Local groups petition to change well setback requirements

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Local families and environmental groups are fighting to increase the setback distance between unconventional wells and homes, schools, hospitals and daycares.

Some of those groups, including the Environmental Integrity Project, were in Harrisburg Tuesday, where their petition to amend the law was heard by the Environmental Quality Board.

Michelle Stonemark lives in Cecil Township. We first met her in 2019, when she was fighting the approval of a well pad in her backyard. She’s continued to push for an increase in the distance between well pads and places where people live, learn and work.

“We wake up in the morning and we can hear the rumbling outside, you can hear the rattling of the windows,” Stonemark said.

She says when the drilling is taking place, her family describes experiencing a chemical smell.

“All I do is worry about the health and safety of my kids,” Stonemark said.

Stonewall has been fighting for years to increase well pad setbacks from the 500 feet allowed under state law, and she’s been successful. She and her neighbors successfully had a well pad in their backyards pushed back from 500 feet to 2,500 feet.

The issue of well setbacks has been taken up by the Environmental Integrity Project. Their lawyer, Lisa Hallowell, testified in Harrisburg, petitioning an amendment to increase the minimum setbacks from homes, schools, hospitals and daycares to 5,280 feet, or 1 mile, and to 3,281 feet from any building or drinking water supply.

Hallowell cited 42 independent, peer-reviewed studies that show fracking at current distances has caused dangerous impacts to health and safety.

“The harms documented are vast, including infant mortality, respiratory and neurological ailments and rare childhood cancers,” Hallowell testified.

Just hours before the hearing, the board says industry leaders submitted a flurry of information related to the petition, but didn’t elaborate.

“I would like more time to review this additional information so I can better ask questions to the petitioners,” Kathryn Zerfuss, an Environmental Quality Board member said.

A statement from Marcellus Shale Coalition president Jim Welty says the petition would amount to a direct ban on natural gas development in the state.

“The mere entertainment of such a draconian proposal threatens economic growth and opportunity for Pennsylvania, and further imperils our Commonwealth’s access to a reliable and resilient electric grid. We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners and pragmatic policy makers to stop these attacks on Pennsylvania workers, royalty owners, and consumers, and focus on solutions to leveraging natural gas to move Pennsylvania forward,” his statement reads in part.

The EQB did not say when it will take up this issue again.

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