PA Environment Digest Blog: Protect PT Will Appeal EHB Decision To Allow CNX Resources To Drill Shale Gas Wells Just Hundreds Of Feet From Homes In Penn Twp., Westmoreland County

Friday, June 20, 2025

Protect PT Will Appeal EHB Decision To Allow CNX Resources To Drill Shale Gas Wells Just Hundreds Of Feet From Homes In Penn Twp., Westmoreland County

On June 20, Protect PT announced it will appeal a June 3 Environmental Hearing Board decision to allow CNX Resources (formerly Apex Energy LLC) to drill two shale gas wells just hundreds of feet from homes in Penn Township, Westmoreland County. [EHB Docket # 2023074]

At the same time, the EHB imposed new conditions on the permits that force the Department of Environmental Protection to protect nearby residents from nuisances and adverse health impacts such as noise, light, air pollution, and heavy industrial truck traffic.

[The conditions come from a Consent Judgment between Penn Township and CNX Resources. (page 98 of opinion).]

EHB Decision

In her decision, Judge Wesdock of the Environmental Hearing Board explains, “The Department of Environmental Protection … has a duty to ensure that gas well permits are issued in accordance with the Oil and Gas Act and underlying regulations and in accordance with its constitutional duties under Article I, Section 27.

“Permittee has a right to pursue oil and gas activities in accordance with that legislative and regulatory framework … Likewise, the members of Protect PT and the residents of Penn Township and Trafford have a right to the safe enjoyment of their neighborhoods. Inevitably, those competing interests will at times conflict.”

“The Department has a constitutional duty to be prudent when protecting Pennsylvania’s environment. Even with the permit conditions imposed, the DEP still has not complied with its constitutional obligations,” said Dylan Basescu, a staff attorney for Protect PT.

Protect PT said the Department does not know what chemicals it is allowing at the Drakulic site that could contaminate the air and water for local residents.

Protect PT said DEP also has disregarded the permit applicant’s egregious compliance history and repeated violations of environmental law, and relied on testimony from a previously discredited industry expert to discount the dangers to human health from wells within a half-mile of hundreds of residents, recreational spaces, and schools, according to Protect PT.

The fight over these wells is far from over, said Protect PT and it is determined to protect the constitutional right of every Pennsylvanian to clean air, clean water, and environmental preservation.

“Ten years ago, neighbors said the Drakulic well pad was a done deal, but we have proved it is far from settled,” said Protect PT’s Executive Director, Gillian Graber.

Graber’s family and almost 1,000 other residents live within a half mile of the proposed site.

“My kids are not babies anymore and have had the benefit of the pollution delay during their most important growth periods, but new babies are born each day in my community, and I don’t want to see them harmed like the children with rare cancers linked to oil and gas production in other communities in Westmoreland and Washington counties,” said Graber.

“We are appealing this decision because it is the right thing to do for the health and welfare of the community.”

Graber is not alone in her concern for the health of children living near unconventional gas development.

Health Studies

In response to requests from residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Department of Health contracted the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health to investigate environmental risk factors for childhood cancer. Read more here.

In the resulting 2023 report, researchers found a 5 to 7 times increased risk of lymphoma developing in children who lived within one mile of one or more well pads as compared to the control group of children who lived 5 or more miles from any well.

Talbot et al. (2025), a more recent peer-reviewed study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, states, “Our study found that overall UNGD cumulative activity as well as a proximity to UNGD wells were associated with an increased risk of childhood lymphoma and overall childhood cancers combined.”

Both studies cite exposure to hazardous chemicals, including known or suspected carcinogens, involved in unconventional gas development (UNGD) as a potential environmental risk factor for childhood cancer.

Grand Jury Report

The Forty-Third Statewide Investigating Grand Jury Report, released in 2020, highlighted the need for stricter regulations for fracking but five years later, we still don’t have them. [Read more here.]

The current waivable 500-foot setback was described as “woefully inadequate” by the Grand Jury Report and was based on incomplete 2010 and 2017 DEP studies that failed to study health impacts, did not account for cumulative impacts of air pollution, represented just a “snapshot” of very limited air monitoring, and were not representative of all scenarios at all well pads.

Poll Results

A poll of likely Pennsylvania voters by Upswing Research & Strategy on behalf of the Ohio River Valley Institute conducted in 2024 prior to the general election showed that 80% of the respondents supported classifying fracking fluids as hazardous waste.

Other results, according to their memo, showed that 9 in 10 of the likely voters polled in PA supported increased restrictions on fracking.

Examples of policy support included: 93% in support of safer transportation of fracking waste, 92% in support of increased air monitoring, and 90% in support of requiring larger setback distances from schools and hospitals.

Another important policy mentioned in the poll is one similar to a bill that Colorado passed in 2022 that requires disclosures for the chemicals used in oil and gas production.

Under the federal level “Halliburton Loophole” and Pennsylvania law, these chemicals can continue to remain undisclosed when used in Pennsylvania by considering them trade secrets or confidential proprietary information.

A strong majority 94% of poll respondents supported requiring the disclosure of these chemicals.

The Grand Jury Report and these poll results suggest that policy changes at the legislative level have broad support from Pennsylvanians and would be important first steps toward mitigating adverse health impacts associated with shale gas development, according to Protect PT.

Statewide regulations can apply more consistent and far reaching changes and enforcement than individual advocacy organizations attempting to appeal permits one at a time in their local areas.

On top of these efforts, Protect PT is continuing its work to organize Penn Township’s residents, educate the public about the dangers from the Drakulic wells, and find a resolution that will keep fracking wells away from our local communities.

Visit the Protect PT website and their Facebook page to learn more about programs, initiatives, other upcoming events and how you can get involved. Click Here to sign up for their newsletter.

Upcoming Event

-- June 25-- Protect PT, Partners Webinar: 5 Years Later - A Progress Report On PA's Grand Jury Report On Fracking. Noon.

NewsClip:

-- TribLive: Protect PT Appeals Environmental Hearing Board Approval Of 2 Penn Twp. Shale Gas Well Permits In Westmoreland

Resource Links:

-- University Of Pittsburgh School Of Public Health Studies Find Shale Gas Wells Can Make Asthma Worse; Children Have An Increased Chance Of Developing Lymphoma Cancer; Slightly Lower Birth Weights [8.15.23]

-- Cecil Township Supervisors In Washington County Adopt 2,500 Setback From Shale Gas Well Pads From Homes, Businesses, 5,000 Foot Setback From Hospitals, Schools [11.5.24]

-- Environmental Defense Fund Blog: Another Study Identifies Health Risks During Unconventional Oil & Gas Production Even For Those Living Within 1,000 Feet Or More Of Wells [5.14.25]

-- Part II - Health Impacts: State Dept. Of Health, Penn State Medical Webinars On Caring For Persons Living & Working In Communities With Oil & Natural Gas Extraction [2.20.25] [Uses CNX exposure case study]

-- Environmental Hearing Board Agrees There Is ‘Acute’ Danger In CNX Misusing A Deposition In An Appeal Before The Board To ‘Punish’ An Environmental Advocate For Her Advocacy Against CNX [5.23.25]

-- Environmental Health Project Releases New White Paper: PA's Shale Gas - What We Can Do Now To Better Protect Public Health [4.1.25]

-- 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 [3.31.25]