By Tom Davidson, Beaver Times, January 28, 2016

Beaver, PA — Two residents who are part of a group that aims to educate people about the potential risks associated with shale drilling came to the first night meeting of the new Beaver County Commissioners board Thursday to state their case against further oil and gas exploration and development in the county.

The Rev. Jim Hamilton of Ambridge and Bob Schmetzer of South Heights are both part of the Beaver County Marcellus Shale Awareness Committee, a group that’s been in place since 2010 and opposes further drilling in the county.

Hamilton presented commissioners with packets of information about the danger of releasing uranium and radon that some say can be associated with shale exploration, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking) natural gas wells in the Marcellus and Utica shale that’s been actively pursued in Pennsylvania since the group formed.

“What I’d like to have them (commissioners) do is move for a moratorium,” Hamilton said after the meeting. It’s something the Pennsylvania Council of Churches supports, he said. ”The churches can see it, the pope can see it (the dangers of drilling),” he said.

Hamilton worries about the dangers drilling poses to people, he said. Instead of the ethane cracker plant that’s proposed in Potter Township, he’d like Shell Chemicals to build a solar field there to lower electric bills.

Schmetzer, who is president of the group and who also serves on South Heights borough council and as its emergency management director, spoke about an issue that arose after a November 17th chemical fire in Leetsdale, which is just across the Ohio River from where he lives.

There was no warning given to people to stay inside until the dense, black smoke from the fire was already nearby, he said.

He talked to people at Beaver County’s 911 center and spoke with state Department of Environmental Protection agency officials about the danger associated with the smoke. “What we were alarmed about was what should we do as a community,” Schmetzer said, if something like the fire happens again.

Schmetzer believes there should be a way to alert people in some way other than the media. ”I think it’s reasonable,” he said.

Commissioners, including new Chairwoman Sandie Egley and Commissioner Daniel Camp, and incumbent Tony Amadio, thanked the men for coming to the meeting.

It was the first night meeting — and the first time Egley and Camp have faced a crowd (more than 25 people attended) — since they took office January 4th.