To: Participants and Friends of Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition.
MVCAC is an advocate for prohibiting drilling and fracking in
the
Mon Valley. We have also advocated testing if drilling and
fracking
do occur. Now that drilling and fracking have occurred and EPA
has
done tests at the Skyview Elementary School, let me propose a current
position for MVCAC.
1. MVCAC approves of the testing thus far and recognizes that the
air
was not impacted at the Skyview Elementary School on the three dates
tested.
2. We recognize that this school is within about 6,000 feet of the
well pad.
We wonder why testing and protective measures against air pollution have
not been performed at any of the thirty or so businesses that are within
200
feet to 3,000 feet from well pad. Has monitoring been offerred to any
of
these locations? We think not.
3. We recognize that the air pollution from Marcellus drilling and
fracking
operations occurs in rather rapid episodes, and any human exposures
at the well site, at the adjacent businesses, at the schools and at
the
residences in the Monongahela valley will be nearly impossible to
measure
without continuous monitors that are located at these listed sites.
4. Continuous methane monitoring is recommended near the well pad
because methane is easy to detect, because it will be present in
higher
concentrations than the other pollutants, and because it serves as an
indicator that many other hazardous or toxic substances are present.
5. Given that fracking was not completed on one of the wells at
the
Morgantown Industrial Park and given that much more work will be
involved there before these two Marcellus wells are actually
connected
to gathering and transmission pipelines, it is highly recommended
that continuous methane monitoring be instituted as soon as possible,
with daily (or continuous) reporting of the data to the public, for
the
protection of all the residents and workers in the vicinity of the
wells
as well as in the greater Mon valley.
YOUR COMMENTS ARE SOLICITED ON THE ABOUT POINTS,
TO BE PRESENTED TO THE MORGANTOWN CITY COUNCIL
TOMORROW, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2011. WE CAN ALSO
SUBMIT OUR STATEMENT, ONCE FINALIZED TO THE WV-DEP
AND TO THE U.S. EPA, THE AGENCY THAT DID THE THREE
TESTS (AT THE REQUEST OF THE WV-DEP).