Pennsylvania Constitution Art. 1. Sec. 27. Natural Resources and the Public Estate - The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.
There are many ways that working people can push back the gas industry every day by exercising our rights. In Pennsylvania, some of those are community enforcement, permit objections, workplace safety monitoring, the courts, local legislation, shareholder divestment, and regulatory appeal boards.
Remember, each gas well costs an average of $4 million and the more a company has to spend navigating the obstacles we throw up along the way, the more expensive drilling becomes and less of it there will be. If we all focus on being a pain in their butts, we can cost them enough that drilling is less lucrative and they will walk away from the areas with most resistance or risk an exodus of shareholders on Wall Street. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, you know, so don’t forget to tell the local news about your work!
COMMUNITY ENFORCEMENT
There are regulatory departments in Pennsylvania that oversee different aspects of gas drilling. When you see any suspicious activities such as dumping, dying animals, contaminated tap water, or illness, you can contact these agencies and notify them. In addition to following water trucks around, to make the most out of this strategy, your local community group can set up patrol areas to look for violations, a local reporting hotline using Google Voice or phone chain, or sting operations to occur all at once at a drilling or waste dumping site. It is important to note that these departments serve at the pleasure of the governor and under Rendell's administration, got us into the mess we're in. It's hard to believe that Corbett's administration will be any better. Take your own video, pictures, and samples if you can.
DEP Bureau of Oil and Gas Management:
Harrisburg Headquarters: Telephone 717-772-2199
Northwest Regional Office, Meadville, PA 814-332-6860
Northcentral Regional Office, Williamsport, PA 570-327-3636
Southwest Regional Office, Pittsburgh, PA 412-442-4024
PA Fish and Boat Commission:- Oversees surface water, illegal dumping, endangered and protected amphibians, reptiles, and fish.
Headquarters – Harrisburg1601 Elmerton AvenuePO Box 67000Harrisburg, PA 17106-7000717-705-7800
Northeast Region Office5566 Main RoadSweet Valley, PA 18656(570) 477-5717
Southwest Region Office236 Lake RoadSomerset, PA 15501(814) 445-8974
Northwest Region Office11528 State Highway 98Meadville, PA 16335(814) 337-0444
Pleasant Gap Office (Central PA Region)450 Robinson LanePleasant Gap, PA 16823(814) 359-5100
PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources:- Oversees state forests, endangered and protected plantsGeneral Information: (717) 787-2869
PA Game Commssion:- Oversees habitat, health of mammals and birds including endangered and protected species.
NORTHWEST REGIONPost Office Box 31Franklin, PA 16323(814) 432-3187
SOUTHWEST REGION4820 Route 711Bolivar, PA 15923(724) 238-9523
NORTHCENTRAL REGIONPost Office Box 5038Jersey Shore, PA 17740-5038(570) 398-4744
NORTHEAST REGIONPost Office Box 220Dallas, PA 18612-0220(570) 675-1143
SOUTHCENTRAL REGION8627 William Penn HighwayHuntingdon, PA 16652(814) 643-1831
PERMIT OBJECTIONS
While DEP permits are being reviewed, at any time, we can object to them, which builds strength if further legal action is taken. The PA DEP issues daily ENotice reports via e-mail on all of their dealings with permits. You can sign up to receive specific counties' updates in a daily digest. Be forewarned, it may make you very upset to see how fast the permits are dealt out:
While not every oil and gas permit on that website is for a Marcellus well or one that will use hydraulic fracturing, you can call your regional DEP Bureau of Oil & Gas Management (above) permitting office to do a 'file review' of permit applications to find out what kind of a well it will be. There is currently an effort to allow file reviews to be done online, so make sure you mention what an inconvenience it is to have to travel to review them in person, especially if you're someone with a bad temper like me who dreads meeting the DEP crooks who permit fracking on a daily basis.
At any point, you can file a written objection to a permit application by mailing it to the regional DEP Bureau of Oil & Gas Management permitting office (above).
One strong objection we can make is any drilling near designated protected areas or habitat. Before permitting, the DEP is charged with considering the Pennsylvania National Heritage Program (PNHP) sites and protected and endangered species listed here: www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us
You can also go outside and search for protected or endangered species habitat in areas slated to be drilled such as state forests and public parks, fill out this reporting form when you find them, and add to the PNHP areas where fracking is supposed to be off limits. Follow this link: tiny.cc/y3fh7
Send the completed form to:
Andrew RohrbaughEnvironmental Review SpecialistEcological Services, Bureau of Forestry, PA DCNRc-arohrbau@state.pa.us717-705-2823
WORKPLACE SAFETY MONITORING
It's important that all of us who have loved ones in the industry make sure that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration is notified when they notice dangers on the job. Thanks to the strength of unions in the past, some of the strongest laws that apply to gas drilling are those that protect workers. On the job, workers who haul for the companies are often driving unsafe trucks with unknown contents, roughnecks on the sites are exposed to toxic chemicals, and aging equipment can break or fail to alert workers of hydrogen sulfide leaks and blowouts. To make the situation worse, there aren't any unions in the industry to stick up for the folks taking these dangerous, temporary jobs.
Occupational Health and Safety AdministrationAllentown Area Office850 North 5th StreetAllentown, Pennsylvania 18102(610) 776-0592(610) 776-1913 FAX
Erie Area Office1128 State Street, Suite 200Erie, Pennsylvania 16501(814) 461-1492(814) 461-1498 FAX
Harrisburg Area OfficeProgress Plaza49 North Progress AvenueHarrisburg, Pennsylvania 17109-3596(717) 782-3902(717) 782-3746 FAX
Pittsburgh Area OfficeU.S. Department of Labor-OSHAWilliam Moorhead Federal Building, Room 9051000 Liberty AvenuePittsburgh, PA 15222(412) 395-4903(412) 395-6380 FAX
Wilkes-Barre Area OfficeThe Stegmaier Building, Suite 4107 North Wilkes-Barre BoulevardWilkes-Barre, PA 18702-5241(570) 826-6538(570) 821-4170 FAX
Industrial Workers of the World, SW PA Safety Committee -We are a union for all workers. To the best of our ability, we will advise and/or come out to the site to monitor safety standards for workers who call us.
Alex Lotorto, 570-269-9589, alotorto@gmail.comKen Miller, 412-867-9213, nosweatshopsbucco@yahoo.com
LOCAL LEGISLATION
By far, the two most effective organizations working on local legislation to restrict fracking are the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund and the Energy Justice Network. CELDF primarily works on ban ordinances that cite the basic rights of people and nature as reasons why drilling may not occur. EJN has focused more on super-strict air pollution ordinances that effectively ban drilling.
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund - www.celdf.orgBen Price, Projects Director: benprice@celdf.org and (717) 254-3233, (717) 254-3233
Energy Justice Network - actionpa.org/ordinances/ 1434 Elbridge St, Philadelphia, PA 19149 | 215-743-4884 | niaby@energyjustice.net
INSTITUTIONAL DIVESTMENT
FACT: The use of hydraulic fracturing is not enabled by poor and working class people paying their gas bills or driving their cars, like apartheid in South Africa, it’s fueled by a Wall Street frenzy, coupled with government inaction, that has lured billions of dollars of investment money into building new pipelines, rigs, and facilities to extract and process Marcellus shale gas for export. In fact, the Marcellus industry is not a commodities market, it is a manufacturing market (if you know the difference). Their profits aren't from selling the gas, which is at its lowest price in decades, it's from inflated stocks meant for getting the gas and if there's anything we know about stock market bubbles, it's that they pop.
By publicly organizing members of your institutions to support divestment, you can have a larger financial impact on the frackers than just simply not paying your gas bill. There are three primary ways your church, union, business, camp, college, or university can divest from the Marcellus Shale gas industry.
The first, is to simply say NO to leasing your organizations’ land. The second is to divest pension, general fund, and endowment money from the industry. This is commonly known as Socially Responsible Investing. The third is to use your institutions’ shareholder rights to vote on proxy and acquisition votes at shareholder meetings. For example, this May, Chevron shareholders will vote yes or no on Chevron’s acquisition of Atlas Energy, one of the biggest frackers in Pennsylvania. That’s a perfect opportunity for you to vote NO.
Responsible Endowment Coalition - for students641 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 300New York, NY 10011Email: Info@endowmentethics.orgPhone: 215.564.2201
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility - for faith-based organizationsSuite 1842475 Riverside DriveNew York, NY 10115phone: 212-870-2295fax: 212-870-2023e-mail: info@iccr.org
Social Investment Forum - for Socially Responsible Investing information910 17th St NW Suite 1000,Washington, DC 20006
Trillium Assets Management
711 Atlantic Ave
Boston, MA 02111-2809
617-423-6655; 800-548-5684
Fax: 617-482-6179
http://www.trilliuminvest.com
THE COURTS
While most of us aren’t lawyers, if God forbid we ever need to sue for damages because of a gas drilling mishap, it’s important that we have our water tested and our t’s crossed before, during, and after drilling. Here is a list of independent water testing companies you can use to do just that. If you are in financial difficulty and need help paying for your water test, check out www.shaletest.org for help.
B.F. Environmental Consultants Inc. - an independent water testing company.Mr. Brian Oram - Professional Geologist, Soil Scientis, PA Sewage Enforcement Officer, Licensed Water Well Driller15 Hillcrest Drive Dallas, PA 18612Phone (570) 675 - 0253Fax (570) 675 - 0253
Other Water Testing Labs:
Aqua - Tech Laboratory, Mountaintop. PA570-868-0915
Hawk Moutain Laboratories , Hazleton, PA570-455-6011
Kirby Memorial Health Center , Wilkes-Barre, PA570- 822-4278
Northeastern Environmental Laboratories , Scranton ,PA570- 348-0775
Quantum Analytical and Environmental Laboratories , Dickson City, PA570-489-6964
Seewald Laboratories Inc. , Williamsport, PA570-326-4001
REGULATORY APPEAL BOARDS
I’m saving the best for last because it takes the most commitment, but provides the best payoff.
Every citizen has legal standing in front of the PA DEP's Environmental Hearing Board. Their website is www.ehb.courtapps.com for forms, case law, and more information. It is the appeal structure within the DEP that consists of appointed judges that decide whether to overturn DEP actions and issue injunctions. Since every aspect of drilling must be permitted by the DEP, every permit can be appealed and injunctions called "supersedeas" can be issued to stop drilling until a hearing takes place. It takes about 8 months to get an appeal hearing, which is a long wait for a $4 million investment like a gas well to be in jeopardy. Gas companies will have to readjust their production schedules, postpone promises to investors, and possibly, lose their permits to drill, dump, build waste pits, destroy habitat, and lay pipeline.
The best way to approach this would be to contact the following free law clinics:
The Widener Environmental Help Line run by the Environmental Law Clinic provides advice and preparation for self-representation for Pennsylvania citizens confronting environmental problems. The Help Line allows Pennsylvania citizens to seek the Clinic’s help by contacting the Clinic in one of two ways:
* A Toll Free telephone line: 1-888-953-6853
* A Web-based Request for Help Form
The University of Pittsburgh Environmental Law Clinic Potential clients may call 412-648-1300 to speak with a clinic representative, who will take down their information and relay it to the clinic’s supervising attorney.
The Drexel University Environmental Law Clinic is affiliated with The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Located at:United Way Building
1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, 2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-627-7100 (tel)
215-627-3183 (fax)
www.pilcop.orgEmail: general@pilcop.org 
