Help stop gas industry exemptions!

[RDA - Responsible Drilling Alliance]

Help stop gas industry exemptions!

Gas exploration and drilling is currently exempt from PA air quality permits and controls. You can help change that.

 

Currently, all oil and gas exploration and production facilities, with the exception of compressor station engines, are exempt from any kind of air quality permits or controls in the state of PA. (The industry is also exempt from the Federal Clean Air Act, doubling their free pass.)

DEP is accepting public comments today through Thursday, May 26, in three specific areas. Please take the time to write or email the agency today regarding area #1.

Public comment does have an impact. Please, take the time today to make your voice heard. You can be sure the gas industry is taking full advantage of this comment period, telling DEP that present regulations are adequate. We need to counter the industry's claims by sending a large number of e-mails or letters! To protect the air your family breathes, tell DEP's Bureau of Air Quality that you want a complete elimination of all exemptions regarding gas development.

Air emissions associated with oil and gas production can significantly impact air quality and impair visibility. [US EPA Working Draft -- September 2008].

A good barometer of what we may expect if we do not get involved is to look at Sublette County, Wyoming, a rural area similar to ours where gas development has already occurred.  Another affected area is Wetzel County, WV, adjacent to PA within the Marcellus fairway and with topography very similar to ours. Consider what these folks have been experiencing, and then participate in the public comment process, so that our experience won’t be as horrible as theirs. For background information, check the following links:

 

Ozone spike spurs action in Wyoming By CAT URBIGKIT Star-Tribune correspondent trib.com
http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_668939e6-224c-5e57-8f52-2a6733ea413e.html

 

DEP Hears Residents’ Comments BY AMY WITSCHEY, Editor POSTED: July 7, 2010
http://www.wetzelchronicle.com/page/content.detail/id/503185/DEP-Hears-Residents--

 

Copying and pasting the sample letter below is preferable to no comment at all, but including your personal comments will be far more effective.

 

Consider these questions and use these ideas as you compose your letter. 

• Does anyone in your family have asthma, chronic bronchitis, or COPD? 
• Do you have children or elderly family members?
• Are you concerned about gas development activities near schools, nursing homes, private homes or recreational cabins?
• What about air quality during the school recess periods, sports, after school outdoor playtime, etc.? 
• Do you live in a heavy fog area, a hollow, downwind from well sites or proposed well sites?
• Are you a bicyclist or runner?
• Do you have experience with diesel exhaust causing you to have respiratory or other health effects?
• If living near gas development, have you experienced any respiratory impacts from well construction through drilling, fracking and flaring?  
  
  

Mention these and any other concerns you have.

 

Write an e-mail or letter, state the facts regarding your concerns and experience with gas activity-related air impacts, including diesel exhaust, or anything you may have experienced, or believe you may be threatened with, due to nearby gas exploration and production activities. BE SUREto use the suggested reference line below in your letter or email.

 

Email your comments to:
vtri...@state.pa.us

 

Mail your comments to: 
Virendra Trivedi, Environmental Engineer Manager
New Source Review Section, Division of Permits
Bureau of Air Quality
Rachel Carson State Office Building
PO Box 8468
Harrisburg PA 17105-8468

 

Here is a sample letter with necessary subject heading or reference line:
_____________________________________________________
RE: Notice of Intent to Reopen Public Comment Period on Air Quality Permit Exemptions (DEP ID: 275-2101-003) Published at 40 Pa.B. 2822

 

Dear Mr. Trivedi:

 

I am writing to strongly urge DEP to entirely eliminate all current exemptions for air quality permits or controls for oil and gas exploration and production related facilities.

 

My reasons are:

• There are historic air pollution and smog issues associated with gas development in other states such as Wyoming, West Virginia, Colorado and Texas.  The shale development potential in Pennsylvania is significantly larger than elsewhere. 
• Our current air quality is already challenged by industrial facilities and electrical power generation plants to the west of us.
• The contour of our landscape and weather patterns lead to significant areas of air inversion which will capture and hold air pollutants.  
• Exempt sources of emissions from the gas industry are significant polluters.
• Technologies to mitigate many gas industry emissions are readily available, some inexpensive, and many have fast return on investment periods.

 

Thank you for this opportunity to participate in the process that will affect the air quality in my community.

 

Sincerely,

(Include:  YOUR NAME & ADDRESS)
_____________________________________________________
Note: The May 10th and 17th editions of this RDA newsletter will include important information on the remaining two air quality exemption comment areas.

 

Middle school students at risk

Loyalsock Township Supervisors vote “thumbs up” on gas industry activity adjacent to middle school

 

Responsible Drilling Alliance members were shocked by last week’s vote of the Loyalsock Township Supervisors giving the green light to the placement of a chemical tank in close proximity to the Lycoming Valley Middle School. Robbie Cross, Vice President of RDA, submitted this letter to the Sun Gazette concerning the vote.

 

An Unsettling Decision

The decision by the Loyalsock Township supervisors Tuesday night to approve the construction of a natural gas injection and interconnect station near a Williamsport school was astonishing.  One would think that out of professional courtesy and an underlying spirit of reciprocity, the supervisors would have responded to Williamsport school officials' concerns by rejecting this location for the MFG Midstream Trout Run’s proposed development.   As David Wright, Director of Student Services for the school district said, “We recognize that the likelihood of an event is small, but it only takes one time”.  (“Gas land use plan gets OK”, Sun-Gazette April 27th).

 

We understand that the deep well drilling in the Marcellus Shale will sacrifice the integrity of the Pennsylvania Wilds.  We have seen the damage that “blow outs” have caused in Clearfield and Leroy, the water well contamination in Dimock, Alba, Sugar Run, Hickory and elsewhere.  We know now that the drilling puts at risk our exceptional value streams and very possibly underlying aquifers.  And we are learning that the air pollution from the compression stations and round-the-clock heavy truck traffic will threaten our health.  And now, township supervisors appear ready to put almost 700 children and faculty at risk to facilitate the operation of a natural gas interconnect station near Lycoming Valley Middle School. 

Isn’t it time that we inject a measure of common sense into our dealings with the gas companies?
Robbie Cross
Williamsport

 

RDA urges the faculty and parents of Lycoming Valley Middle School students to consider demanding an appeal of this imprudent decision by Loyalsock Supervisors Jeff Rauff, Marc Sortman, and Richard Wheeland. RDA applauds supervisor Virginia Eaton for casting the lone vote to deny the permit.