Marcellus Shale health complaint log released for first time

BRENDAN GIBBONS
Times-Shamrock Writer

The state Department of Health logged 86 health inquiries related to Marcellus Shale development from 2011 to 2015, according to a list obtained by environmental group Food & Water Watch.

The log is the public’s first set of concrete evidence that the Department of Health is routinely tracking such complaints, which often come alongside inconclusive evidence of hazardous levels of harmful substances entering people’s bodies.

Though each incident varies widely in the type of caller and issues reported, some common trends emerge.

Heavily drilled Susquehanna and Bradford counties were among the top origins of those complaints tied to a specific county. Many complaints also originated in Washington County in Southwest Pennsylvania, where the industry is also active.

Health department staff often logged questions about groundwater and air pollution, though many callers reported specific health complaints. Skin rashes, gastrointestinal problems, respiratory difficulty, nose and throat irritation, headaches and nosebleeds were most common.

In most cases, health department staff offered to examine environmental test results from the state Department of Environmental Protection or private companies, if they were available. The health department does not take these samples itself, they told callers.

This presents a problem for concerned residents who cannot afford these tests, said David Brown, Sc.D., who has served in environmental public health roles for Connecticut’s state health agency and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

He now works with the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, which researches and responds to hundreds of shale gas-related complaints.

“Patients were directed to go have certain tests done, water tests, which were really expensive,” Dr. Brown said. “Those recommendations would not have been successful.”

Though the logs often refer to DEP testing, “there’s often no evidence that DEP ever came back to them and told them what they found or didn’t find,” he said.

Still, the work represents an honest effort to track Pennsylvanians’ concerns, he said.

“I can’t personally fault anyone who was preparing any of these reports,” he said. “It looks like they were doing their best with few resources.”

Food & Water Watch released the 111 pages of health department documents Wednesday, with names and addresses of callers redacted. The group advocates for a ban on hydraulic fracturing.

Starting in July 2014, the group fought for access to the documents using the state’s open records law, appealing an initial denial to the state Office of Open Records, the group’s justice program co-director Scott Edwards said.

“We strongly believed these were public documents and the people of Pennsylvania had a right to know of citizens’ public health concerns with fracking,” he said.

The health department stopped fighting the open records request soon after Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf took over for former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, he said.

For Linda Headley, a Fayette County resident who complained to the health department, the information that appeared in the log was inaccurate in some cases.

The age of her son, the date she purchased her property and the type of tests conducted by the DEP were all inaccurate in the report, she said in a conference call sponsored by Food & Water Watch.

Headley said she and her young son have been exposed to gases and liquids from condensate tanks on an Atlas Resources well 500 feet from her home. Her efforts to find information from state environmental and health agencies have not been successful.

“This is a process of educating yourself,” she said. “(You) see the well tender coming in now, you assume nothing. You go in the house and close the windows.”

Joel Hersh, former director of the state Department of Health’s Bureau of Epidemiology, said the agency used a sound method of logging complaints, assigning them numbers and following up.

He cautioned against using a list of complaints to gauge the true health effects of living next to shale gas wells. It does not include environmental and medical test results, physicians’ evaluations and the department’s analysis and recommendations, he said.

“When you do a health assessment, if you don’t marry that up to a clinical evaluation by their physician, you just have a self-report,” he said.

Department of Health spokesman Wes Culp was not able to answer questions Wednesday on what the agency’s evaluations say in general about gas-related health issues.

“Quite frankly, this is an issue that’s touchy and there are a lot of people involved in this,” he said.

In an email, he mentioned the $100,000 Gov. Wolf proposed in his budget for the agency to plan a health registry. The department is also reviewing its “processes and protocols” to address environmental health, he said.

Log highlights
■ Years: Spans 2011 to 2015
■ Complaints: 86 logged
■ Top five counties of origin: Susquehanna, Washington, Bradford, Wyoming, Fayette.
■ Top health concerns reported: Skin rashes, gastrointestinal problems, respiratory difficulty, nose and throat irritation, headaches and nosebleeds.