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Troubling

4 min read

Two state agencies have come under attack recently for not protecting commonwealth residents enough from problems being caused by the Marcellus shale industry.

State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said an audit of the Department of Environmental Resources showed it failed to consistently issue official orders to gas well operators who had adversely impacted water supplies, did a poor job in communicating its investigation results to citizens who registered complaints with the department and was not always timely in meeting statutory time frames for response to complaints.

In DEP’s response to the audit included in the report, Secretary E. Christopher Abruzzo wrote that “to a great extent, the audit report reflects how the Oil and Gas Program formerly operated, not how the program currently functions.”

Many of the audit’s recommendations have already been implemented or are being considered, he added, but some of the audit’s findings misinterpret the law or DEP’s systems.

Meanwhile, NPR-affiliated StateImpact Pennsylvania reported that two retired state Department of Health employees said the department directed them and their colleagues not to respond directly to shale-related public health concerns, or attend forums about drilling.

StateImpact said Tammi Stuck, a retired community health nurse from Fayette County, told them she and other DOH employees were instructed not to return calls that dealt with phrases like “skin rash” and “hair falling out.”

And PublicSource pointed out that three years ago, Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission recommended starting a health registry to track health complaints but the registry never came to be, as funding for it was removed from Act 13 before it passed.

State Secretary of Health Michael Wolf said that the goal was never to stifle employees, but to ensure they were “speaking with one voice.”

According to DOH Deputy Press Secretary Holli Senior, the DOH has sent requests out statewide, asking physicians and hospital administrators to let the DOH know if they are hearing from concerned patients. Senior said the DOH has received a total of 51 Marcellus-related health complaints to date and has responded to all of them.

Senior also noted that although that registry isn’t in place, the department is developing a dedicated email for environmental health concerns and has a hotline number at 1-877-PA-HEALTH.

The fact is the state should have a registry to deal with health complaints from across the state. That way residents could see for themselves what problems are cropping up and how they’re being dealt with.

Without such a registry, it’s impossible for anyone to know the true extent of problems being caused by the Marcellus shale industry. The sad thing is that it’s possible there are no major problems being caused by the drilling. but we’ll never know for sure because there’s no way to uniformly log the complaints.

DOH officials should also be clear that its employees take seriously any complaints it gets from Pennsylvania residents and offer any help they can. There can no longer be any miscommunication between top officials and employees.

The hotline number should be advertised widely so that residents become familiar with it and know who to call if they experience any problems.

Overall, while the comments from state officials are somewhat reassuring that the agencies are at least attempting to address some of the Marcellus shale problems, it’s clear that they should have been better prepared to deal with things when drilling started to pick up in the state, and should be acting quicker now to deal with any concerns.

The time for delays and snafus is over. DEP and the DOH must act vigorously in protecting the health and safety of commonwealth residents.

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