Clean Air Council Seeks Federal Intervention with Marcellus Air Complaints (by State Impact PA)

On June 28th, 2012, Clean Air Council sent a letter to leadership at the Environmental Protection Agency, Region 3, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Please read the attached letter and press coverage by Susan Phillips of State Impact PA below.

The Clean Air Coun­cil says res­i­dents who have con­tacted the state Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion about gas drilling related air pol­lu­tion inci­dents are frus­trated by the lack of response.  The Coun­cil sent a let­ter to EPA Regional Admin­is­tra­tor Shawn Garvin, ask­ing the EPA to assist the DEP. The let­ter from Clean Air Coun­cil exec­u­tive direc­tor Joseph Minott details com­plaints from 13 res­i­dents who expe­ri­enced odors, or wit­nessed “opaque” emissions.

“The Coun­cil dis­cov­ered that in some cases, com­plaints were made to PA DEP and were never fully inves­ti­gated and in other cases, res­i­dents lost faith in PA DEP and stopped report­ing pol­lu­tion com­plaints to them.”

“Res­i­dents reported that the PA DEP com­plaint tele­phone num­ber has not been work­ing on sev­eral occa­sions in the past 8 months, and res­i­dents and Coun­cil staff have called dur­ing nor­mal busi­ness hours and found that no one answered.”

And to make mat­ters worse, those who did reach DEP, accord­ing to Minott, often described inter­ac­tions with rude and dis­mis­sive field agents.JUNE 28, 2012 | 4:24 PM