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Repeal the law

3 min read

Public health overrides private profit — or should.

Laws are supposed to protect us. So it’s hard to imagine, but Pennsylvania’s new gas drilling law allows chemicals used by drillers to be kept secret — even from people they might be making sick.

So awful is the law that its many deficiencies compel serial attention. In our earlier critique, we focused on the law’s weak environmental safeguards and its usurping of local zoning laws that critics say will allow drillers to sink wells just about anywhere and everywhere they want.

That being the case and with many residents of the upper county relying on wells for drinking water, it seems critically important to require openness from drillers about what they’re pumping into the ground. And they pump plenty.

The so-called fracking process — short for high-volume hydraulic fracturing — uses a high-pressure mix of chemicals and other substances to crack underground rock that’s part of the Marcellus shale formation, thus releasing the natural gas trapped below. Much of the liquid mix returns to the surface where it is pooled and hauled away. Some of it disperses underground. Naturally, this raises fear of groundwater contamination.

Should nearby residents of a gas well experience headaches, dizziness or other abnormalities, among the diagnostic tools doctors should have is access to a list of substances used by the driller. While doctors can obtain that information, Act 13 requires them to jump through a very daunting and troubling hoop: They must sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to share what they learn. This raises natural and reasoned concerns that the non-disclosure agreement will delay a patient’s diagnosis and treatment — especially in an emergency.

To some degree, we understand the purpose of the provision: to protect “trade secrets” so that those obtaining the recipe for a chemical cocktail cannot profit from the investment a drilling company sunk into research and development. But while we understand the purpose of confidentiality, we believe public health overrides private profit. Or should! Unfortunately, Act 13 stands in the way of sensible public disclosure.

In an effort to make this very bad law a little bit better, state Sen. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery/Delaware, has authored a bill that would remove the confidentiality provision for doctors and also give them permission to share “secret” information about gas drilling chemicals with patients and patients’ family members. If a health professional believes there is a broad public health risk, the information also could be shared with public health officials at the local, state or federal levels.

These are sensible amendments and should get lawmakers’ support without question.

Had legislators given the measure a closer look before handing it off to a governor whose election campaign was heavily subsidized by gas drillers, perhaps they would not now need to fix it. And it’s not the only fix the law needs.

Bucks County state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-10, a hearty supporter of Act 13, has promised to rally support for an amendment that would remove from the law’s provisions for Bucks County and other municipalities that do not fall within the boundaries of Marcellus shale. That amendment will deserve support, too.

Here’s an idea: While they’re at it, lawmakers should just repeal the entire law and start over again.

Bucks County Courier Times

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