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Our Opinion: Combine police departments throughout Luzerne County to improve public safety

Swarzak goes the distance in RailRiders loss

<p>With summer around the corner, it&#8217;s time to start getting outdoors. Key to enjoying the season is clean air &#8211; knowing that when you walk, play or work in the garden and yard, the breaths you take won&#8217;t harm your health.</p><p>Many Pennsylvanians live without this assurance &#8211; and not just in cities or industrial centers anymore. State data show increasing levels of pollution from natural gas wells, storage equipment, compressor stations and processing plants.</p><p>Fortunately, new policy proposals could help reduce pollution from these sources. Gov. Tom Wolf&#8217;s Department of Environmental Protection recently announced a plan to stem leaks and releases of methane from oil and gas operations. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to issue final federal rules to prevent leaks and releases from new or retrofitted oil and gas operations.</p><p>In 2014, Pennsylvania&#8217;s oil and gas producers reported wasting nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane &#8211; enough natural gas to heat nearly 65,000 homes. The new policy would also lower a host of pollutants released along with methane. There&#8217;s nitrogen oxide, which causes health-harming smog, and hazardous substances such as benzene, a known carcinogen, and toluene, which is related to kidney and liver problems. And because methane is 86 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, reducing emissions is also good for the climate.</p><p>Stronger air pollution protections would be good news for residents of Luzerne and Lackawanna counties. Industry has grand plans to make this region a gas transmission hub. The Atlantic Sunrise, Penn East, Diamond East and Marc II projects would mean many more miles of pipelines and numerous compressor, metering and pigging stations &#8211; all of which would cause pollution.</p><p>After decades of drilling in Pennsylvania, it&#8217;s high time for change. Neither the oil and gas industry nor the state conducts real-time monitoring to track pollution. This means that pollution levels are certainly underestimated and problems like ongoing leaks and accidental releases occur under the radar.</p><p>The oil and gas industry often says it doesn&#8217;t need to be regulated and will control pollution voluntarily. Problem is, this doesn&#8217;t happen &#8211; and communities are paying the price. A growing number of research studies show that residents living near oil and gas facilities across Pennsylvania (and the nation) experience diminished air quality and health impacts, in particular respiratory problems, sore throats, rashes and headaches. A new video tells the stories of some of these Pennsylvanians and shows why oil and gas emissions need to be controlled. (See <a href="http://org.salsalabs.com/o/676/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=19642" target="_blank">http://earthworksaction.org/CleanAirPA</a>).</p><p>Public support will be critical to ensure that both state and federal pollution control efforts succeed. Officials need to hear from residents who want the oil and gas industry to take responsibility for the problems it creates. Currently, companies and some Pennsylvania legislators are trying to derail basic regulations for well sites, and are likely to do the same with measures to reduce air pollution.</p><p>It&#8217;s a travesty for the industry to expand gas development without strong pollution controls firmly in place. Residents of eastern Pennsylvania deserve better &#8211; this summer, all year long and far into the future.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Nadia Steinzor</p><p>Guest columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Nadia Steinzor is Eastern program coordinator at Earthworks, a national organization that bills itself as dedicated to protecting communities and the environment from the impacts of mining and energy development. For information, visit earthworksaction.org.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Nadia Steinzor: Air pollution from gas drilling requires action in Pennsylvania