PA Environment Digest Blog: Environmental Health Project: Lois Bower-Bjornson Shares Her First-Hand Experiences With Shale Gas Health, Environmental Impacts In Washington County

As part of the Environmental Health Project announcement of its new white paper outlining what Pennsylvania can do now to better protect public health from the impacts of shale gas development, Lois Bower-Bjornson shared her first-hand experiences with those health and environmental impacts from living in Washington County. Read more here.

Lois Bower-Bjornson is the Southwestern PA Field Organizer for the Clean Air Council and the originator of the Frackland Tours that show people the realities of living with shale gas development and infrastructure in Southwest Pennsylvania.

Here is her presentation--

I am the Southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer with Clean Air Council, and I do host Frackland Tours.

I grew up and I live in the most heavily fracked county in Pennsylvania, Washington County, and I have raised four children there.

Our home is completely encompassed by the oil and gas industry.

We have approximately 34 well pads, a compressor station, numerous pipelines, one that is 75 feet on our property, a staging and housing facility, and in addition constant truck traffic.

My work began when my daughter was born in 2009.

My children began to experience negative health impacts from the oil and gas industry.

Symptoms included rashes, skin appearing to be scalded, bloody noses, all over body rashes, bullseye rashes.

On numerous occasions, my third son would have horrendous nosebleeds.

There would be clots the size of fifty-cent [pieces] out of his mouth ,while his nose was bleeding at the same time.

Sometimes this happened two and three times a day, and it was so bad he became anemic.

While at school, if he had a nosebleed, he would say, "Please don't tell my mom."

This happened when we left the windows open at night.

When my daughter was younger, after bathing, her skin was bright red having the appearance of being scalded.

Our water had changed. We have public providers, Tri-County Water. Our water source is the Monongahela River.

Every quarter for the last 20 years, we receive notices stating that we are above total trihalomethanes.

This year, in addition to the trihalomethane notice, we received notices of exceeding lead levels and notices above radiation levels.

One of the reasons I began my work, I got a call from my father and he said, "Lois, there's trucks lined up on the riverbank all day long dropping hoses in the river."

Of the many issues that we are experiencing from fracking, one is the wastewater loophole.

This allows fracking waste labeled as residual waste to be disposed of in municipal landfills.

Municipal landfills from toxic radioactive fracking waste.

My daughter takes gymnastics along with just under 1,000 students, next to the Westmoreland County Sanitary Landfill.

The highest level of benzene was recorded at the edge of the parking lot.

This landfill takes waste from the fracking industry.

Again, municipal landfills are not equipped to take radioactive fracking waste.

This landfill has been cited numerous times for leachate being released directly into the Monongahela River.

The leachate contained fracking chemicals and [in] a documented court case, they found the pipe with the leachate going directly into the Monongahela River.

This is my family and my community's water.

My family, along with four others [where part of a] pilot study called Fractured the Body and Burden of Proof by Reporter Kristina Marusic.

All of the families wore personal air monitors and our urine was tested.

I have the highest level of naphthalene in my body and some of the chemicals that I can recall.

They're in all of my children's body and mine and my husband's are things such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, epicuric, and mandelic acid.

We have a cancer crisis in southwestern Pennsylvania.

There are approximately 230 cases of Ewing sarcoma nationwide. There are 69 cases of Ewing sarcoma found in five counties in southwestern Pennsylvania.

As an impacted resident, I began to design tours to learn more about fracking.

Fracking tours are implemented to give people a firsthand account of what it's like to live and grow up in the shale fields of southwestern Pennsylvania.

Working with numerous families to document their stories, I have seen an increase in various cancers.

On one lane in the same household, a husband and wife have prostate and breast cancer.

Their neighbor had breast cancer last year and she's now dying from stage two pancreatic cancer. Further up the road, there are two more breast cancers.

I worked with other families that have had throat cancer, two heart attacks and asthma.

Other residents have had polycystic kidney disease and are now waiting for a new kidney.

Some residents lost their lives to acute myeloid leukemia.

Well pads on their property approximately 500 feet from their home.

Another resident living with a well pad 950 feet from his home died of myoepithelial carcinoma, sorry, salivary gland cancer that was found in his armpit.

A month later, his wife died of dementia and a heart attack.

There was also a stage four esophageal cancer that was found when the resident's femur snapped in half while he was bathing.

The well pad is 300 feet from his home.

He died last October.

Lastly, a family that lives 300 feet from a well pad, their second child born was during the fracking process.

He's nine years old. He's fed through a feeding tube and has no cognitive skills.

For years in southwestern Pennsylvania, various industries have been piled on top of industries, from oil to coal, to steel to frack gas, petrochemical hubs and cryogenic plants.

Are we not inundated enough?

Distance is the answer. If something is harming you, it is best to move away so there is less harm.

Attorney General Shapiro established a 2,500-foot setback in two grand jury investigations.

Criminal charges were filed with various oil and gas players.

While the Attorney General, our Governor listened to residents' harrowing stories.

Governor Shapiro concluded that the further you move away from harm, the better we all are.

Some of the residents that were part of the Grand Jury feel betrayed by the Shapiro Administration and his decision to partner with CNX.

I hear from residents that they would like to meet with the Governor to thank him for his work while he was Attorney General.

These residents feel that the governor still has time to do the right thing and institute a setback of 2,500 feet to protect residents living next to the oil and gas facilities.

[Should] Southwestern Pennsylvania North's residents continue to be exposed to pollution, the further the distance between people and industry, the better off we all are.

Thank you.

Click Here for more information on the Environmental Health Project White Paper announcement.

NewsClip:

-- Inside Climate News - Jon Hurdle: PA Health Advocates Say Gov. Shapiro Has Let Residents Down On Shale Gas Fracking Protections

Resources Links - Compliance:

-- Criminal Convictions; Record Penalties, Restitution Of Over $158.3 Million Highlight Big Shale Gas, Related Petrochemical Industry Compliance History In Pennsylvania [March 2025]

-- DEP Reports 575 Water Supply/Stray Gas Complaints About Oil & Gas Operations In Last 2 Years; Investigation Can Take A Year, Sometimes 2-3 To Find Those Responsible [March 2025]

-- Daily Grind Living Next To Oil & Gas Industry: Spills, Polluted Water Supplies, Smells Like Gas, Noise, Air Pollution, Explosions, Truck Traffic, Erosion, Radioactive Waste, Gas Flares, Dust, Lights, Road Dumping Waste, Abandoned Wells [March 2025]

-- 7 Years Ago, People From Over 70 Households Gave First-Hand Accounts Of How The PA Shale Gas Industry Impacted Their Health, Lives And Communities To A State Grand Jury Describing The ‘Sometimes Harsh Reality’ Of These Operations [PaEN]

-- DEP To Recommend Environmental Quality Board Accept A Petition For Study To Increase Setbacks From Shale Gas Wells At April 8 Meeting [March 2025]

-- PA American Water Identifies Water Source For New Public Water System To Replace Water Wells Contaminated By Shale Gas Fracking 20 Years Ago In Dimock Twp., Susquehanna County [March 2025]

-- AG Shapiro: Grand Jury Finds Pennsylvania Failed To Protect Citizens During Natural Gas Fracking Boom [June 2022]