Exposed natural gas flames generate hazardous pollutants

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in Pennsylvania, Texas & Arizona to Provide Webinar Training on “Cooking With Natural Gas”

Gas appliances generate dangerous air pollutants that deteriorate your and your family’s health. It’s important for you to know the signs & symptoms of gas appliance pollution exposure and how to properly address them.

PSR is proud to offer our new webinar “Cooking With Gas: Health Harms from Gas Stoves.” In it, you will learn the primary gas pollutants and their health effects, which populations are the most vulnerable, and the steps you, your family, and patients can take to mitigate the worst of the resulting symptoms. If you are a health professional, this webinar is also Physician CME- and Nursing CEU-accredited.

We hope to see you there and have you join us in the fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground! There are 3 upcoming opportunities to join our webinar training:

May 13 @ 1-2pm ET – Pennsylvania Health Check Up with PSR Pennsylvania;
Physician, Social Work, Pharmacy, and Nursing credits will be offered at this webinar. *Pharmacy and Nursing credits are only available for individuals with a Pennsylvania license.
Register Here

May 16 @ 8pm CT / 9pm ET – Cooking With Gas: Harms to Health from Gas Stoves; presented by Texas PSR and PSR National
Physician and Nursing credits will be offered at this webinar.
Register Here

May 18 @ 7pm PT – Cooking With Gas: Harms to Health from Gas Stoves; presented by PSR Arizona and PSR National
Physician and Nursing credits will be offered at this webinar.
Register Here

>>> Sincerely, Zach Williams, MPH, Health Educator & Campaign Coordinator, PSR

PA Attorney General & Staff @ Marsh Creek State Park

From an Article by Bill Rettew, Reading Eagle, October 5, 2021

UPPER UWCHLAN — Mariner East 2 pipeline builder Sunoco/Energy Transfer had been charged with 48 counts of environmental crimes, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Tuesday at Marsh Creek State Park in Chester County, a few miles east of Berks County.

A grand jury reviewed evidence during an 18-month investigation regarding allegations of violations of the Clean Streams Law and related laws. The attorney general told reporters and an audience of about 20 impacted residents that the state’s power was “limited,” and the pipeline builder might face monetary fines through a trial; no one would likely be arrested.

“We charged everywhere we could possibly charge,” Shapiro said. He also said that only the Department of Environmental Protection has the power to pull construction permits.

Construction was stopped at the lake following an August 2020 discharge in excess of 21,000 gallons, with 33 acres of the watershed still closed to the public.

Shapiro noted while standing in front of a podium with a banner that read, Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General/Environmental Crimes Section, that the state Constitution guarantees Pennsylvanians’ right to clean air and pure water.

The attorney general, a presumed candidate for governor next year, said that Sunoco/ET had not notified the Department of Environmental Protection every time a spill of drilling fluid occurred during high pressured Horizontal Directional Drilling.

“Energy Transfer knew but chose not to report until fluid appeared on the surface,” Shapiro said. “Many losses were never reported to the DEP despite what Energy Transfer knew. This happened all across the Commonwealth.”

Sunoco/ET was also charged with using unapproved chemicals which can irritate the eyes. The attorney general wants to set an example for other companies working in Pennsylvania. “If they break our criminal laws there will be consequences,” he said.

Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan thanked the Attorney General’s Office for holding Sunoco/ET accountable for these “continuing and devastating environmental violations.”

“Although my office filed a civil complaint against these perpetrators to stop their egregious behavior, we made the referral to the Office of the Attorney General to assist us with these issues because of their vast resources and expertise in environmental law,” Ryan said.

Food and Water Watch organizer Ginny Marcille-Kerslake released the following statement: “The Mariner East disaster is Governor Wolf’s responsibility. He must stop this right now, and we will continue to fight to make sure that he does. Our communities should not be jeopardized so that a major polluter can have another pipeline to ship dangerous liquids that will be turned into plastic junk.”

Clean Air Council’s Joseph Otis Minott weighed in.“Residents have fought tirelessly to defend their right to clean air and water in the face of Energy Transfer’s ongoing abuse,” he said. “We welcome the attorney general stepping up to support them.”

As part of a joint statement, Chester County Commissioners Marian Moskowitz, Josh Maxwell and Michelle Kichline wrote: “Holding Energy Transfer accountable for their actions is long overdue. We are delighted to hear of today’s action by Attorney General Shapiro. Energy Transfer has shown itself to be a poor corporate citizen in Chester County. Now it is the Pennsylvania Legislature’s turn to take action and enact stronger laws that will protect our citizens and environment.”

The Mariner East Pipeline weaves 350 miles across Pennsylvania through mostly existing right-of-way from Marcelus shale deposits in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. It will carry the excess from fracking close by to more than 40 schools, Chester County Library and nursing homes. The highly volatile product will be used overseas to make plastics.

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Drilling & fracking near Vista Parkway, Erie, CO

From an Article by Bruce Finley, Denver Post, October 17, 2019

Colorado officials declared they will toughen their oversight of oil and gas drilling and fracking sites following the release Thursday of a multiyear scientific study that found industry operations may expose residents to unhealthy levels of benzene and other chemicals. But industry officials say, “There are no long-term health impacts related to oil and gas development.”

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment study concluded that people living within 2,000 feet of fracking sites could face an elevated risk of short-term health impacts — such as nosebleeds, headaches, breathing trouble and dizziness — in worst-case scenarios.

While benzene has been linked to cancer, state officials said the study, based on measuring of emissions and computer modeling, did not find a basis for predicting long-term health harm.

State regulators said they will immediately begin reviewing more strictly all industry applications to drill new wells within 2,000 feet of homes and start measuring air emissions around industry sites.

“Before this,” the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission was not involved in testing air pollution near homes, agency director Jeff Robbins said. “We’re going to do that now. We will use COGCC money.”

Additionally, Colorado House Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, on Thursday called for a comprehensive epidemiological human health study to collect data from across the state to evaluate how oil and gas development affects human health.

After the study’s release, Colorado Petroleum Council director Lynn Granger issued a statement saying protecting the health and safety of workers, communities where companies operate and the environment are top priorities for the industry. Granger claimed the study was “all based on modeling.”

“As an industry, we rely on data, facts and science and look forward to working with CDPHE and the COGCC on actual air monitoring in the future, which is what should be used when developing policy and regulations,” Granger said.

Colorado Oil and Gas Association president Dan Haley said at a news conference that companies are concerned the study will lead to delays in permitting new operations.

“There are no long-term health impacts related to oil and gas development,” Haley said. “Policy needs to be based on real data, not modeling.”

Officials with oil and gas commission could not immediately determine how many wells are located within 2,000 feet of buildings in the state. State data shows that, since 2009, companies have drilled 1,689 wells within 500 to 1,000 feet of buildings; 534 wells within 350 to 500 feet; 317 wells within 150 to 350 feet; and 16 wells within 150 feet.

Push to cut emissions due to health effects

This 380-page study commissioned by the state health department buttresses efforts under Gov. Jared Polis to impose tighter controls on air pollution from the oil and gas industry. The findings jibe with complaints made to the health department since 2015 by 750 residents living near oil and gas facilities, state toxicologist Kristy Richardson said. About 60% of those complaints included reports of short-term health effects including headaches, trouble breathing and dizziness.

The study is expected to help inform state policy for the industry because 2,000 feet is four times farther than the minimum 500-foot buffer zones required under current state “setback” rules.

“This study is the first of its kind because it used actual emissions data to model potential exposure and health risks,” said CDPHE environmental programs director John Putnam. “While we pursue further research, we won’t delay enacting stricter emissions standards for chemicals that cause human effects, ozone pollution and climate change. This study reinforces what we already know: We need to minimize emissions from oil and gas sources.”

Community groups welcomed the study and the tilt toward stricter scrutiny — and called for a pause in new drilling activity near people.

“Dozens of children living in close proximity to oil and gas have already documented off-the-charts levels of benzene in their blood,” said Colorado Rising spokeswoman Anne Lee Foster. “Considering this and the corroborative data of the study, the state must pause oil and gas permitting and ensure that public health and safety is protected — as new legislation mandates.”

At the oil and gas commission, Robbins said he will use his discretionary authority as director to give 39 pending industry applications to drill new wells within 2,000 feet of homes closer scrutiny and that he will contact companies that recently received permits for new drilling to encourage reasonable efforts to minimize air emissions.

Building on the 2017 study of health impacts

The study builds on Colorado’s 2017 health impacts assessment that was based on a review of 27 studies of people living near oil and gas operations — an assessment that found limited and inconsistent evidence of harmful health effects. State health officials made the study available to the public via state websites.

Colorado health officials under former Gov. John Hickenlooper repeatedly assured residents at the time that Colorado’s approach to oil and gas operations near people was adequately protective.

The 2017 assessment also recommended “continued evaluation of health risk using more comprehensive exposure data,” including the direct measurements of pollutants conducted by Colorado State University researchers at oil and gas sites.

A study report summarizes human health risk assessments based on that measuring of chemical emissions, which were conducted at 20 to 30 industry sites in western Colorado and along the northern Front Range.

CSU scientists collected data on 47 chemicals called volatile organic compounds, including benzene. For most of the chemicals, exposures were deemed safe. However, at the 500-foot distance, the highest estimated acute exposures for some of the chemicals — including benzene, toluene and ethyltoluenes — exceeded recommended levels by up to 10 times during oil and gas fracking operations, especially during what industry officials call “flowback activities” at smaller well pads, according to the study.

The scientists determined exposures also hit unhealthy levels at distances of 2,000 feet from some oil and gas facilities.

Study authors indicated they took a “highly conservative” approach in assessing health harm risks from oil and gas industry operations near homes, allowing for worst-case wind conditions and people who are often outside.

For people who are not regularly outside over more than a year, the risks of “chronic” health harm were found to be less severe for all the chemicals measured at the 500-foot distance — with the exception of those called trimethylbenzenes, which are released during the fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, that companies use to increase extraction of fossil fuels. The levels of harmful chemicals were found to be higher at smaller well pads.

Study authors did not address the health risks for people living near large multi-well pads. And they did not recommend a safe buffer zone distance that would be protective of public health.

Colorado residents who have complained for years about health effects said the study’s findings legitimate their concerns.

“Scores of impacted Coloradans have long documented their experiences and health impacts of living with oil and gas with the state, and have been ignored,” said Sara Loflin, director of the League of Oil and Gas Impacted Coloradans. “It is time that any proposed oil and gas development within 2,000 feet of a home or occupied building be put on hold and delayed or denied by the COGCC.”

Amity & Prosperity are communities in Washington County, PA

From an Article by Don Hopey and David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 7, 2019

A Washington County judge has denied a request by Range Resources Appalachia LLC to subpoena and depose two Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporters and a former editor who are attempting to unseal a private settlement of a family’s health claim against the drilling company.

Range had sought to depose and collect information from Post-Gazette Managing Editor Sally Stapleton, who left the paper at the end of March, and reporters Don Hopey and David Templeton.

The decision, issued Friday by Washington County Common Pleas Court President Judge Katherine Emery, denied the company’s attempt to uncover the reporters’ sources and obtain their notes and documents related to the case, saying the newspaper’s sources are protected from disclosure by Pennsylvania’s Shield Law.

“The Shield Law must be liberally construed in favor of the news media,” Judge Emery wrote in her order and opinion. “Under this law, the employees of the newspaper cannot be required to disclose any information that could lead to the disclosure of their sources.”

Later she writes that while circumstances may exist in which the law “may have to yield, those circumstances must be narrowly construed. They are not present at this juncture.”

The Post-Gazette also asked Judge Emery to order Range to pay the newspaper’s attorney’s fees, alleging that the company’s attempt to subpoena reporters’ documents, notes and deposition testimony was an attempt to “harass and intimidate” reporters, but she denied that request.

Judge Emery has scheduled a hearing for 1 p.m., May 28, on the newspaper’s petition to intervene and unseal the settlement of a high-profile case brought in 2012 by Stacey Haney and several neighbors. They alleged they were exposed to spills, leaks and air pollutants from Range’s “Yeager” well site in Amwell, Washington County, and experienced serious health problems, including a heightened risk of cancer.

That case was settled and sealed in September 2018. But Ms. Haney has asked the Washington County court for a protective order that would allow her to reference details of that settlement in a separate but related case she has brought in Allegheny County.

In February 2019, the Post-Gazette found out about Ms. Haney’s request and moved to intervene in the Washington County proceedings, arguing that Range had not overcome the constitutional presumption that court proceedings and documents should be accessible to the public.

Range is claiming the newspaper’s intervention request was made after the case was settled and is therefore not timely.

In the Allegheny County court case, Ms. Haney is alleging that the Washington County case settlement was compromised by a medical professional’s unauthorized sharing of her health records with an attorney representing Range.

Range spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment Monday or Tuesday. Frederick Frank, an attorney representing the Post-Gazette in the case, declined to comment.

The Post-Gazette learned of the Haney settlement in late January 2019 while working on a story about a grand jury empaneled by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro to investigate the oil and gas industry and potential environmental crimes in Washington County.

As part of that investigation, Mr. Shapiro asked attorneys representing Range and Ms. Haney and her neighbors to preserve documents and records in the Washington County case.

The health problems of Ms. Haney, her family and neighbors were chronicled in the book “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America,” by Eliza Griswold, which won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Eliza Griswold, “Amity and Prosperity” – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNh7Z6Svz7I

Brent Broadwater with his cattle

From an Article by Mike Tony, Uniontown Herald Standard, June 3, 2018

Brent Broadwater walks through a pasture of red clover and alfalfa on his East Millsboro angus beef farm and wishes his cows could enjoy it. He knows his cattle would go crazy over the vegetation, but the pasture’s four to five acres are off limits to them now.

After years of seeing reproductive issues among his yearling heifers that grazed in the pasture, Broadwater is convinced that a shale gas well there damaged the health of those cows via a seep that formed at the bottom of the slope on the well’s south side.

“They don’t care about the farmer,” Broadwater said of Chevron and the state Department of Environmental Protection as he stood between the seep and the gas well.

In 2010, Atlas Energy developed the National Mines 26H natural gas well site on Broadwater’s property, and Chevron acquired it in 2011. Broadwater began to have problems with his herd almost immediately. The first two to three years after the well was drilled, only half of the heifers were pregnant, which struck him as highly unusual.

Broadwater bought a new bull, recalling that Chevron blamed his herd’s reproductive issues on the bull. The heifers continued to have trouble breeding, though, and about three years ago, Broadwater stopped making the pasture near the well available to his cattle.

He saw an increase in births right away. This year, the yearling heifers have had a 100 percent calving rate, having not been exposed to the 26H seep water.

But all of the cows that previously grazed in the pasture have continued to struggle with infertility issues and disappointing breeding rates, Broadwater said. He recounted with exasperation that his 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old cows, having been exposed to the seep water, have this year had four stillborn calves and one that was born with a cleft palate and died hours later.

Broadwater has no doubt that the seep is a direct result of the gas well, noting that the seep had killed grass below it for more than 300 feet below.

A lifelong farmer, Broadwater, 68, says he never had to deal with reproductive issues among his herd approaching this scale before. He thinks he and his wife Wanda know how to run a farm after all these years, and he recalled the veterinarian for his herd saying that whatever is killing the grass can’t be good for his cows, especially since the grass is their primary food source.

Broadwater acknowledges that neither Chevron nor the PA-DEP have identified a direct link between the gas well and his cows’ health issues.

Nate Calvert, policy, government, and public affairs advisor for Chevron, said Chevron and the DEP both independently investigated Broadwater’s claims, and based on analytical tests of several water samples and observations made by DEP inspectors during onsite investigation, the DEP determined that the surface water on the property was not an adverse effect of the oil and gas operation.

Calvert said Chevron adheres to all applicable state and federal regulations and responds to documented water complaints in accordance with all state and federal standards, including the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act, which regulates the drilling and operation of oil and gas wells. “Chevron is committed to protecting people and the environment, and to operating with integrity,” Calvert said.

PA-DEP carefully reviews and investigates every complaint that it receives, DEP Community Relations Coordinator Lauren Fraley said. DEP received one complaint for Broadwater’s site in Sept. 2016 and conducted an on-site inspection three days later. Chevron’s personnel and consultant were also on site. Both DEP and Chevron sampled two areas of saturatedground: one on the western portion of the site and one on the eastern portion of the site.

Following DEP’s laboratory analysis of the samples, the department determined that the saturated area was not an adverse effect of Chevron’s National Mines Corp. 26H gas well.

In April, DEP released the first four years of data on the structural soundness of oil and gas wells submitted by thousands of Pennsylvania’s operators, indicating that the majority are being operated in a manner that substantially reduces the risk for groundwater impact. Well operators are required to inspect wells on a quarterly basis for structural soundness to prevent gas migration, manage leaks and protect groundwater.

According to the data, submitted in 2014, less than 1 percent of operator observations indicated integrity problems, such as gas outside surface casing, which could allow gas to move beyond a well footprint and potentially cause environmental damage.

PA-DEP is responsible in Pennsylvania for reviewing permits and conducting inspections at oil and gas well sites, pipelines and compressor stations.

“Our members, who produce 95 percent of the natural gas in Pennsylvania, are committed to continuously improving technologies through the application of world-class engineering solutions and the implementation of best practices aimed at safeguarding our environment, which includes protecting groundwater and public health,” Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Spigelmyer said.

CONTINUED CONCERNS EXIST

Still, Broadwater and others in Luzerne Township have seen enough to convince them that gas wells aren’t good for their livestock or their community.

Phyllis Palmer, 67, of East Millsboro said that several of her husband’s cows have suffered unusual deformities in recent years, including two calves born with a deformed foot, in addition to four or five cow miscarriages.

“Don’t jump at the chance to get them on your property,” Palmer said of gas wells. “Because you don’t know what you’re gonna get.” Palmer said that the water she used to get from a well now tastes like a sewer and she buys water at Walmart instead.

Several area farmers and residents objected in February to Chevron’s request for a special exception to the Dogbone Centralized Water Facility in Luzerne Township, citing concerns about what the impact might be on their livestock.

The centralized water facility will serve as a temporary storage site for water that will be used for Chevron’s well development activities in the township, and Calvert said that the facility will significantly reduce truck traffic associated with Chevron operations.

Broadwater cited studies by veterinarian Dr. Michelle Bamberger and molecular medicine professor Dr. Robert Oswald that highlights the impacts of gas drilling on human and animal health based on interviews with animal owners who live near gas drilling operations.

A 2012 study by the pair noted eight cases of bovine health being impacted. In all eight cases, the issue was reproduction. Farmers reported an increased incidence of stillborn calves with and without congenital abnormalities such as cleft palate following exposure to affected well or pond water, or wastewater.

In a followup 2015 study, Bamberger and Oswald noted farmers in cases they followed longitudinally over an average of 25 months continued reporting cases of reproductive problems greater than what they had seen in their years of raising cattle, and that health symptoms improved for families moving out of areas with oil and gas industrial activity and living in areas where such activity decreased.

“Without complete studies, given the many apparent adverse impacts on human and animal health, a ban on shale gas drilling is essential for the protection of public health,” Bamberger and Oswald wrote in the 2012 paper, which some have criticized as being an advocacy piece.

In yellow highlighter, Broadwater noted a passage in his copy of the 2012 paper in which a family stopped using well water despite test results indicating the water was safe to drink. Despite losing a year of school, the family’s child gradually recovered after being found to have arsenic poisoning.

Broadwater is concerned about his daughter, who lives about 700 feet from the well, losing at least 10 goats within the past year, which he says is another abnormally high loss.

He’s considering suing Chevron, estimating that he’s lost between $40,000 and $50,000 in production scuttled by the infertility.

He doesn’t care what Chevron or DEP tells him the onsite findings indicate. His farming experience tells him a different story, and he wants Chevron to take responsibility.

“They should fix it,” Broadwater said.

Pollution from fracking may harm the health of developing babies

From an Article by Ann Gibbons, Science Magazine, December 13, 2017

The extraordinary growth in fracking—the hydraulic fracturing of deeply buried shale rock to extract natural gas—has transformed the United States over the past 15 years, boosting energy stocks, cutting pollution from conventional coal-power plants, and creating new jobs. But this boom may have come at a cost. According to the first large-scale study of babies born before and after natural gas extraction began in Pennsylvania, those living near fracking sites had significantly lower birth weights—and worse health—than other babies.

Concerns about the health effects of fracking aren’t new. Absent solid evidence, some states, including Maryland and New York, have even banned the practice altogether. Now, a growing number of studies suggests that living near oil and gas developments is associated with a wide range of negative outcomes, from higher rates of asthma and migraines to more hospitalizations for cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, and cancer. Earlier studies have also found associations with low–birth weight babies, but those were plagued by low sample sizes or a failure to show that health effects got worse closer to drilling sites, as expected if fracking were to blame.

Now, health economist Janet Currie at Princeton University and her colleagues have tried to overcome those problems by looking at birth certificates for all 1.1 million infants born in Pennsylvania between 2004 and 2013—a period that spanned the drilling of thousands of fracking wells in the state, which now has more than 10,000 of them. The birth certificates included addresses and vital statistics for each infant, such as birth weights, total months of gestation, birth defects, and other abnormal conditions. The researchers overlaid those data on maps showing when and where wells were drilled in Pennsylvania. They then drew concentric circles around each site: one at 1 kilometer, one at 2 kilometers, and one at 3 kilometers.

They found that infants born within 1 kilometer of a well were 25% more likely to have low birth weights (less than 2500 grams or 5.5 pounds) than infants more than 3 kilometers away, they report today in Science Advances. Babies born in the first circle also showed significantly lower scores on a standard index of infant health. Infants born in the outer circles—between 1 and 3 kilometers away—were smaller and less healthy than those who lived farther away, but they weren’t as badly off as babies born closest to the wells.

To rule out other factors that could lead to poor health outcomes, including race and socioeconomic status, the team removed babies born in urban areas like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, which have comparatively high rates of lower birth weight babies. They also compared siblings born to the same mothers who lived near fracking sites before and after it started. Although this sample size was small—only 594 infants exposed to fracking had unexposed siblings—it showed that the exposed infants were smaller and less healthy.

The good news is that the effects don’t extend far beyond the fracking sites, Currie says. The study found no decrease in infant weight or health past 3 kilometers. But the team doesn’t know what aspect of fracking caused the low birth weights, which put babies at higher risk for infant mortality, asthma, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, lower test scores, and lower lifetime earnings. Currie, who studies air pollution and health, says it’s likely air pollution from chemicals or the increased truck traffic and industrialization associated with fracking. Water pollution is an unlikely culprit because many people in the study got their water from municipal sources not close to fracking sites.

But Erica Clayton Wright, spokesperson for the Marcellus Shale Coalition in Pittsburgh, says the study doesn’t go far enough to address “crucial issues linked to low birth weights like smoking as well as alcohol and drug use. … Given these deep methodological flaws, it’s dangerously misleading and inflammatory to suggest that natural gas development has done anything but improve public health.”

Though there is no “smoking gun” that proves how fracking impairs infant health, economist Don Fullerton—who studies how public policies affect the environment at the University of Illinois in Urbana—calls the evidence “convincing” and says it adds to other studies that have also found evidence of preterm births and other negative health effects. That makes it even more important, he says, to regulate what chemicals are used in fracking or how close wells can be to residential areas.

Currie adds that infants, who are essentially the “canaries” near the fracking mines, probably aren’t the only victims. If they are experiencing negative effects, the elderly and other vulnerable people near wells are likely to also be at risk. “We really should move beyond the discussion of whether there is a health effect or not to figuring out how we can help people who live close to fracking.”

TVA Gas-fired Power Plant, Paradise, KY

From a Report by Glynis Board, Ohio Valley ReSource, WFPL – NPR, July 17, 2017

Thanks to singer-songwriter John Prine, Paradise Fossil Plant might be the only coal-fired power plant that has a household name. “Paradise,” Prine’s 1971 ballad, drew on boyhood memories from the small town of Paradise, in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, to relay the environmental and social costs of our dependence on coal.

“Mr. Peabody’s coal train,” he sang, had hauled away the Paradise from his childhood.

On a recent hot July day down by the Green River, where Paradise lay, officials from the electricity suppliers at the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, gathered to mark a milestone in the region’s energy production: the dedication of a gleaming, new billion-dollar generator to replace two of the 50-year-old coal burners nearby. This new facility, however, would burn natural gas.

“Natural gas is more flexible, it’s cheaper to operate, and also more efficient,” David Sorrick, TVA’s senior vice president of power operations, said. “The unit behind me becomes the most efficient one in the TVA fleet.”

Just a week earlier, the Trump administration’s energy secretary, Rick Perry, toured a coal-fired power plant in West Virginia to tout the president’s commitment to coal.

### Click here to explore the power switch in the Ohio Valley region ###

“The people who make their living in the coal mines running plants like this, they need to understand something,” Perry said. “They have a friend, a proponent, in the White House in Donald Trump.”

The Paradise and Longview power plants stand as examples of coal’s struggle to hold its ground against natural gas, even in the Ohio Valley, where coal has long been king. In addition to the new Paradise facility, three new natural gas power plants are pending in West Virginia, and a dozen are either in construction or planning stages in Ohio.

Despite the Trump administration’s attempts to roll back regulations on the mining and burning of coal, natural gas is rapidly becoming the power industry’s fuel of choice. It’s a switch that also brings big changes for the region’s economy, environment, and public health.

The Long View on Coal

Energy Secretary Perry recently toured North America’s youngest, most efficient coal-fired electricity plant, Longview Power near Fort Martin, West Virginia.

“This is a very enlightening stop,” Perry said. “This technology, this ability to deliver a secure, economical, environmentally good source of energy is really important.”

A 20-day supply of coal is always stockpiled at the plant, fed directly from the mouth of a nearby coal mine via a conveyor belt that stretches more than 4 miles. About 600 employees work together to keep rock burning hot to boil water in the deafening plant.

“This is the turbine building,” Longview manager Chad Hufnagle shouted during a tour. “The turbine is basically where we take the steam from the boiler, we rotate the turbine to take the mechanical energy into electrical.”

READ NEXT: Perry’s Coal Economics Leaves Economists Puzzled

Longview generates 700 megawatts of electricity for the region and it does so with far less pollution than most older coal burners in the nation’s fleet of power plants. Longview officials say the plant produces 90 percent less particulate pollution than other coal plants. It also produces less carbon dioxide compared to other coal plants, because of its high efficiency and partial use of natural gas as a complementary fuel.

Longview does not capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions, however, something generally thought of as part of “clean coal” technology. That technology suffered a major setback when the operators of the $7 billion Kemper facility in Mississippi pulled the plug on a planned clean coal facility and decided instead to switch to natural gas.

Secretary Perry and many federal lawmakers see big benefits in keeping coal-fired power going, and if coal is going to have a future, it will probably be with plants like Longview.

“This plant — and I won’t say plants like it, because there’s not a lot like it — is incredibly important to the future of this country,” Perry said.

But Longview’s short history shows the many hurdles coal power faces. Plans were drawn for Longview in 2001 and the plant met resistance from local residents who sued to stop it. After winning the necessary permits Longview’s owners secured financing in 2007 and started operation in 2011.

Just two years later, however, the operating company filed for bankruptcy protection as electricity demand fell and competition from cheaper natural gas rose. The company emerged from bankruptcy just two years ago. Officials now say the facility’s high efficiency helps make it competitive in a tough market.

That sort of bumpy start helps explain why few coal powered facilities are slated for construction.

Perry is waiting for an analysis he has ordered of the country’s electrical grid. He expects that report will demonstrate need for the kind of constant, uninterrupted power coal can provide.

Homes Very Near Drill/Frack Pad

Health Dangers of Fracking Revealed in Johns Hopkins Study

From an Article by  Wenonah Hauter, EcoWatch.com, August 25, 2016

A new study out today from Johns Hopkins in Environmental Health Perspectives revealed associations between fracking and various health symptoms including nasal and sinus problems, migraines and fatigue in Pennsylvanians living near areas of natural gas development. The study suggests that residents with the highest exposure to active fracking wells are nearly twice as likely to suffer from the symptoms.

This is the third study released by Hopkins in the past year that connects proximity to fracking sites with adverse health outcomes. Last fall, researchers found an association between fracking and premature births and high-risk pregnancies, and last month, found ties between fracking and asthma.

What’s more, a 2014 investigation revealed how health workers in Pennsylvania were silenced by the state Department of Health (PA-DOH) and told not to respond to health inquiries that used certain fracking “buzzwords.” Documents obtained by Food & Water Watch last year indicate the PA-DOH was inundated with fracking-related health concerns ranging from shortness of breath and skin problems to asthma, nose and throat irritation, which were ignored or pushed aside.

While the industry will no doubt continue to refute the expanding science about the dangers of fracking, we can’t afford to ignore it. The public health and climate impacts of extreme fossil fuel extraction requires bold leadership to keep fossil fuels in the ground and transition swiftly to renewable energy.

Photo: A natural gas rig side by side with homes in Washington County, Pennsylvania. 

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

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Coalition Responds to Fracking Health Effects

Research center releases report on proximity of fracking operations to vulnerable population, new coalition launched

From an Article by  Elizabeth Baumeister, Scranton Times – Leader, October 20, 2015

SCRANTON — In response to a report released Tuesday morning highlighting the proximity of fracking operations to children, the elderly and the sick, several health organizations launched a coalition, Pennsylvania Heath Professionals for a Livable Future.

Among those represented in the group are the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, PennEnvironment, Physicians for Social Responsibility, SEIU Healthcare and Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project.

Speakers at a ceremony announcing the organization included Barbara Arrindell, director, Damascus Citizens; Deb Bronn, RN, director, Nurse Alliance of SEIU Healthcare; Zoe Cina-Sklar, campaign organizer, PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center; and Dr. April Niver, economic development coordinator for U.S. Rep Matt Cartwright.

Cina-Sklar explained the report, titled “Dangerous and Close,” uses data from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and other state agencies to “demonstrate the proximity of fracking operations and associated infrastructure to Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable populations: children, the elderly and the sick.”

“Pennsylvania’s children shouldn’t live, learn and play in the shadow of dangerous fracking,” she said. “We must take basic steps to protect our kids and other vulnerable populations from the health impacts of fracking and advocate on their behalf, in a political system that often favors fracking companies over the health of ordinary Pennsylvanians.”

“Dangerous and Close” reveals there are 166 schools and 165 childcare providers, 21 nursing care providers and six hospitals within one mile of permitted fracking well sites.

The opening paragraph of the report’s executive summary reads, “Using the extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, gas companies are drilling near our communities, polluting our air and water and risking the health of our children and other vulnerable populations. ‘’

Blowouts, fires and explosions can occur at well sites and drilling and extraction can contaminate our air and water, putting the health and well-being of nearby citizens at risk. This is particularly true for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable residents: infants, school children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems.”

The PennEnvironment report summary goes on to list two pages of statistics and other findings, some of which are as follows:

• About 53,000 children under the age of 10 and 41,000 senior citizens age 75 and older live within one mile of permitted fracking well sites in the state.

• 52 schools, 51 child care providers, two nursing care facilities and two hospitals are located within one mile of natural gas compressor stations in Pennsylvania.

• Between 2001 and March 2015, the DEP recorded nearly 5,200 public safety and environmental violations at fracking sites, many of which were in close proximity to those vulnerable populations.

• The gas industry projects drilling on 60,000 shale gas wells by 2030.

The report calls for the protection of “the Commonwealth’s children, elderly and sick” by way of a state moratorium on additional fracking operations, at least until several measures, listed as follows, are in place.

• A minimum setback requirement of one mile for all fracking operations and associated infrastructure relative to schools, child care providers, hospitals and nursing care facilities.

• A ban on the use of fracking waste pits and toxic chemicals in fracking fluid.

• An increase of sanctions on oil and gas companies for violations committed near the “vulnerable populations.”

• Increased enforcement, including regular inspections and mandatory penalties, to ensure drillers are following regulations set to protect the public.

The full report can be accessed online at bit.ly/1OGNdh8.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Minisink Health Study Photo

Gas Compressors and Nose Bleeds

A new study connects health issues with rural gas compressor pollution.

From an Article by Jessica Cohen, The Utne Reader, Fall 2015

In rural Minisink, NY, air contaminants from the Millennium Pipeline gas compressor now exceed what would be found even in a big city, says environmental health consultant David Brown. After dozens of Minisink residents found they were beset by similar ailments immediately after the compressor station was built in 2013, a two-month study of air contaminants and residents’ symptoms was conducted by Brown and his cohorts at Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project. The nonprofit group of public health experts, based in McMurray, PA, have been investigating a comparable pattern of symptoms near gas drilling sites in Pennsylvania and other states.

In the Minisink study, recently released, they found that spikes in air toxins around the compressor coincided with residents’ adverse health symptoms. The study involved 35 residents, who were surveyed using a well-tested survey method, including interviews by a physician. SWP-EHP also provided five Speck monitors to measure fine particulate matter in air near residences for the two months, from October 19 to December 17 of 2014. Participants additionally used special canisters to capture air samples during “odor events,” periods when the compressor emitted strong odors.

Asthma, nosebleeds, headaches, and rashes were common among the 35 participants in eight families living within one mile of the compressor. Those symptoms are also frequently reported around gas fracking sites, said Brown.

Six of the 12 children studied had nosebleeds, which Brown attributed to elevated blood pressure or irritation of mucous membranes by formaldehyde, a carcinogen found in excess around compressors in a recent SUNY Albany study.

Of particular concern were elevations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). During the monitoring period, average PM 2.5 was 17 to 20 micrograms per cubic meter (ug/M3)—three times the regional average of 6.3. So it was regularly beyond the Environmental Protection Agency limit of 12. Multiple episodes of peaks into the hundreds, as high as 426, were also recorded by Speck monitors. “One home had a 24-hour period with an average of 64ug/m³ ,” said Brown.

A study published in June by Harvard epidemiologist Joel Schwartz and his colleagues identified the dangers of PM 2.5 even above 6. Each increase of one microgram per cubic meter increases the mortality rate by 1 percent for people over 65, they found. They used Medicaid mortality statistics in conjunction with satellite readings of PM 2.5 in New England for the research.

High PM 2.5 levels also double the risk of a newborn having autism if the mother is exposed during her third trimester of pregnancy, according to a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives in December 2014 by Harvard epidemiologist Marc Weisskopf and his colleagues.

High PM 2.5 levels also double the risk of a newborn having autism if the mother is exposed during her third trimester of pregnancy, according to a study published inEnvironmental Health Perspectives in December 2014 by Harvard epidemiologist Marc Weisskopf and his colleagues.

Page 2 — Schwartz attributes the effects of PM 2.5, particularly respiratory disease and heart attacks, to the inflammation it generates throughout the body. Inflammation of arterial plaque stimulates white blood cells to infiltrate the plaque, making it less stable and more likely to rupture, causing a heart attack, Schwartz says. “Even in a big city like New York, you wouldn’t see these peaks in particulate matter nor have the same chemicals in the air,” said Brown.

Several kinds of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were captured in canisters by residents during odor events. “The levels of reported VOCs were not high in terms of health effects for a single chemical exposure, but are still of concern if these exposures occur over a long period of time or if high spikes periodically occur,” according to the report.

Brown would like to get data about what exactly is being done at the compressor. “They keep records,” he says. “But everyone is so secretive, protecting their business interests.”

To attain permits, pipeline companies use analysts who manipulate projected emissions levels to make them acceptable by Environmental Protection Agency standards, Brown says. Those standards are also weakened by industry lawsuits when the EPA tries to tighten them. “They delude themselves about emissions safety,” says Brown.

Pramilla Malick, who lives a half mile from the compressor, participated in the study. She recalls how Minisink residents were told the compressor would emit only “water vapor” by representatives from AECOM, the company who did the emissions analysis for the compressor. She notes that the CEO of AECOM, Daniel Tishman, was chairman, and is now vice chairman, of the Natural Resources Defense Council board of trustees. “I’m tired of this duplicitousness,” she says.

She points to the opportunity for public health safety that was denied by Millennium. “They could easily eliminate these issues with an electric compressor,” as opposed to the high emissions gas-fueled compressor, she says. But the electric one would cost the company more initially. “Why are economic considerations allowed to be a priority? People are getting sick,” says Malick.

She has led opposition both to the compressor and to plans to build a Competitive Power Ventures gas power plant in Wawayanda, seven miles away. The plant would produce multiple amounts of the same emissions.

Meanwhile, the gas industry plans to increase gas drilling wells to ten times their current numbers, according to Sam Koplinka-Loehr, of the Clean Air Council. Over the next decade, wells will increase from 10,000 to100,000, he said. Consequently, pipelines and compressors would also proliferate.

Page 3 — Gas compressors are built near wells and at 50- to 100-mile intervals along pipelines to stimulate gas flow. They regularly emit many tons of air pollutants.

“Since Minisink has only a compressor and no gas wells, we hoped to be able to sort the data,” to determine what symptoms can be traced to compressors, said Brown. He was previously Chief of Environmental Epidemiology and Occupational Health in Connecticut and a Centers for Disease Control superfund site investigator. “But we’re not just doing research,” he said. If we see health effects, we provide guidance about maintaining quality of health. Minisink people were engaged and rigorous with what we were doing. We could do more with more money and equipment, but we got good, reliable data.”

The health findings are consistent with research reported in peer-reviewed literature and by other environmental health organizations, Brown says.

Brown says county health departments are the government agencies designed to address public health issues when other departments fail. But a spokesperson for the Orange County Health Department said protocol required that questions go through the county executive. A spokesperson for County Executive Steve Neuhaus, Justin Rodriguez, declined to provide a contact at the Orange County Department of Health for comment on survey findings. “Air quality issues are addressed by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, and with their discretion, input from the NYS-DOH,” Rodriguez wrote in an e-mail.

However, both the DEC and NYS-DOH acknowledged questions about Minisink survey results, but failed to respond.

>>> Read more from Jessica Cohen on Minisink in A Small Town and the Effects of Air Pollution