We All Need Space - Especially from Fracking
- Lauren Posey
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
On the morning of April 8, 2025, Gillian Graber, Executive Director, and Lauren Posey, the new Environmental Policy Advocate for Protect PT, were two of the first people in the room for the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) meeting in Harrisburg. The EQB is a board made up of 20 appointed and elected officials that adopts regulations for the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). It was a cold and blustery day, but our partners steadily filed into the room, sporting yellow pins to show our support for the last item on the meeting’s agenda: “Consideration of Rulemaking Petition: Unconventional Well Setbacks.”
Protect PT is part of Protective Buffers PA, a coalition of 10 Pennsylvania organizations with the goal of distancing fracking operations from where we live, work, and play.
The Environmental Integrity Project and Clean Air Council, also members of the Protective Buffers PA coalition, filed a petition for an overdue update to the existing well setback requirements in October 2024. The petition includes more than 40 peer-reviewed studies identifying health and safety impacts within the current Pennsylvania well setback requirement of 500 feet from buildings. The April 8th meeting should have been an opportunity for EQB members to vote on whether the petition should be moved forward for further study.
Instead, the EQB voted 16-3 to table our petition, going against the DEP’s recommendation that it be approved for study and claiming that they needed “more time” to review last-minute letters submitted by the industry. One member of the EQB claimed that studying the petition would be “burdensome” and that the petitioners sought to ban fracking in the Commonwealth, which is blatantly false. Gillian and Lauren watched in dismay as industry proponents shamelessly worked to distort, deny, and delay our reasonable ask for evidence-based protections.
While a safe distance between fracking and occupied buildings has never been established, Protective Buffers PA recommends minimum setback distances of:
3,281 feet (or 1 kilometer) from any building or drinking water well
5,280 feet (or 1 mile) from the property boundary of any building serving vulnerable populations (e.g., schools, daycares, hospitals)
750 feet from any surface water of the Commonwealth
It was disheartening to witness the lack of care some of our appointed officials have for their constituents. Our coalition’s petition has been signed by over 2,500 individuals. The Environmental Quality Board’s decision to table our petition prolongs the suffering of thousands of Pennsylvanians.
Residents of Westmoreland County live with oil and gas wells in their backyards, behind schools, and next to precious drinking water resources. And it is residents and their families who face the reality of effects like noise pollution, air pollution, unsafe wells, worsened asthma symptoms, and increased cancer rates. Increasing unconventional well setbacks will not ban or unduly hamper fracking operations, but it will safeguard our health and quality of life. It is our sincere hope that the EQB will listen to the DEP’s recommendation and commit to further study of our petition during its next meeting.
Either way, we’ll be there, and we could use all the help we can get. If you want to protect your community from fracking, reach out to your state senators and representatives. Make your voice heard, and tell them that we need protective buffers now!
Resources:
Watch a recording of the EQB Meeting over Microsoft Teams
Find your legislator here: https://www.palegis.us/find-my-legislator
Lauren Posey
Environmental Policy Advocate
Protect PT