HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A grand jury investigation into Pennsylvania's large natural gas drilling industry released Thursday by state Attorney General Josh Shapiro found systematic failures in state departments regulating that industry.
The report, which came after nearly two years of investigation into the state's Marcellus Shale exploration industry, noted that the state's Department of Environmental Protection and State Department of Health failed to protect Pennsylvanians by not policing or investigating environmental complaints, failed to collect health data and failed to warn the public when they were at risk.
The report included eight recommendations to better protect the public and regulate the industry in the state, including distance requirements to residences, more transparency in the chemicals used and transportation regulation for waste created by the drilling.
The attorney general’s office launched a hotline for people to alert them of suspected fracking violations. The number for that hotline is 507-904-2643.
"The bottom line is this was a failure," Shapiro said. "Regulators were supposed to prevent abuse by the big corporations ... but they didn't."
He said grand jurors heard detailed testimony from community members who alleged health impacts from sores that developed from showering, constant bloody noses and rashes. They heard from farmers who alleged their horses died or their livestock became infertile as a result of what they say is water polluted by the fracking companies.
A message left for a spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group, seeking a response to the report was not immediately returned.
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly referred to as fracking, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals miles into the earth to break up layers of shale, causing oil or gas to be released. Fracking -- and horizontal drilling techniques -- have produced massive amounts of natural gas and oil in the U.S. over the past decade or so.
The industry has brought lower natural gas prices for consumers, jobs and royalties to Pennsylvania, but it has also generated concerns about the effect the fracking process has had on the state's environmental quality.
Shapiro said the grand jury found that state environmental regulators had failed to file violations against the industry, failed to tell the public when violations were filed and could be a risk to their health and regularly failed to refer those violations for criminal investigation. The grand jury also criticized the Department of Health for not collecting data of past issues.
"We need to admit that the government failed," he said.
Earlier this month, Shapiro, a Democrat, announced a deal with Range Resources Corp., Pennsylvania's most active shale gas driller, to plead no contest to environmental crimes over its handling of contamination at a pair of well sites in the southwestern part of the state.
Last week, Shapiro's office filed felony charges against Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and accused it of polluting residential water wells in a northern Pennsylvania communities. Shapiro also said the grand jury's probe "will result in more criminal charges."
The eight recommendations from the grand jury were to expand the no drilling zone from 500 to 2,500 feet; require the fracking companies to disclose all chemicals used in their operations; require the regulation of gathering lines used to transport the gas; more accurately assess air quality; require safer transport of chemical waste from fracking; conduct more comprehensive health responses to issues reported by the public living near drilling sites; limit Department of Environmental Protection employees’ from working in the private sector immediately after leaving the agency; and give the attorney general’s office criminal jurisdiction to prosecute unconventional oil and gas companies.
Channel 11 reached out to both Range Resources Corp. and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. Range resources sent us a statement saying:
“Environmental safety and public health is a priority for the industry. The tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who work across the sector – building and union trades, professional engineers, environmental professionals, health and safety experts, as well as exploration and production companies that contract with hydraulic fracturing service providers, midstream companies and countless other Pennsylvania-based small, family-owned businesses – have every reason to place the highest value on regulatory compliance and transparency.
“Our industry’s long and clear proactive and collaborative approach to ensuring Pennsylvania’s regulations encourage safety is unfortunately not reflected in this report, which we are closely reviewing. For example, Act 13 already requires the disclosure of chemicals, including proprietary information, which the public can access through fracfocus.org. Similarly, EPA and PADEP have established heightened standards for emissions, such as those developed by the Wolf Administration under the GP-5 and GP-5A air quality permits. In fact, Pennsylvania’s rigorous regulations and strong permitting requirements have been recognized by independent environmental review organizations as effective models for others to follow.
“We’re proud of our industry’s shared commitments to keeping Pennsylvanians safe while enhancing our environment – especially air quality – and helping to create good-paying jobs across the Commonwealth. For anyone to suggest that we are not protecting our environment and public health while responsibly and safely producing clean and abundant American natural gas should better understand the facts and science behind natural gas energy development.”
The DEP also provided Channel 11 with the following statement:
“Governor Tom Wolf shares the Attorney General’s commitment to upholding Pennsylvania’s constitutional promise of clean air, pure water, and to protecting public health. The Wolf Administration inherited a flawed ideological approach to regulation of unconventional oil and gas development that was forced on the departments of Environmental Protection and Health by the Corbett Administration, which promoted the rapid expansion of natural gas development and profit above these other priorities.
The administration, acting through DEP and DOH, has taken steps from its first days in office to meet this commitment, implementing new environmental regulations, fighting for a reasonable severance tax on natural gas, increasing inspections of well sites, pipelines and other natural gas facilities, and promoting transparency and science-based decision-making on the health impacts of natural gas development.
The vast majority of the issues highlighted in the report took place under the Corbett Administration. This administration has acted aggressively to address the previous administration’s regulatory failures, remove restrictions on enforcement, and has put in place new regulations to hold natural gas companies to some of the most stringent environmental standards anywhere in the country in order to protect public health and the environment.
This change in approach under the Wolf Administration immediately produced results. In the four years of the Corbett Administration, DEP averaged 11,821 unconventional well inspections. In the Wolf Administration, this number has increased to 16,396 per year, a nearly 40 percent increase. Last year there were over 18,500 inspections conducted, nearly 7,000 more than the last year of the prior administration. These inspection resulted in 3,636 citations for violations through 2019.
Under Governor Wolf’s leadership, as of early 2020, DEP has issued more than $67.5 million in penalties to oil and gas companies polluting Pennsylvania’s land, water, and air. This total includes the largest civil penalty ever collected in a single settlement.
The Department of Health has also undertaken efforts to promote transparency related to the potential health impacts of natural gas development. This included removing Corbett Administration directives that prevented DOH from discussing complaints about fracking, establishing a transparent health registry, and more recently funding two research studies in partnership with an academic center to investigate health effects related to the natural gas industry, in particular as they pertain to confirmed cases of Ewing Sarcoma and other childhood cancers in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Many of the recommendations in the report either mirror activities that the administration already has in place or is supports as additional actions by the legislature. We stand ready to assist helping the legislature in developing language to address the concerns raised by the report.
The governor is proud of the work done by both the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health, and he stands by the secretaries and hardworking staff at both agencies as we continue to strongly support rigorous oversight and enforcement of the laws and regulations to protect the environment and public health. The administration will continue its efforts to ensure that individuals or businesses that violate these laws and regulations are held accountable.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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