Karen Feridun
50 signatures reached
To: Governor Tom Wolf
Governor Wolf: PA DEP Secretary McDonnell Must Go
The 43rd Statewide Grand Jury confirmed what Pennsylvanians impacted by shale gas development have known since Governor Ed Rendell first opened the state to fracking. The PA Department of Environmental Protection has not protected Pennsylvanians. The agency needs an overhaul and it's got to start at the top. Governor Wolf, call for Secretary Patrick McDonnell's resignation.
Why is this important?
"The risks of this new industry should fall on the industry and the regulatory agencies, not on the public. As we see it, the purpose of government agencies like DEP and DOH is to proactively prevent harm, not to wait and see if the worst really happens.
There has already been too much of that."
The 43rd Statewide Grand Jury has found that the state agencies responsible for protecting the public from the shale gas industry have failed us. Badly.
They describe a state environmental protection agency that is unresponsive to the public, or worse. "We heard, for example, from a homeowner who personally observed a spill occurring into the creek near his property. He saw the creek change color. He took video. He called DEP and described what was happening in real time. But nothing he said would convince the employee to come and look for himself. The employee said he had already talked to the operators of the well, that they had assured him there was no danger to the creek, and that he therefore had no need of the homeowner’s evidence. He threatened to have the homeowner prosecuted for filing a false report." -- pp. 65 - 66, bit.ly/PAGJreport
They describe an agency that takes the word of operators over those of citizens, that fails to refer criminal cases to the Attorney General, that allows employees to have too cozy a relationship with the industry they're supposed to be regulating, and that fails to ensure that employees are adequately informed of important policy. And the list goes on and on.
The Grand Jury believes that some things have improved during the Wolf administration, but try telling that to the people along the Mariner East pipeline route who saw the agency approve a pipeline that still had several hundred remaining deficiencies in its application, or the people at Save Our Streams PA who hunt down, test, and map old orphaned and abandoned wells that are leaking methane since the state has failed to locate, much less maintain them, or the public who wonders why the agency slapped Range Resources with an historic $8.9 million fine for a well leaking in Lycoming county in 2015 and then rescinded the fine in 2017 with no explanation and why the well was still leaking when a reporter checked in 2019 and may still be today.
Pennsylvanians want to know why the only state with a Constitutional guarantee of clean air and pure water included among its citizens' fundamental rights is being failed so badly by those hired to protect that right.
Pennsylvanians in fracked communities call the agency 'Don't Expect Protection' for a reason. The PA DEP needs an overhaul and it must start with Secretary Patrick McDonnell's ouster.
There has already been too much of that."
The 43rd Statewide Grand Jury has found that the state agencies responsible for protecting the public from the shale gas industry have failed us. Badly.
They describe a state environmental protection agency that is unresponsive to the public, or worse. "We heard, for example, from a homeowner who personally observed a spill occurring into the creek near his property. He saw the creek change color. He took video. He called DEP and described what was happening in real time. But nothing he said would convince the employee to come and look for himself. The employee said he had already talked to the operators of the well, that they had assured him there was no danger to the creek, and that he therefore had no need of the homeowner’s evidence. He threatened to have the homeowner prosecuted for filing a false report." -- pp. 65 - 66, bit.ly/PAGJreport
They describe an agency that takes the word of operators over those of citizens, that fails to refer criminal cases to the Attorney General, that allows employees to have too cozy a relationship with the industry they're supposed to be regulating, and that fails to ensure that employees are adequately informed of important policy. And the list goes on and on.
The Grand Jury believes that some things have improved during the Wolf administration, but try telling that to the people along the Mariner East pipeline route who saw the agency approve a pipeline that still had several hundred remaining deficiencies in its application, or the people at Save Our Streams PA who hunt down, test, and map old orphaned and abandoned wells that are leaking methane since the state has failed to locate, much less maintain them, or the public who wonders why the agency slapped Range Resources with an historic $8.9 million fine for a well leaking in Lycoming county in 2015 and then rescinded the fine in 2017 with no explanation and why the well was still leaking when a reporter checked in 2019 and may still be today.
Pennsylvanians want to know why the only state with a Constitutional guarantee of clean air and pure water included among its citizens' fundamental rights is being failed so badly by those hired to protect that right.
Pennsylvanians in fracked communities call the agency 'Don't Expect Protection' for a reason. The PA DEP needs an overhaul and it must start with Secretary Patrick McDonnell's ouster.