Parents oppose plans for fracking near Elizabeth Forward High School
ELIZABETH, Pa. (KDKA) - Fracking is back and so is the opposition to shale gas drilling. After years of very little activity, suddenly more wells are being proposed in the region and getting push back from some who live close by.
Some parents and residents are trying to block a well from being drilled near a local high school, saying it poses danger to the health and safety of the students.
The proposed well would be drilled within 2,000 feet of Elizabeth Forward High School on private property but a group of parents says it's too close for comfort.
Joelle Whiteman, of the environmental group Food and Water Watch, lives nearby and has kids who will be going to high school in a couple of years. She worries that the jury is still out on the potential threats fracking poses to the environment and human health.
"Nobody can definitely say yes it is 100 percent safe, no it is not safe. So until you can say either of those, I have doubts that it's safe," Whiteman said.
Specifically, these parents and residents are worried about recent concerns in the heavily drilled Canon-McMillan School District where there were six reported cases of the rare childhood cancer Ewing sarcoma over a 10-year span. The state board of health determined there was no cancer cluster but that didn't allay fears there or here.
"I have two children, one with asthma who has been on an inhaler since he was six months old," Whiteman said.
After a boom in the early 2000s, fracking activity in the region has been dormant in the past five or six years, with several companies going out of business. But demand and prices for natural gas have ignited a new round of activity.
"The facts are on our side it's being done safely and responsibly," said Dave Callahan of the Marcellus Shale Coalition.
Callahan says there is no linkage between fracking and these cancers. And he says fracking has led to little and in some cases no impact on air and water.
"We have an obligation to our workers, to the communities, to promote the health and safety of those workers and communities and protect them," Callahan said.
"As a dad, as a school board member whose responsible for the health and safety of our kids, I want to have further discussion on this," said school board member Scott Henry.
Henry says Olympus has had no communication with the school board and the township has one of the least stringent drilling ordinances, only requiring a 1,500-foot setback from schools.
"There's plenty of space in this township. We're one of the biggest townships in Allegheny County to put these well pads. And they don't have to be within 1,700 feet of a school," Henry said.
There was to be a public hearing on this Wednesday night, but the township council did not advertise it properly and it has been postponed to September.
Olympus subsequently send KDKA this statement:
"Olympus is committed to maintaining a safe, clean, and compliant work environment not only for our employees and contractors, but for our neighbors and future generations of our community. The proposed Heracles Well Pad project has been designed to maintain compliance with the entirety of Elizabeth Township's zoning ordinance, including its recently increased setback of 1,500 feet from property lines on which a school is located. We look forward to discussing the facility's location and other components of the project with the Elizabeth Township Board of Commissioners at the upcoming public hearing."