This was written by Rachel Meyer, Ohio River Valley Coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force:
In September, many of the world’s leaders on energy converged in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the Clean Energy Ministerial to discuss next steps for rapid clean energy deployment. Although I was glad to hear discussions about renewable energy from wind and solar, there were other energy sources discussed that would continue to perpetuate the use of dirty fossil fuels such as natural gas.
As a community member surrounded by oil and gas operations, I am concerned about the health effects from living so close to these industrial operations. This is where my three-year-old daughter lives, learns, and plays.
Methane and other harmful pollutants from oil and gas operations can impact health and contribute to climate change. To add to the burden of breathing polluted air, one of the largest petrochemical facilities in the US is now officially operational near my family.
I wanted to show the Clean Energy Ministerial attendees the effect these polluting industries have on communities like mine. So I joined with other community members to organize a petrochemical tour.
We took a packed van full of participants to see and hear experiences that illustrate the reality of living amid the infrastructure for fracking and the petrochemical industry. The immense ethane cracker plant for making plastic may have been the main attraction, but we wanted to show them more. While a major component, the cracker plant is part of a much wider system.
My fellow tour guide partner was chemist Dr. Clifford Lau, who introduced himself and explained that Southwestern Pennsylvanians have a chemical plant around them and that we were going to see examples of that infrastructure. Next, I introduced myself. “I’m Rachel Meyer. I’m a mom, and I live inside the chemical plant in Independence Township.”
As we drove out of the city and into the densely wooded hills and valleys, participants looked out one side of the van and then the other to see the partially exposed cryogenic gas plant, pipeline routes, compressor stations, tank pads, well pads, waste trucks, pigging station, and other structures and equipment mostly all tucked away in valleys or on the other side of hills.
The van passengers realized that much of the oil and gas infrastructure is easy to miss until pointed out and then realized they were surrounded by polluting oil and gas operations.
One of the tour participants, clearly amazed at the extent of the buildout, wanted to know what residents think of it—what it’s like living inside a chemical plant. While there are mixed opinions based on the economic benefits, most agree that the infrastructure itself is scary. People worried about pipeline explosions, water contamination, and what is really getting into the air.
We passed the Revolution transmission pipeline, which carries fracked natural gas from the region to processing facilities. Sited on one of the many steep hills in my community was a pipeline that exploded because of a landslide in 2018. A resident living nearby described the horrific fire from the explosion. We listened intently as she described evacuating as the 150-foot flames shot into the air and engulfed a neighbor’s home. The explosion scorched the beautiful hillside and left a crater 25 feet deep and 30 feet across. It is a scarred reminder of the dangers that oil and gas operations have brought to my community.
Next, we drove a few miles to the Falcon transmission pipeline, which transports highly volatile ethane fracked from wells in our region to the petrochemical facility to make plastic. Its path goes through a wetland and up a steep hillside next to the environmental education center at our county’s conservation district. Then it continues through the watershed of a high-quality water reservoir used to supply drinking water to 30,000 people.
As we passed a fracking well and a house with a large water tank in the yard, we questioned if the two were connected. Fracking activities can increase the risk of having contaminants in well water that render it undrinkable. While stopped at a compressor station, we wondered how many invisible pollutants may be escaping the facility as it pressurized the gas to keep it flowing through the pipelines. Nearby, we saw a pigging station and wondered how much more climate-warming methane and health-harming VOC’s escaped from this structure when the “pig” capsule was loaded to clean out the pipeline. All along our tour route, we saw diesel trucks transporting residual wastewater that may contain harmful chemicals and radioactive material from well sites.
Finally, we arrived at the massive Shell ethane cracker complex—the facility that requires all the different infrastructure we had encountered on our tour. Looming before us were many strange cylindrical metallic structures and stacks rising so high we had to duck down in the van to see their entire 285-foot height. Heat ripples were visible in the air. Here, ethane fracked from the region is being used to make plastic, mostly single-use plastic such as food packaging. Each year, the plant could produce 3.5 billion pounds of plastic, adding to the plastic pollution crisis; 2.25 million tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide; and hundreds of tons of health-harming pollutants.
As we drove back to Pittsburgh, tour participants wanted to know what can be done. Reducing single-use plastics, engaging lawmakers, encouraging clean and sustainable economic opportunities, and working for better community protections were all discussed. At the community level, parents like me have joined Eyes On Shell, a community watchdog group working together to hold Shell accountable for the pollution the plant releases.
The tour had revealed the extent of the damage to the region.
No community should be inundated with dangerous health-harming toxic infrastructure. And no family should find themselves living in the middle of a chemical plant.
TELL EPA: FINALIZE STRONG METHANE RULES TO PROTECT CHILDREN’S HEALTH