Coalition Launches ProtectiveBuffersPA.org to Promote Setback Distances and Better Protect Pennsylvanians from Oil and Gas Infrastructure

(PENNSYLVANIA) Tuesday, October 12 – The Protective Buffers PA coalition launched the ProtectiveBuffersPA.org website today to educate Pennsylvania residents and legislators about the importance of protective setback distances. A setback is the minimum distance required between a proposed structure and an existing structure, boundary, or natural resource. The Protective Buffers PA campaign is designed to urge local and state elected officials to increase minimum setbacks to prevent oil, gas, and petrochemical infrastructure from being built too close to where people live, work, learn, and heal, as well as important natural resources such as wetlands and creeks. 

The website outlines the potential health risks that can occur when people are forced to live too close to oil and gas infrastructure, and offers suggestions for new statewide standards that are based on relevant and recent peer-reviewed studies. The organizations who contributed to the website have been working to establish protective buffers within municipalities impacted or threatened by oil and gas infrastructure and now want to see those protections put in place for communities throughout Pennsylvania. 

“The research is clear,” said Beth Weinberger of Environmental Health Project. “Current setback distances from shale gas operations are too close to protect the health and safety of residents living or working in proximity to them. This is especially true for vulnerable populations like children, senior citizens, and people who have pre-existing health conditions, but is also true for healthy adults.”

Lois Bower-Bjornson is a Washington County resident, mother of four, and a Clean Air Council organizer. “Protecting my family and my community from oil and gas infrastructure is a must,” said Bower-Bjornson. “A better future for our children means cleaner air, and cleaner water. We urge our lawmakers to consider the facts that over a decade of shale gas development have revealed and make the necessary changes to better protect our health and our environment.”

“Protective setbacks must be implemented in order to better protect the health, safety and welfare of Pennsylvanians,” said Gillian Graber, executive director of Protect PT (Penn-Trafford). “There is a well pad planned for my community a half-mile from over 900 residents and some as close as 1,000 feet from the pad.” This pad is one of four planned less than a mile from Level Green Elementary, an open air school with 238 students aged 5-11. “Increased setback distances would decrease the risk of childrens’ exposure to harmful carcinogens at school and at home,” said Graber. “As a mother, keeping my kids safe is my number one priority and it should be our legislator’s priority as well.”

The buffer suggestions follow a 2020 Grand Jury report on the oil and gas industry with setback distance recommendations, Senate Bill 650 (related to setback distances) that was introduced on June 7th, and as House members consider introducing similar legislation this fall.