FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 13, 2014

CONTACT:

Liz Judge,
Earthjustice, 415.217.2007, [log in to unmask]

Shazia Manji, Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los
Angeles (PSR-LA), 213-689-9170, [log in to unmask] 

Lauren Whittenberg, Environmental
Defense Fund, 512-784-2161, [log in to unmask]

 

64 Environmental
and Community Groups File Petition Demanding Federal Limits on Toxic Oil &
Gas Well Air Pollution

Concerned about health impacts of drilling
rush, groups push EPA to act swiftly  

 

WASHINGTON, DC – A large coalition of 64 local,
state and national groups filed a petition today urging the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to protect public health by setting pollution limits on
oil and gas wells and associated equipment in population centers around the U.S.


 

The public interest law organization
Earthjustice filed the petition on
behalf of local and national groups with members and constituents across the
U.S., including Clean Air Council, Clean Air Taskforce, Downwinders at Risk,
Environmental Defense Fund, Global Community Monitor, Natural Resources Defense
Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, Sierra Club, and WildEarth
Guardians.   The petition explains why
the EPA should issue rules that would require oil and gas companies to limit toxic
air pollution from oil and gas wells in urban, suburban and other populated
areas as the Clean Air Act expressly provides.

 

In recent years, the pace of oil and
gas drilling has increased drastically. As of 2011, oil and gas wells in the
U.S. numbered more than 1.04 million. Current estimates project that as many as
45,000 new wells could be drilled each year through 2035.  

 

Available data suggest that at least 100,000
tons per year of hazardous air pollution from oil and gas well sites—such as benzene,
formaldehyde, and naphthalene—are currently going freely into the air. These
pollutants have been linked to respiratory and neurological problems, birth
defects, and cancer. 

 

“More than 150 million Americans now
live near oil and gas wells or above shale areas where companies are looking to
drill or engage in hydraulic fracturing, and EPA needs to set standards that
restrict the hazardous air pollutants they put into the air,” said Earthjustice attorney Emma Cheuse, who
filed the petition on behalf of the groups. “Oil and gas wells release
chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, and respiratory disease, and EPA
should protect our communities, especially our children, from exposure to these
hazards.”

 

"As fracking
encroaches upon communities throughout the American West, we need relief from
unchecked toxic air pollution," said Jeremy
Nichols, WildEarth Guardians' Climate and Energy Program Director.
 "Oil and gas wells might seem small, but together they are
endangering our health and welfare in rural and urban areas alike, poisoning
the very skies that make the West such an amazing place to live."

 

"Since 2010,
the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality here has been promising to
increase regulation and inspection of the booming oil and gas exploration and
development occurring at unprecedented levels, even for Texas," noted Cyrus Reed of Sierra Club's Texas Lone Star
Chapter. "But despite some baby steps, oil and gas development remains
largely unregulated and the Texas legislature has handcuffed the agency from
taking additional regulatory steps. It's time for the EPA to step in and do
what Texas leaders have been unable to do: protect Texans from the unmitigated
emissions of toxic air pollutants which poison our lungs and cause smog
throughout cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and Midland." 

 

"Every
Oklahoman has the right to clean air to breathe. Currently Oklahoma air
continues to deteriorate and instances of illnesses directly connected to air
quality such as asthma continue to increase.  A significant cause for this
is the dramatic increase in oil and gas drilling in our state over the past
decade," said Sierra Club Oklahoma
Chapter Director David Ocamb.

 

"Californians' air, health and food supply are under assault
from increased oil and gas production using fracking, sanctioned by our
Legislature and Governor Brown," said Denny
Larson, Executive Director of the Global Community Monitor based in Richmond,
CA.  "It's time for EPA to do its job and enforce the Clean Air
Act and end the loophole that is poisoning our air."

“Oil and gas wells release chemicals
that have clearly and definitely been linked to health harms from nose bleeds
and head aches to cancer, birth defects, and respiratory disease,” said James Dahlgren, MD, an internist with a
sub-specialty in toxicology and member of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los
Angeles.  “I’ve witnessed the harm these toxics cause to people and
given everything we know about these pollutants, the EPA must take action to
protect communities from exposure to these clear hazards,” he added.  

"Almost a decade of
un-and-under-regulated fracking has transformed North Texas into a sacrifice
zone for the gas industry, with conservative estimates of over 1,000 tons of
hazardous air pollution being released annually from industry sources.
Breathing this toxic air pollution has left a well-documented trail of illness
and disease throughout the Barnett Shale. EPA needs to do its job and protect
frontline victims of fracking by reducing the toxic fallout from the
practice," said Jim Schermbeck of the Dallas-Ft.
Worth-based clean air group Downwinders at Risk.

“Pennsylvania residents living near
shale gas operations deserve much stronger public health protections from EPA,”
said Matt Walker, community outreach
director of Clean Air Council. “EPA’s current standards for flaring at
new oil and gas wells do not address the many other types of ongoing operations
at oil and gas wells that emit significant amounts of toxic air pollution. The
Council and its members urge EPA to act quickly to greatly limit air pollution
from oil and gas infrastructure. 

“Our nation should not ask communities
to trade clean air for cheap energy,” said Mark
Brownstein, Environmental Defense Fund’s Associate Vice President & Chief
Counsel, US Climate & Energy. “Anyone living near an oil and gas
development deserves to know that all necessary steps are being taken to avoid
hazardous air pollution.  Strong
regulation is necessary to provide that assurance.”

“The scientific
evidence is piling up to support what people around the country have been
reporting for years: fracking-related air pollution can threaten the health of
neighboring communities,” said Miriam
Rotkin-Ellman, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“The oil and gas industry must not be allowed to continue spewing poisons into
the air. EPA needs to step up to protect the health of Americans living near
fracking operations across the country.”

 

###

RESOURCES

 

·        
The
petition filed today can be found at: http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/2014-petition-for-federal-limits-on-toxic-air-pollution-from-oil-gas-wells



·        
To
see the population centers that would receive protection under new EPA rules, look
at Table 5 of the petition, or the maps listed below. 


·        
A
list of groups that signed onto today’s petition can be found at: PAGE 66-67 of petition. 



 

RESOURCES INCLUDED AT THE END OF THE
PETITION:

 

In Appendix A: Emissions and Covered
Population Centers

·        
Table
1 – NSPS v. NESHAP Coverage Comparison: Regulation of Wells and Associated
Equipment 

·        
Table
2 – Oil and Gas Sector Summary: Comparison of Emissions Controlled by EPA’s
Final Rule (“Controlled”) vs. Emissions that Could Have Been Controlled by
EPA’s Final Rule But Were Not (“Not Controlled)

·        
Table
5 – Presence of Active Oil and Gas Wells in -- (1) Combined Statistical Areas
(CSAs) with population greater than 1 million and (2) Metropolitan Statistical
Areas (MSAs) not located in such a CSA

 

In Appendix B: Maps

 

·        
Map 1
– U.S. Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map 2
– U.S. Oil and Gas Wells and Population Centers


·        
Map 3
– California: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map 4
– Colorado: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map 5
– Pennsylvania: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map 6
– Texas: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map 7
– Ohio: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map 8
– Louisiana: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map 9
– Michigan: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map
10 – New York: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


·        
Map
11 – Oklahoma: Oil and Gas Wells, Shale Plays and Population Centers


 

In Appendix C: List of health and other studies.-- 
_________________________________
Devorah Ancel
Staff Attorney
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program
85 Second Street, 2nd floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 977-5721
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