By: Vanessa Lynch, Pennsylvania field organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: October 20, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317
To: Office of Management and Budget
My name is Vanessa Lynch, and I am a Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with my husband and two children. I support the Office of Management and Budget maintaining a robust EPA supplemental methane rule to reduce pollution from the oil and gas industry to fight the climate crisis and protect public health.
The reason this rule is so important to me is that I have witnessed firsthand the impacts the oil and gas industry has had on my community with a well pad having been fracked in a medium-density residential area of my local township. The well pad is located near homes, a daycare center, an assisted living facility, and a park where my children spent many of their childhood days playing in the stream and participating in recreational sports.
As a frontline community member, I am excited by the opportunities EPA’s new Super-Emitter program establishes and believe the program should include considerations for public health and transparency for local residents. Meaningful air monitoring of health-harming pollution and easy access to that data for local families should be the standard. A clear pathway for community and individual engagement in the program is also essential.
On Monday, I went on a tour of southwest Pennsylvania oil and gas infrastructure sites. We met with frontline impacted community members who shared stories of serious health and safety impacts they are experiencing as a result of living in close proximity to oil and gas infrastructure in southwest Pennsylvania.
Stories of unexplainable cancer cases ravaging entire neighborhoods, high numbers of oil and gas infrastructure being placed in close proximity to one another and to families, and Christmas Day explosions rattling houses and forcing an evacuation. Stories that brought tears to the eyes of all present and reminded us of how imperative it is that we get this supplemental methane rule right.
According to our partners at Fractracker, over 100,000 children under the age of 18 live near a fracked well in Pennsylvania. A recent study from the Yale School of Public Health found Pennsylvania children between the ages of two and seven were 2-3 times more likely to develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia if they lived near an unconventional or fracked well. A subsequent study from the University of Pittsburgh found further associations between proximity to oil and gas infrastructure and childhood lymphoma rates. Air pollution from the oil and gas industry has also been shown to cause respiratory diseases, asthma attacks, reproductive problems, neurological problems, and cancer.
This summer, over two-thirds of people polled in Pennsylvania support EPA strengthening and finalizing stricter limits on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry. This includes regular inspections of leaks at all oil and gas wells and tougher equipment standards, such as maintaining zero-emitting pneumatic equipment requirements for pneumatic controllers and pumps. These devices are the second-largest source of methane within the sector.
Federal methane rules are needed to create baseline protections for children like mine on the frontline of this industry, especially in states like Pennsylvania that have failed to enact meaningful oil and gas methane protections. Thank you for your work and continued efforts to protect frontline families.