Mar 12, 2024 4 min read

by Sarah Martik and Alison L. Steele

Gov. Shapiro has been making headlines with a series of announcements regarding his 2024 budget and a 10-year economic plan. He also recently announced a collaboration with CNX Resources, a gas extraction operator headquartered in Southwestern Pennsylvania, to purportedly create better protections for residents living near shale gas infrastructure.

The Shapiro/CNX Statement of Mutual Interests touts the collaboration’s “radical transparency.” This collaboration, however, should not be celebrated as such. The statement reveals underwhelming health protections for residents and multiple loopholes excusing CNX from public disclosure of relevant information.

CNX claims it will voluntarily increase the distance from the legally required 500 feet between gas wells and homes to 600 feet. While that is a marginal increase over current requirements, it is a major step backward from grand jury recommendations, released under then-Attorney General Shapiro in 2020, which recommended a 2,500-foot setback from all buildings, including homes.

Further, CNX’s voluntary disclosures described in the statement do not guarantee residents access to useful, timely information. CNX has begun reporting air emissions and drilling additives from three of its hundreds of wells and one compressor station, which residents can find on a public website. However, the site omits useful context about how to interpret the data and fails to explain the health impacts these emissions may have on people living nearby.

Shapiro has pledged to be more responsive to resident concerns, but the CNX statement includes no plans to increase agency involvement. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) should closely watch CNX’s monitoring and reporting process and take immediate steps to hold CNX accountable if any failures are detected. The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) should take a more active role in informing residents of the harms associated with gas drilling and how they can best protect themselves and their families.

Another concern of the Shapiro/CNX statement is that the data CNX will collect for a new health study is focused on only two future well sites rather than any of the company’s many wells currently operating within the state or on wells of the DEP’s choosing. Given CNX’s lengthy history of regulatory violations for uncontrolled spills and misreporting air pollution, it would be plausible to assume that the study itself will be biased, with only pre-selected sites put under a microscope and then held up as a representative sample of standard operations across the state.

Most concerning, however, is the idea that this new study will serve to inform future conversations about appropriate setback distances and operational safeguards, rather than having those conversations now and making use of existing, unbiased information. We have no evidence that shale gas development can be done without harm to human health, and there is no established “safe” distance from well pads. Dozens of peer-reviewed epidemiologic studies and hundreds of other investigations conducted over the last decade already point to a range of health harms from exposure to shale gas emissions.

The most recent example of established research is the Pennsylvania Health and Environment studies, three new taxpayer-funded studies released last year. These studies revealed higher risks of asthma, cancer, and adverse birth outcomes for people living near well pads. Some of those impacts were noted at distances as far as 10 miles away, with higher risks noted at closer distances.

Pennsylvania is not in the position to wait for more information before taking action, while allowing more people to be harmed in the name of waiting for “one more study.” We call on Gov. Shapiro to acknowledge the health risks associated with shale gas development. Rather than giving voluntary concessions to the gas industry, he should take meaningful steps to reduce these risks.

Sarah Martik is executive director of the nonprofit Center for Coalfield Justice, which serves Washington and Greene Counties.

Alison L. Steele is executive director of the nonprofit Environmental Health Project, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA.