Fracking the County Parks?

In our second blog post, we turn our attention to the subject of Marcellus shale gas extraction on our public lands.

Public versus Private

As we know, some Pennsylvanians who have been approached by the shale gas industry in recent years have leased their land for extraction of methane and other fossil fuel gases and liquids. (See our first blog post or our SHAADD website for an explanation of unconventional, high-volume hydraulic fracturing, also known as hydro-fracking or fracking.)

As industrial drilling and fracking has moved closer and closer into populated residential areas like our Allegheny County suburbs, however, some of our elected representatives have been working to lease our public lands for drilling. We in SHAADD believe that there is a clear difference between individual landowners choosing to allow heavy, toxic industry on their own property and our elected officials quickly moving to lease land that is held by the public.

Fracking the Airports

An example of this exploitation of public land was Allegheny County Council’s vote in February of 2013 to lease both Pittsburgh International and Allegheny County Airports for fracking. If you followed this news story, you may know that the County rushed the vote through in January and February, only agreeing to hold a public comment session after much public outcry. Even then, the first hour-plus of the February 7th hearing was dominated by slick, PR-driven presentations by industry representatives and by County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. Mr. Fitzgerald then promptly left the event, before any of the dozens of his constituents registered to speak were given their 3-minutes-apiece opportunity to ask questions about the process, present research and personal testimonies of harms suffered by those living near these toxic operations, and implore the County to slow down and consider the ramifications of such a far-reaching decision.  Not only did Mr. Fitzgerald turn a deaf ear to citizens who’ve spent years studying and working around this issue, but only seven of the fifteen Council members attended to hear residents’ concerns.

Throughout the decision-making process, Council and media organizations focused on the amount of money the Airport Authority would receive, but paid little attention to the negative effects on families who would live near these industrial fracking sites. Also absent from the discussion were the pipelines that will be necessary to move the fracked gas; in Pennsylvania, eminent domain can be used to place these privately-owned, large-diameter, high-pressure pipelines through peoples’ property. Even more disturbing, Council member Barbara Daly-Danko raised concerns during the February 19th vote that Council members had not even read the lease before agreeing to it.

Protecting Our County Parks

With the above in mind, we should be extremely concerned about the latest proposal to frack our publicly-held lands. In the articles below, you can see that Mr. Fitzgerald and at least one member of Council are pushing for fracking under Deer Lakes Park, and they say that Settlers Cabin, White Oak, Harrison Hills, and Round Hill Parks could soon follow. What’s more, Mr. Fitzgerald has been quoted several times saying that where fracking is concerned, “We’ll take a look at any County land”, which would include our South Park here in the South Hills, among others.

Post-Gazette: Allegheny County may lease Deer Lakes Park for gas drilling

Tribune-Review: Allegheny looks to Washington County as example in drilling in parks

We are told in the above news articles that the drill rigs themselves (along with the needed drill pads, chemical-laden wastewater pits, and other associated surface disturbance) would be located just beyond park borders, but given the proximity, the noise, odors, and traffic that come with these industrial operations would all affect the county parks themselves. Think about it: You go to the park with your family to relax, to exercise, and to enjoy nature. Now, imagine battling heavy truck traffic to get there, experiencing odors that smell like sulfur, gasoline, or sewage, and hearing the noise of diesel engines.

All of this comes in addition to long-term damage and dangers that are posed by fracking. For example, during the fracking process, toxic chemicals are pumped into the ground at high pressure, and drilling companies claim publicly that their casing cement never allows these chemicals to surface or contaminate water supplies. However, an EPA study demonstrated this contamination does occur, and internal industry documents admit that 6% of well casing cement jobs fail immediately, with a full 60% failing within 30 years.  In our own lives, we plan for a secure future – why would we not do the same with our public parks, so that we leave our children and grandchildren a world at least as good as our own?

As the harms of this dangerous, toxic process of fracking continue to become more and more evident, we in SHAADD are concerned that many of our elected officials are acting rashly and simply accepting industry assurances of safety without making these companies prove their practices are actually safe. It's one thing for county government to say "we don't have the power to ban fracking", but quite another to say "we're going to invite the exploitation of our constituents' public land."

We are optimistic that our voices can have an effect on the process. The vote lease our Airports for fracking passed by only 9-4. Only a few votes would have to change, and at least that many who voted yes had serious misgivings. The question is, how much do we value our Allegheny County Parks and want to preserve their safety and tranquility? We urge you to contact your member of council, and let them know what YOU think.