Clearing the Air
How one resident near fracking got the EPA to pay attention to her air quality
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Researchers and people living near shale activity are finding new and beneficial ways to use citizen science.
PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/series/clearing-the-air/)
Shale gas drilling picked up steam in Pennsylvania nearly a decade ago, but some communities are just now experiencing development. Many residents in Penn Township, a rural-residential suburb about 20 miles east of Pittsburgh, are trying to fight it. PublicSource has followed the events there since April 2015. We placed air quality sensors at five homes to monitor pollutants near the contested well pad for two months. In this series, we will explain the ongoing drilling debate in Penn Township and delve further into the possible effects of drilling on air quality.
Researchers and people living near shale activity are finding new and beneficial ways to use citizen science.
Over about two months, we took air quality measurements at five homes near a shale gas well pad 20 miles east of Pittsburgh.
You don’t have to be for or against gas drilling to have concerns about your air.
"I think that there is a growing body of evidence that shows that unconventional natural gas development is associated with negative health impacts"
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced today it will expand the state’s air quality monitoring network for fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) into more areas around compressors stations and near many shale gas wells.
Calling the move “unprecedented,” DEP Secretary John Quigley said during a press webinar that the state could soon have one of the largest air quality monitoring networks in the country.
“We heard the concerns of shale field residents and we are responding,” Quigley said.
Citing environmental concerns, a zoning board has denied a permit request by a small drilling company to build the second shale gas well pad in Penn Township, a rural-residential suburb about 20 miles east of Pittsburgh.
“The applicant has failed to adequately demonstrate that the drill site operations will not violate the environmental rights of the citizens…” the decision for the Beattie Central Pad-37 states.
(Photo by Connor Mulvaney/PublicSource)
This is not the first community to experience shale drilling, and it won’t be the last. But its exposure to the tumult of first-time drilling and the controversies it brings provides a window into what it’s like for people on all sides of the debate.
It wouldn’t have happened five or 10 years ago.
That’s what one expert said about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) helping regular citizens — or “citizen scientists” — collect their own air quality data.