By: Vanessa Lynch, Pennsylvania state coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: January 10, 2023
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2021-0317
To: Environmental Protection Agency
My name is Vanessa Lynch, and I am a state coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force. I live in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with my husband and two children. I support EPA’s supplemental rule to reduce pollution from the oil and gas industry to fight the climate crisis and protect public health.
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, which means there are houses, children, parks, and daycare centers nearby.
As a frontline community member, EPA’s new Super-Emitter 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.
In November, a Cambria County natural gas storage facility leaked an estimated 1.29 billion cubic feet of methane. This is over 800 times the EPA’s new definition for a super-emitter. While officials told families the leak “posed no threat to the public”, local residents felt concerned. Residents near the leak reported a loud continuous roaring noise, the smell of natural gas with mercaptan, difficulty breathing and headaches. The leak could be seen from space via satellite because of its incredible size. Bloomberg reported the gas leak “topped the list of the worst climate disasters in 2022.”
On Christmas Day, a cryogenic plant in Smith Township experienced an explosion followed by a fire that lasted 11 hours. According to local newspapers, it wasn’t clear how much gas was emitted in the fire, but again local residents were told all was safe. As families find themselves surrounded by more and more oil and gas infrastructure, super-emission events and possible health harms become more likely.
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 2 and 7 were 2-3 times more likely to develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia if they lived near an unconventional or fracked well. Air pollution from the oil and gas industry has been shown to cause respiratory diseases, asthma attacks, reproductive problems, neurological problems, and cancer.
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.