Release of the national, state and local interactive map, which includes the locations of well pads, compressor stations, pipelines and schools, comes as the Trump administration is considering rolling back health-based air pollution controls on the oil and gas industry.
Erica Clayton Wright, a spokeswoman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade organization, characterized the claims of increased health risks due to gas drilling as “unfounded,” and said, “independent science, actual air monitoring, and government data continue to demonstrate that natural gas development has led to historic environmental and air quality improvements.”
Alan Septoff, Earthworks communications director, said the half mile radius around oil and gas facilities is a conservative measure, and that scientific studies haveshown “negative health impacts can be most clearly correlated to oil and gas facilities within a half-mile radius and risks increase the closerschools and residences areto the facilities.”
“This is important now because the administration is in the midst of trying to eliminate existing safeguards controlling emissions from oil and gas production,” Mr. Septoff said. “This is especially important in Pennsylvania where, aspart of the budget process, legislators are wrangling over whether to implement state controls as Colorado hasalready done.”
Lois Bjornson, organizer for Protect Our Children and the Clean Air Council and a Washington County mother of four, said her home is surrounded by 34 well pads and close to two compressor stations, and she’s been working to stop siting of an additional well pad near one of herchildren’s school.
“Many of the parents are uninformed about the risks and what could happen to their children given their exposure to drilling emissions in the area,” Ms. Bjornson said.
She said it would be helpful if the gas industry was required to monitor emissions from well pads and make those monitoring results public.
The searchable map allows the public to look up any street address to see if it lies within the “health threat radius,” view infrared videos that show invisible emissions from hundreds of the gas production wells and facilities, and listen to interviews of people impacted by the emissions.