PA Environment Digest Blog: Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, Partners Release New Disability-Centered Guidance For Transportation Accidents, Petrochemical Plant Spills, Releases

On September 23, the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community and the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies announced they have collaborated with disabled disaster survivors and partners to develop first-of-its-kind Disability-Centered Guidance for Petrochemical Disasters that considers the unique challenges facing people with disabilities.

“Despite frequent petrochemical and climate disasters, the federal government has not updated its disaster guidance relative to people with disabilities since 2014,” said co-author Hilary Flint, Director of Communications and Community Engagement for the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community. “And yet, after a disaster, people with disabilities are far less likely to be able to return home.”

A National Council on Disability 2023 report on the “Impacts of Extreme Weather Events on People with Disabilities” revealed that “people with disabilities are still 2 to 4 times more likely to be injured or killed in a natural disaster than those who are not disabled.”

“The consequences of petrochemical disasters can be devastating for humans and the environment,” the guidance states. “Their impacts range from immediate death and injury to long-term health issues including cancer, birth defects and damage to infrastructure and ecosystems.”

“In the wake of a disaster, when the evacuation vehicles arrive and they are not wheelchair accessible, imagine what that means for people who rely on wheelchairs,” said co-author Jason Hallmark of Climate Reality. “People with disabilities are not a monolith and we need to prepare accordingly.”

Hallmark says disabilities include aging, blindness, deafness, intellectual or developmental disabilities, needing a wheelchair, or having a health condition that is made worse from heat or makes one more susceptible to health harms from toxics exposure.

Local government and response partners like the American Red Cross “must ensure…they are meeting their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and other laws protecting the civil rights and civil liberties of disabled people,” according to the guidance.

To do that, the Disability-Centered Guidance for Petrochemical Disasters recommends:

-- Providing open and transparent communications about possible risks and impacts from chemicals and contamination;

-- Ensuring all communications are in plain language delivered in alternate formats compatible with screen readers;

-- Involving cross-disability diverse people and organizations in the development of crisis communications plans;

-- Including American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting and captioning during all press conferences;

-- Ensuring all points of service delivery and evacuation are ADA compliant.

“People with disabilities have had to learn how to adapt to a world that wasn’t built for them,” said Germán Parodi, Co-Executive Director of the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, one of the lead authors of the new guidance, and a wheelchair-using first responder. “We have much to learn from them that can improve emergency preparation for all.”

Click Here for a copy of the Disability-Centered Guidance for Petrochemical Disasters.

A project of the People Over Petro Coalition People Power Working Group, the guidance was developed by Climate Reality and the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community in collaboration with the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies.

PA Oil & Gas Industry Public Notice Dashboards:

-- PA Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - September 21 to 27 - Gas Storage Areas Wells Leaking; Failure To Comply With Orders, Failure To Report Fracking Chemicals; Bubbling Conventional Pipeline Leak [PaEN]

-- DEP Issues Violations To 3 Shale Gas Drillers For Failing To Report Fracking Chemicals, Including At EQT’s Lumber Well Pad In Greene County [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices, Opportunities To Comment - September 28 [PaEN]

-- DEP: Comments Due Oct. 21 On New 16-Inch Natural Gas Pipeline Being Built In Springfield, Troy, West Burlington & Granville Townships, Bradford County [PaEN]

-- DEP Posted 73 Pages Of Permit-Related Notices In September 28 PA Bulletin [PaEN]

20 Years Of Shale Gas

-- Observer-Reporter: Local Officials Have Had To Grapple With Fracking Since It’s Arrival - Cecil Township, Washington County [Part II] [PDF of Article]

-- Observer-Reporter: ‘Shale Revolution:’ A Look Back At 20 Years Of Gas Drilling In Southwest PA [Part I] [PDF of Article]