HARRISBURG, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) today confirmed that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is not gathering information about the amount of air pollution coming from gas drilling operations.
“Our state’s air quality is already poor, not meeting the health-based smog standards,” said Jan Jarrett, PennFuture’s president and CEO. “Now we’ve discovered that DEP – the agency charged by law to protect Pennsylvanians from bad air – isn’t monitoring the air pollution caused by drilling. DEP has also decided not to use authority it already has to require the drillers to use the best technology to reduce pollution from their operations.”
PennFuture’s legal team filed two right-to-know requests seeking data on the air pollution coming from gas drilling activities, asking for the amount of nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compound, carbon monoxide, and methane pollution generated by gas drilling activities. DEP responded twice, saying that it did not have that information either in the regional offices or at headquarters.
“If DEP does not know how much pollution is coming from gas drilling, it cannot effectively control that air pollution and adequately protect public health and our economy,” said Jarrett.
“Because DEP is not effectively using its current authority to require drillers to use the best technology to control air pollution, over 13,000 tons per year of nitrogen oxide (NOx) associated with the Marcellus industry has already been permitted by the DEP Southwest Regional Office alone,” said Jarrett. “NOx is the prime ingredient of ozone smog pollution that shortens lives and sickens thousands every year. Internal combustion engines – like those on the hundreds of trucks, compressors, and drilling rigs associated with every Marcellus well – create NOx pollution.
“Existing shallow gas wells in Pennsylvania are exempt from the requirement to use the best technology to control air pollution. Unfortunately, DEP has extended that exemption to the much larger and more polluting gas drilling operations in the Marcellus Shale,” continued Jarrett. “This is a dangerous decision for the health of all Pennsylvanians, and could hamper other economic development, since new businesses cannot add to pollution loads in areas with unhealthy air.”
“Pennsylvanians deserve world-class drilling standards to guarantee that damage and pollution from drilling do not outweigh the benefits for Pennsylvania and the rest of the country of developing this precious resource,” said Jarrett.
PennFuture’s right-to-know requests, and the responses from DEP, are available online on PennFuture’s website.
PennFuture is a statewide public interest membership organization that advances policies to protect and improve the state’s environment and economy. With offices in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, West Chester, and Wilkes-Barre, PennFuture’s activities include litigating cases before regulatory bodies and in local, state, and federal courts, advocating and advancing legislative action on a state and federal level, public education and assisting citizens in public advocacy.