Have you ever read the children’s story, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?
It’s a tale that shows how one event can lead to another before escalating into an uncontrollable chain of events-- all starting with a single cookie.
Unfortunately, this principle doesn’t just apply to mice, cookies, and milk. It’s also at work when governments allow polluting infrastructure into communities.
And, it’s one of the many reasons Earthworks opposes the permitting of well pads close to homes, schools, and other vulnerable locations.
West Deer Township Leto Shale Gas Well Pad
Last month, Earthworks submitted comments to the Allegheny County Board of Health in Pennsylvania.
The comments opposed an air quality permit for adding yet another piece of equipment to a fracked well pad that is already polluting backyards in West Deer Township.
The well pad, called Leto, is located just 650 feet from homes – a few minutes walk from families’ front porches.
The Leto pad already included polluting equipment when initially approved.
70 More Tons Of Pollution
Now, Leto’s operator, EQT, is asking the county to approve the addition of a new piece of equipment on the pad: a tri-ethylene glycol dehydration unit.
While the name is complex, the concept is simple: a dehydration unit has the potential to add tons of additional pollution into the air of the surrounding community.
Nearly 70 tons, to be exact.
This includes about 40 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), more than 18 tons of carbon monoxide, around 8 tons of nitrogen oxides, almost 4 tons of hazardous air pollutants, and just over 1 ton of particulate matter.
Breathing in this toxic pollution can increase cancer, heart disease, respiratory illness, birth defects, and other serious health impacts.
Neighbors in West Deer Townships have been breathing in pollution from the Leto well pad since drilling began last year.
They have already been exposed to noxious fumes from an unreported chemical spill in the fall.
And the impacts add up – each new piece of equipment on the pad lowers air quality and can worsen health.
And other wells built nearby have a combined effect.
Already Impacted By Pollution
The [DEP] PennEnviroScreen data shows that the Leto well pad is located in a community that is already in the 90th percentile for cancer diagnoses and the 78th percentile for heart disease diagnoses in the state of Pennsylvania.
It is also home to a large population of seniors, at the 98th percentile for residents age 65 and older.
This is a vulnerable population that is already breathing in toxic air emissions (72nd percentile), but the combined effects of air pollution are not considered in Pennsylvania’s laws.
Increasing Setback Distances
That’s why Earthworks has been fighting for years to increase setback distances, or “protective buffers” – the minimum distance required between well pads, compressor stations, and other equipment, and homes, schools, hospitals, and other vulnerable locations.
It’s why we support policies that take into account cumulative impacts, or the combined effects of pollution from the total of all facilities that lower air quality in a community.
Other states, like Colorado, have adopted a 2,000 foot setback distance; and just a few weeks ago, regulators there acknowledged that this distance may not even be enough.
In Pennsylvania, the minimum setback distance is just 500 feet-- the length of a football field. And even that distance can be easily waived – meaning wells are built even closer to homes.
As part of Protective Buffers PA, we are pushing for a 1km distance between fracked well pads and homes, and greater distances for schools, hospitals, and other vulnerable locations.
Back in December, Pennsylvania’s Environmental Quality Board voted for our coalition’s petition to advance to the next stage in Pennsylvania’s regulatory process, requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to produce a report studying the petition.
Thousands of Pennsylvania residents have signed petitions and sent postcards to the Shapiro administration asking the Governor to take action to increase setbacks based on his own 2020 Grand Jury Report recommendations.
Communities Have Waited Long Enough
Understandably, many residents feel they have waited long enough.
Communities like Cecil Township in Washington County are standing up and creating their own rules, enacting a 2,500-foot setback ordinance to protect their residents.
Others, like West Deer Township in Allegheny County, are pushing back-- well pad by well pad and dehydrator by dehydrator-- until setback distances are increased. And Earthworks is standing with them.
Because we’ve seen how the industry works.
First, it’s one well pad; then, a request for more polluting equipment; then another pad, and another, and more permits for more equipment.
Without guardrails, an entire community can be overrun with polluting oil and gas infrastructure.
So we’ll keep submitting comments, permit by permit, and keep pushing for policy change at the township and state level.
Because we know that if you give a polluter a well pad, they’ll want more.
And we think communities like West Deer have already experienced enough.
Click Here for the original EarthWorks Blog with illustrations.
Melissa Ostroff, PA Policy & Field Advocate, EarthWorks
(Photos: Daycare near shale gas well pad in Washington County; Now visible plume of emissions from shale gas well pad in Washington County.)
Resource Links - Setbacks:
-- Environmental Quality Board Votes To Accept Petition To Study An Increase In Setback Safety Zones From Shale Gas Wells; And 3 Petitions From Oil & Gas Industry To Change Other Requirements [12.9.25]
-- 7 Years Ago, People From 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]
-- 500 Feet Isn’t Enough - House Hearing I: Shale Gas Industry Says Setbacks Won’t Protect Residents, Public Health, Environment From Shale Gas Operations, Only ‘Rigorous Oversight’ Will; Standards Have Not Changed In 9 Years [PaEN]
-- 500 Feet Isn't Enough- House Hearing II: As A Township Supervisor We Have An Obligation To Protect The Health, Safety And Welfare Of Our Township Residents From Shale Gas Development [PaEN]
-- 500 Feet Isn't Enough - House Hearing III: What It’s Really Like Living Next To A Shale Gas Well Pad - Nosebleeds, Headaches, Nausea, Air Pollution, Vibrating House, Sleepless Nights, Anxiety, Truck Traffic [PaEN]
-- 500 Feet Isn’t Enough: 42 Scientific Studies, 20+ Years Of Experience With Shale Gas Drilling In PA; A State Grand Jury Report; Criminal Convictions; Public Complaints; Lawsuits; Media Reports All Document The Need To Increase Setbacks From Shale Gas Wells [PaEN]
-- 500 Feet Isn’t Enough: Michelle Stonemark Tells What It’s Really Like Living Next To A Shale Gas Well Pad - Nosebleeds, Headaches, Nausea, Air Pollution, Vibrating House, Sleepless Nights, Anxiety - In Cecil Twp., Washington County [PaEN]
-- 500 Feet Isn't Enough: Environmental Groups Urge Environmental Quality Board To Accept Rulemaking Petition For Study Increasing Setbacks From Shale Gas Wells [PaEN]
-- House Committee Hearing On Increasing Safety Setback Zones Around Natural Gas Facilities Heard About First-Hand Citizen Experiences On Health Impacts; From Physicians On Health Studies; The Gas Industry On Job Impacts [PaEN]
-- House Environmental Committee To Hold Oct. 30 Hearing On Bill Increasing Setback Safety Zones From Shale Natural Gas Drilling Sites, Infrastructure Based On Latest Science, Grand Jury Report [Background on the Issue] [PaEN]
-- Sen. Yaw, Republican Chair Of Senate Environmental Committee, Calls Bill To Reduce Shale Gas Industry Impacts On Health, Environment ‘Stupid’ [October 2023]
-- Rep. Vitali Introduces Legislation To Increase Setbacks From Unconventional Shale Gas Wells From 500 Feet To 2,500 Feet From Homes, 5,000 Feet From Schools, Hospitals [10.15.25]
-- Senators Santarsiero, Comitta Introduce SB 581 Increasing Setback Safety Zones From Natural Gas Drilling Sites, Other Infrastructure, Based On Latest Science [January 2024]
-- Marcellus Drilling News: Capital & Main Resolves Legal Challenge From CNX Resources Over Its Reporting With Editor’s Note Explaining What It Did Not Say Or Write About In An Article [PaEN]
-- 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 [PaEN]
Related Articles This Week:
-- UGI Energy Services, Prime Data Centers Announce $100 Million Partnership To Develop New Natural Gas Infrastructure For A Power Plant To Feed A.I. Data Center Development, Likely In Cameron, Potter Or Tioga Counties [PaEN]
-- DEP Denies Water Encroachment Permit For PA General Energy Co. 3.9 Mile Permanent Access Road, Staging Area In Loyalsock State Forest, Lycoming County [PaEN]
-- DEP: Penneco Environmental Replacing Tubing, Other Equipment At Oil & Gas Wastewater Injection Well In Plum Boro, Allegheny County Due To Leak, Corrosion [PaEN]
-- ‘Emergency’ Upset Natural Gas/Chemical Flares At Shell Petrochemical Plant In Beaver County Burned Overnight From At Least 8:52 p.m. May 10 to 3:30 a.m. May 11 - Breathecam
-- ‘Emergency’ Upset Natural Gas/Chemical Flares At The MarkWest Harmon Creek/Energy Transfer Revolutions Cryogenic Natural Gas Processing Plants Burned All Night Again In Washington County - Live Breathe Project Cameras [May 12]
[Posted: May 12, 2026] PA Environment Digest
