PA Environment Digest Blog: Oil & Gas Methane Pollution Reduction Testimony: Barbara Jarmoska, 77 Year Resident Lycoming County

The Department of Environmental Protection is in the middle of holding eight hearings on a state plan to implement an EPA federal rule 40 CFR Part 60, Subparts OOOOb and OOOOc Reducing Emissions Of Methane and Other Pollution from conventional oil and gas and shale gas operations. Read more here.

This testimony was presented by Barbara Jarmoska, 77 year resident of the Loyalsock Creek Exceptional Value Watershed in Gamble Township, Lycoming County--

My name is Barbara Jarmoska. I live year-round on my family’s homestead on the Loyalsock Creek in Gamble Township.

I’ve spent each of my 77 summers on those 20 acres, which are adjacent to the Loyalsock State Forest, and now at the center of the massive Pennsylvania General Energy fracking operations, close enough that PGE performed a pre-drilling test of my drinking water.

On my family’s forests, fields and riparian land, the degradation and ever-increasing lack of biodiversity that I have witnessed over my lifetime is both shocking and tragic.

Accelerated changes in the past two decades are undeniably driven in large part by climate-related weather patterns—no matter how many legislators or the current federal administration deny or ignore this inconvenient truth.

This hearing is far from my first witness at a DEP hearing on an environmental issue.

Over the past 15 years, I have spoken at hearings and submitted written comments on many industry projects and permits, as well as state agency draft rules and plans.

So here I am again, feeling a bit like Sisyphus. I shoulder the stone of environmental responsibility, pushing it uphill while the weight of politics, bureaucracy, elected officials, industry lobbyists, and citizen apathy, all threaten to roll it back.

I don’t claim to represent mythical punishment, though it’s sometimes felt that way looking out the windows of my home during the construction of the Shawnee water withdrawal, when I watched our beloved Loyalsock Creek turn muddy brown 13 times.

Unlike Sisyphus, I had not defied the gods, but I have consistently attempted to defy an industry that too often sees itself as the god of energy.

Giving up is not an option. Because the stakes: our air, our water, our ecosystems, our health and that of future generations and all living beings - are simply too high.

I’m not alone.

For almost 2 decades, along with like-minded citizens, we have organized, petitioned, sued, testified, commented, and protested in an effort to get our state government to take a more measured approach to shale gas development coupled with decisive action on climate change.

And this brings us to the matter at hand. METHANE.

We’ve all heard (ad nauseum) that methane is 80 times more powerful than CO₂ in the short term—but what matters is what climate scientists are urgently telling us: that the short term—a decade, if we’re lucky—is critical.

Reducing methane from gas operations is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to slow climate change now.

And it is only by acting now that we stand a chance of avoiding the worst impacts of a warming planet.

At this time, DEP cannot expect support from the feds, including the current EPA.

They won’t be cheering for your STATE PLAN FOR GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS, a plan that reflects detailed, diligent work by committed public servants.

For that, I thank you.

I can’t claim to have read all 191 pages of the proposed STATE PLAN, but I’ve read enough to see the significant methane reduction potential of the PLAN’s proposed equipment, methods, and practices.

My testimony is focused on the very real threat of climate change.

Others will comment about the PLAN’S benefits to public health and safety, the economy and jobs, energy waste, competition in the global market, energy security, environmental justice, and more.

There are so many important reasons to implement this detailed STATE PLAN.

The Stanford/Carbon Mapper survey found that Pennsylvania leaks methane at 3% of total gas output—three times higher than official estimates.

So I ask you: listen to scientists and informed citizens.

Deny the energy gods their profit-driven excuses.

And make the second-largest gas-producing state in America the #1 state in reducing methane emissions.

Thank you for developing the STATE PLAN, and for this opportunity to testify

Click Here for a copy of the testimony.

To see other comments submitted on the methane reduction plan, visit DEP’s eComment webpage.

Visit DEP's Reducing Methane Emissions From Oil & Gas Operations webpage for information on hearings and how to submit comments. The deadline to submit comments is July 30.

Resource Links:

-- DEP Sets 8th Hearing July 22 On State Plan To Implement Federal Rule Requiring Methane Emissions Reductions From Conventional Oil & Gas, Shale Gas Facilities [PaEN]

-- DEP To Use General Permit To Implement New Federal Oil & Gas Facility Methane Reduction Regulation [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Well Owners Now Operate As Many As 95% Of Conventional Wells To Vent Methane Gas Making It Too Expensive To Comply With New EPA Methane Emission Reduction Regulations [PaEN]

-- PIOGA: DEP’s Plan To Reduce Methane Pollution From Oil & Gas Facilities An ‘Existential Threat’ To The Oil & Gas Industry [PaEN]

-- Conventional Oil & Gas Facility Owners Must Now File A Methane Emissions Compliance Report By June 1, 2025 Required By A 2022 DEP Methane Pollution Reduction Rule As A Result Of Court Settlement [PaEN]

-- EPA Pulls Back Regulations Setting Methane Emission Limits, Regulating Wastewater From Oil & Gas Operations, Risk Management Rule At Petrochemical Plants [PaEN]

Comments On DEP Oil & Gas Methane Emissions Reduction Plan:

-- Shale Gas Industry VP Attacks Credibility Of A Mom And Allegheny County Resident For Comments She Submitted In Support Of DEP Plan To Reduce Methane Emissions From The Oil & Gas Industry [PaEN]

-- PennLive Guest Essay: Why Pennsylvanians Must Speak Up For Reducing Oil & Gas Methane Emissions - Kim Anderson, Evangelical Environmental Network

-- Oil & Gas Methane Pollution Reduction Testimony: Patrice Tomcik, Mother, Butler County Resident And Moms Clean Air Force Member [PaEN]

-- Oil & Gas Methane Pollution Reduction Testimony: Kim Anderson, Evangelical Environmental Network - Rager Mountain Leak Of 1.1 Billion Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas [PaEN]