Public community meeting on excess cancers in SW PA

From an Article by Don Hopey & David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 19, 2019

Environmentalists and researchers attending a panel discussion Tuesday called for studies to determine whether shale-gas drilling and fracking, or other pollution sources, could be responsible for an increasing number of childhood, teenage and young adult cancers in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Bernard Goldstein, professor emeritus of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, moderated the discussion and talked about a handful of investigations of environmental exposures and possible “clusters” of disease.

“This situation raises important questions about public health, what’s happening to people where they live, and the lack of responsibility by the industry,” Dr. Goldstein said.

He noted that he had been involved in more than a dozen investigations of potential disease clusters and said they are invariably “frustrating and humbling.” “That’s because the science is often not good enough to give us the answers we need,” he said.

About 150 people attended the event at Bella Sera in North Strabane, Washington County. It was held in response to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s project, “Human toll: Risk and exposure in the gas lands,” that documented up to 67 childhood, teenage and young adult cancers over the past decade in Washington, Westmoreland, Fayette and Greene counties.

Those cases include 27 cases of Ewing sarcoma — a rare bone cancer with only 250 diagnoses nationwide each year.

A major concern is the Canon-McMillan School District, with a legacy of six cases of Ewing sarcoma in the past decade, along with 10 cases of other cancers, many of them rare types, among current students, including a girl who died in February from astrocytoma, a brain-spinal cord cancer.

Dee Kochirka, vice president of the Allegheny County chapter of the Izaak Walton League, said the league’s objective is to unite the state’s 80 or so environmental groups to speak with one voice on environmental health matters.

“We need to be heard. The scientific methods can take decades to prove true. It took 40 years to prove cigarettes cause cancer,” she said. “Are we going to wait until more children die to find out about shale gas drilling?”

Reports of childhood cancers continues to raise concern.

The panel raised concerns that identifying a cause of the cancers is difficult, but pollution from various sources, including shale gas development, could be responsible, said Dr. Ned Ketyer, a panelist and a retired pediatrician who now works with the Environmental Health Project. He noted that the number of Ewing sarcoma and other cancer cases is alarming.

“Only unbiased studies can lead to answers,” he said.

On Monday, more than 100 organizations and 800 individuals signed a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and state Health Department Secretary Rachel Levine requesting an investigation of potential links between shale gas development and childhood cancers.

The group also requested that all new shale gas permitting be suspended until the health department determines whether such a link exists.

In response, the Marcellus Shale Coalition sent a letter later Monday to Mr. Wolf, terming the request “ridiculous.” It said those asking for the investigation represent “the insidious movement we are witnessing to shut down American shale gas development.”

He called the groups’ actions as “shameful” in the effort “to exploit the very real and heartbreaking issues associated with childhood cancer” that “should not be fodder to advance a political agenda.”

“The claims made by the signatories to the letter are an affront not only to the integrity of the researchers who have dedicated their lives to understanding rare cancers such as those affecting families in Southwest PA, but also to those who work in the industry, as well as the professionalism and expertise of your own environmental regulators and health professionals,” said David J. Spigelmyer, Marcellus Shale Coalition president.

Panelist Janice Blanock, whose son, Luke, died from Ewings sarcoma in 2016, said there’s no loss like the loss of a child and parents shouldn’t have to watch their children suffer, especially if it’s caused by something environmental.

“It’s time to come together as one united group of concerned citizens,” Ms. Blanock said. “It’s our right to make sure we have a healthy environment for our children. I want to ask each of you what you will do. What will you stand up for?”

ACP faces many issues of financing, federal regulations and state laws

“The ACP is facing a triple threat,” so concludes a new study released March 25 by Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth.

“Atlantic Coast Pipeline – Risk Upon Risk” cites three principal threats to the viability of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline:

1) extensive legal and regulatory challenges that are delaying construction and raising costs;

2) fundamental challenges to its financial viability in the face of lack of growth in domestic demand for methane gas and increased affordability of renewable energy options; and

3) an unprecedented citizen initiative positioned to ensure strict compliance with environmental laws and regulations.

Some further highlights from the six-page study:

• “The ACP is a climate, environmental and human rights boondoggle.”

• “The ACP is facing an onslaught of legal challenges and loss¬es. Seven federal permits have been stayed, suspended or vacated; in fact, all construction on the pipeline is currently stopped. When — or if — construction will start up again is unknown. Environmental groups, Indigenous Peoples and others have brought at least nine court challenges to ACP permits and certifications, most of which are ongoing.”

• “In Dominion’s 2018 long-term Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), four out of five modeled scenarios showed no in¬crease in methane gas consumption for power generation from 2019 through 2033.9 However, in December 2018, this IRP was rejected by Virginia state regulators, in part for overstating projections of future electricity demand.”

• “The most recent IRPs of Duke Energy Progress and Duke Energy Carolinas also revealed that previously planned methane gas plants have been delayed by at least five years beyond the original proposal, and none have been approved by the state regulator.”

• “Over the next decade, it is likely that the demand for methZane gas in Virginia and North Carolina will decrease further as renewable energy and storage technologies continue to rapidly decline in price and undercut the cost of running methane gas-fired power plants.”

• “If construction proceeds, an unprecedented, highly coordinated science and technology-based Pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI) is positioned to make sure environmental laws and regulations are strictly applied and enforced during construction. It is spearheaded by the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance and member organizations.”

These challenges and the accompanying risk are likely to further delay construction and raise the project’s price tag even higher. If completed, state utility regulators in North Carolina and Virginia are unlikely to justify passing the full cost of methane gas transportation contracts onto ratepayers.

It would be prudent for investors in Dominion, Duke, and Southern to question whether pursuing the ACP further is a good use of capital. As the transition to clean energy gathers pace, the risks and growing costs of this major methane gas pipeline project look increasingly unwise to ratepayers, regulators and investors alike.

Briefing: Atlantic Coast Pipeline – Risk Upon Risk – Lorne Stockman, Oil Change International

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See also: Duke Needs ‘Another Project’ If Atlantic Coast Pipeline Fails, CEO Says – Bloomberg