John Hanger, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and company have made some interesting statements in the last few weeks about the so-called "environmental" impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling.
Those who know of Secretary Hanger's past as the executive director of Citizen's for Pennsylvania's Future know neither statement could have sat well with him. After all, he seems to be utilizing the remaining days of the Rendell Administration (and his tenure at DEP) to punish Marcellus drillers for every violation he can apply.
But those are just details, which are apparently easy for the anti-drilling lobby to forget when they don't like the results of the investigations DEP's professional environmental scientists perform.
Hanger's two announcements must have annoyed the anti-drillers, and people like Doug Shields who want to ban drilling anywhere and everywhere. Hanger told us, rather specifically, that DEP has found absolutely no instances anywhere in the state where fracing chemicals have contaminated a water supply, source or aquifer. Not one. Including in the instances where chemicals were spilled -- like in the case of Cabot's three gel spills into wetlands near Dimock last fall.
If that weren't enough to throw the anti-movement into a tailspin, Hanger also reported that, after intense studies, DEP has also determined that there has been no significant change to air pollution levels in the Commonwealth due to drilling activity. In English -- the rest of us are causing more air pollution by idling our cars in traffic and at the ATM than the drilling industry as it taps the mother of all unconventional natural gas reserves. But to be honest, that shouldn't be a surprise. Similar air quality studies in the town of Dish, Texas also failed to show any real change in air pollution levels there -- even though determined anti-drilling interests keep insisting the studies were done incorrectly.
So, straight from the mouth of one of the states most infamous environmentalists -- no water contamination from frac chemicals in Pennsylvania, no change in air pollution in Pennsylvania due to drilling. Despite hundreds of wells already drilled.
What's the anti-drilling community to do with this information? Ignore it of course. Call the state agency, led by the former leader of the state's most powerful environmental group, biased.
In fact, those with an anti-drilling agenda aren't just ignoring it, they're marching full-steam ahead in continuing to spread misinformation. I'm sure more people than I have sensed the change in media coverage, in which the "potential" or "alleged" environmental impacts of natural gas drilling have become the actual environmental impacts of drilling. The tone of newspaper articles and broadcast stories on all three local network affiliates and local radio programs now insinuate actual instances of such environmental contamination exist and are documented, in spite of Hanger's announcements on both water and air pollution.
With media downplaying Hanger's statements, and continuing to refer to contamination that has never occurred, the people of the Commonwealth are understandably spooked. They have nothing else to go on but what they consume in mass media.
Its shameful -- watching the media we depend on for information choosing to ignore the facts in order to boost ratings and sales with the drama created by a misinformed public they have frightened with their yellow journalism. What happens when the people of the Commonwealth realize the truth, discover the facts, and come to understand that the press has used every possible opportunity to vilify the very industry that has kept the area from far more serious economic strife than it has already experienced?
One thing is certain -- fewer reporters will be saying "Just the facts, 'mam."
