Kristina Marusic
Kristina covers environmental health and justice issues in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. She has received recognition or awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Institute of Health Care Management, the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania, the Carnegie Science Center, and the Pittsburgh-based Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) for her reporting on these topics.
Prior to joining EHN, Kristina covered issues related to environmental and social justice as a freelancer for a wide range of digital media outlets including Slate, Vice, Women's Health, MTV News, The Advocate, CNN, and Bustle. She is also the co-president and co-founder of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Association of LGBTQ Journalists.
She lives in Pittsburgh, where she spends much of her free time kayaking the city's iconic three rivers, consuming coffee and eating adventurously.
Reach her at kmarusic@ehn.org
16 July 2020
Babies born near natural gas flaring are 50 percent more likely to be premature: Study
Living near fracking operations that frequently engage in flaring—the process of burning off excess natural gas—makes expectant parents 50 percent more likely to have a preterm birth, according to a new study.
<p>A birth is considered preterm when a baby arrives before 37 weeks (about eight and a half months) of pregnancy. Preterm births can result in underdeveloped lungs, difficulty regulating body temperature, poor feeding, and slow weight gain in babies. </p><p>Fracking, another name for hydraulic fracturing, is a process of extracting oil and gas from the Earth by drilling deep wells and injecting liquid at high pressure. While <a href="https://www.ehn.org/health-impacts-of-fracking-2634432607.html" target="_self">many studies</a> have established links between living near fracking wells and numerous health effects, including preterm births, this is the first study to specifically investigate the health impacts of flaring.</p><p>Flaring is most commonly used when the primary goal of fracking is oil extraction, so it's cheaper to burn off the natural gas as a waste byproduct than it would be to capture, transport, and sell it. Flares can burn for weeks at a time, releasing combustion-generated pollutants like benzene, fine particulate matter pollution, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, heavy metals and black carbon. </p><p>The study, published today in the journal <em><a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP6394" target="_blank">Environmental Health Perspectives</a></em>, looked at satellite data showing the location and duration of flares, and at hospital records from 23,487 births for parents living in the rural region of Eagle Ford, Texas between 2012 and 2015. In a previous study, the same researchers estimated that the Eagle Ford shale region, which is home to more than 7,000 fracking wells, had more than 43,000 flaring events between 2012 and 2016.</p><p>"We found that among mothers living within five kilometers (or about three miles) of a high amount of flaring activity during pregnancy, we saw 50 percent higher odds of preterm birth compared to mothers that had no exposure to flaring," Jill Johnston, one of the study's lead authors and an environmental health scientist at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, told EHN. </p><p>A high amount of flaring was defined in the study as 10 or more nightly flare events within three miles of the pregnant parent's home. The researchers adjusted for the pregnancy risk of just living near oil and gas operations in general, and for other known risk factors for preterm birth including age, smoking, insurance status and access to prenatal care, to ensure that the increased risk they were seeing was just associated with flaring.</p><p>While looking at the density of wells, the researchers found that expectant parents who lived within three miles of a high number of oil and gas wells also had higher odds of a preterm birth than parents who did not live near wells, regardless of flaring. They also observed that babies born to parents who live near a high number of wells were smaller, weighing an average of about seven ounces less than babies born to parents who didn't live near fracking wells.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1NzY5MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NTYwNDUzNX0.-WHhLjr3uN4e7QVrgFh4q5s3j6cN6UPpRmUu12BexGg/img.jpg?width=980" id="eb2b1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b7ece99570a762b77fdc4914546e1dec" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Fracking flaring North Dakota" data-width="1024" data-height="683" />
Flaring in the Bakken shale in North Dakota. (Credit: Trudy E. Bell)
Environmental injustice
<p>Johnston and colleagues found that parents in the study who identified as Latina or Hispanic were exposed to more flaring, and were more likely than White parents to see an increased risk of preterm birth.</p> <p>"I think that racial disparity is an important finding, and we need more research on the reasons behind it," Johnston said, noting that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0146000517300745" target="_blank">prior research</a> has shown more vulnerability of women of color to effects of air pollution when looking at adverse birth outcomes.</p> <p>"It's possible that a lifetime of discrimination and social stressors are driving factors here. It could also be that Hispanic families are spending more time outside and being more exposed to pollution from flares," Johnston added.</p> <p>Hispanic communities in the region are exposed to more frequent flaring than White communities, Johnston said, which could also mean that even among the "high-flare group" in their study, Hispanic parents were being exposed to a higher number of flares every night than White counterparts.</p> <p>"Historically, much of the waste disposal in the U.S. is concentrated in communities of color," Johnston added. "One theory is that we're seeing the same pattern with flaring, which is essentially another type of waste disposal. Infrastructure investments can be made to capture excess natural gas rather than burning it off, and where those funds are invested to minimize flaring often seems to depend on the characteristics of the communities nearby."</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1NzcwMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjg2MDc2MX0.C5DmNPI37Rf6krUr8hPU7F2_shijh1eGJpyd3jZlljs/img.jpg?width=980" id="c9d0d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6bf9e56e82956ea815dd11b2de48d0e5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="4496" data-height="3000" />
Flaring on an Ohio well pad in 2016. (Credit: Ted Auch, FracTracker Alliance)
A lack of health-protective regulations
<p>It's <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/2/3/595" target="_blank">estimated that globally</a>, more than 139 billion cubic meters, or about 4.6 percent of all natural gas production, is flared every year.</p> <p>Following the fracking boom that started in the U.S. around 2006, the U.S. became responsible for the highest number of flares of any single country, burning an estimated 13.2<a href="https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_prod_sum_a_EPG0_VGV_mmcf_a.htm" target="_blank"> billion cubic feet</a> of natural gas in 2018.</p> <p>In a previous study, Johnston and her research team estimated that about 80 percent of U.S. flaring is occurring in the Texas and in North Dakota shale plays, where much of the country's oil-extractive fracking occurs. In places like Pennsylvania, where fracking companies primarily extract natural gas, some flaring occurs, but it's less common since most of the gas is captured and sold.</p> <p>Despite the high level of flaring that's occurring in the U.S. and in Texas, there are few federal or state regulations on the practice, and most of the data on flares is sporadically self-reported by the industry. </p> <p>"It would have been really difficult to do this assessment if we didn't have satellite data and had to try to sort through the spotty state-level data that was available," Johnston said. She pointed to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which prompted deregulation of the oil and gas industry nationwide, as a likely cause for the lack of regulations and data on flaring. In the last four years, the Trump Administration has been working to further reduce the number of regulations on the industry.</p> <p>If expectant parents notice flaring activity nearby, Johnston recommended reducing exposure to airborne pollutants as much as possible by staying indoors, keeping the windows closed to reduce the amount of outdoor air that gets into the house, and using an air filter to purify indoor air. </p> <p>"Our study indicates that there are serious public health concerns associated with living near flaring," Johnston said. "I believe that regulatory efforts to reduce and eliminate the amount of flaring that's occurring would be beneficial to communities nearby."</p><p><em>Banner photo credit: <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/people-man-adult-hands-child-3120717/" target="_blank">skalekar1992/Pixabay</a></em></p>
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12 June 2020
Environmental injustice in Pittsburgh: Poor, minority neighborhoods see higher rates of deaths from air pollution
PITTSBURGH—If air pollution levels in all of Allegheny County were lowered to match the levels seen in its least-polluted neighborhoods, about 100 fewer residents would die of coronary heart disease every year, according to a new study.
<p>A majority of the lives that would be saved by such an initiative are in the region's poor and minority communities—people who are also <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/early-data-shows-african-americans-have-contracted-and-died-of-coronavirus-at-an-alarming-rate" target="_blank">particularly susceptible</a> to contracting and dying from COVID-19.</p>
<p>"Losing any lives to a preventable cause like pollution is tragic, and more deeply so when that human cost is borne unfairly along economic and racial lines," Joylette Portlock, executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, a Pittsburgh-based environmental and community advocacy nonprofit, told EHN. </p>
<p>The entire Pittsburgh region has <a href="https://www.ehn.org/pittsburgh-air-pollution-unsafe-2644931105.html" target="_self">problems with air pollution</a>, but levels can vary widely between neighborhoods due to a variety of factors including industrial pollution sources, traffic patterns, and geography.</p>
<p>The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Allegheny County Health Department and published in the journal <a href="https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12940-020-00584-z" target="_blank"><em>Environmental Health</em></a> in March, found that the region's most polluted census tracts are often in poor and minority neighborhoods, while the census tracts with the cleanest air tend to be in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods. This results in a higher rate of air pollution-related deaths from coronary heart disease in poor and minority neighborhoods.</p>
<p>"Until you have actual numbers to hang your hat on, it's hard to understand the magnitude of this problem," James Fabisiak, a toxicologist at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and the study's lead author, told EHN. "We wanted to be able to start having a conversation about how many deaths from air pollution in these neighborhoods are too many."</p>
<p>In the study, Fabisiak and collaborators estimate that about 40 percent of air pollution-related coronary heart disease deaths in Allegheny County occur in environmental justice communities—even though such communities represent just 27 percent of the county's total population. </p>
<p>Environmental justice communities <a href="https://www.dep.pa.gov/PublicParticipation/OfficeofEnvironmentalJustice/Pages/PA-Environmental-Justice-Areas.aspx" target="_blank">are defined</a> by the state of Pennsylvania as any census tract where 20 percent or more individuals live in poverty, and/or 30 percent or more of the population is a racial minority. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4ODE5My9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTIyMjg4N30.t6WgdKOdk9JTk5fCGMoLw5RAn13zOJbWTy8G1CbRfWA/img.jpg?width=980" id="f7fd3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="025783367ee01cd992356f0e546c3d49" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Black Lives Matter Pittsburgh" data-width="1245" data-height="715" />
A Pittsburgh rally in 2018 for Antwon Rose, a Black 17-year-old from East Pittsburgh who was shot and killed by a White police officer in 2018. (Credit: Mark Dixon)
“Systemic racism is not limited to one system”
<p>The study is being publicized at a time when the nation is grieving the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police and demanding racial inequality be addressed. Many advocacy groups have pointed to the ties between systemic racism in policing and environmental pollution and climate change impacts.</p> <p>"Black communities, which already face disinvestment of critical resources like public transportation and access to health care, are being overpoliced and underserved," Heather McClain, an environmental justice organizer with the social justice nonprofit OnePA, told EHN. </p> <p>McClain noted that East Pittsburgh, one of the region's environmental justice communities, was home to Antwon Rose, a Black 17-year-old who was shot and killed by a white police officer in 2018. </p> <p>"In that same community right now, an oil and gas company is teaming up with U.S. Steel to try and build a fracking well pad in a community that has already experienced generations of air pollution from the <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/fracking-at-edgar-thomson-steel-mill-among-concerns-discussed-at-environmental-forum-in-forest-hills/" target="_blank">Edgar Thomson Mill</a>," McClain said. </p> <p>She added that community members <a href="https://www.ehn.org/residents-shout-down-oil-and-gas-execs-over-fracking-at-us-steel-mill-2633068424.html" target="_self">have concerns</a> about how fracking could worsen air and water pollution, and about methane emissions from fracking being a <a href="https://www.ehn.org/fracking-methane-leaks-2645817287.html" target="_self">major driver of climate change</a>—which also disproportionately impacts environmental justice communities, since they don't have adequate resources to address climate change-driven disasters like more frequent flooding.</p> <p>"Systemic racism is not limited to one system," Portlock said. "Unequal treatment in our housing, education, healthcare and economic systems creates a lack of resources and options for where and how people live. There are many causal problems, none of which are easy to fix…They require dedicated action to look for and remediate the unjust systems that support these inequities."</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4ODIwNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTY0NjI3Nn0.5tB2hila5_MAJBYHPelS5Gl_NfkK7ynNiZZG4n1cBcg/img.jpg?width=980" id="99dda" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="738ecdb9573a23eac068fe382f9e58a1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Pittsburgh Air Pollution" data-width="1245" data-height="740" />
The Edgar Thomson Mill in the Pittsburgh-area communities of Braddock and North Braddock. (Credit: Mark Dixon)
Mapping inequities
<p>For the new study, researchers looked at levels of two common air pollutants, black carbon and nitrogen dioxide, in each of the county's census tracts using data collected by Carnegie Mellon University's <a href="https://breatheproject.org/breathe-mobile/" target="_blank">Breathe Mobile</a>—a van equipped with sensitive air monitoring tools that researchers previously drove around the county to monitor air quality and create detailed <a href="https://breatheproject.org/pollution-map/" target="_blank">exposure maps</a>.</p> <p>Black carbon is a sooty, black material emitted from vehicle exhaust, coal-fired power plants, and industrial sources that causes respiratory and cardiovascular disease, cancer, and birth defects. Nitrogen dioxide is a pollutant emitted from vehicle exhaust and the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas that causes respiratory and heart problems.</p> <p>Using Breathe Mobile data, census data, and established methods for calculating disease risk, the researchers estimated how many coronary heart disease deaths in each census tract could be attributed to levels of black carbon and nitrogen dioxide. Then they used those numbers to determine how many deaths could be prevented if pollution levels in the dirtiest census tracts were lowered to match the levels seen in the cleanest ones.</p> <p>"Studies like this often calculate how many lives we could save if we eliminated all of the world's air pollution, but that's not really practical," Fabisiak said. "We know we're not going to eliminate 100 percent of the air pollution in Allegheny County. But we're estimating that we could save at least 100 lives if we could just reduce air pollution enough to make the whole county as clean as our least-polluted census tract."</p> <p>The researchers also organized the county into four groups, from least-polluted to most-polluted census tracts, and found that environmental justice communities were about 25 times as likely to fall into the group with the highest level of nitrogen dioxide pollution compared to the group with the lowest level. </p> <p>When it came to black carbon exposure, environmental justice communities were about four times as likely to fall into the group with the highest level of pollution compared to the group with the lowest level.</p> <p>Fabisiak noted that reducing pollution in the census tracts with the dirtiest air to the levels seen in the cleanest ones would likely save even more lives than they estimated in the study, since they only looked at two pollutants and one health effect. Air pollution exposure is associated with <a href="https://www.ehn.org/pittsburghs-asthma-epidemic-and-the-fight-to-stop-it-2575098934.html" target="_self">many other</a> negative health outcomes, <a href="https://www.ehn.org/cancer-in-pittsburgh-pollution-hampers-prevention-progress-2628074364.html" target="_self">including cancer</a>.</p> <p>He also pointed out that they likely underestimated the true disparity between communities because they didn't take into consideration other risk factors for coronary heart disease, like hypertension or diabetes, which also affect environmental justice communities at higher rates.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4ODIyOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTM0MDkyNn0.Enr9FUqWxH4OlShLQAfViWbaljO52ZKQXMNt5eq6itg/img.jpg?width=980" id="6937d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0fe7d5050885c1d7e5aab282b042563e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Pittsburgh Environmental Justice" data-width="1245" data-height="735" />
ZeroHour Climate March in Pittsburgh, 2018. (Credit: Mark Dixon)
Moving beyond crunching the numbers
<p>The Allegheny County Health Department has worked to address environmental justice through the development of an <a href="https://www.alleghenycounty.us/uploadedFiles/Allegheny_Home/Health_Department/Resources/Data_and_Reporting/Chronic_Disease_Epidemiology/2019-Environmental-Justice-Report.pdf" target="_blank">Environmental Justice Index</a>, first published in 2017 and updated in 2019. In addition to looking at poverty rates and racial makeup, the Health Department's index uses additional metrics, like traffic and railroad density, high school grade attainment, home vacancy percentage, and impaired streams, to define the region's environmental justice communities.</p> <p>The index also organizes these environmental justice communities into groups according to their level of need for assistance in addressing environmental problems, from lowest-need to highest-need. </p> <p>In the most recent update to the index, the Health Department organized the census tracts by neighborhood to more readily facilitate working with community organizers, leaders, and policymakers at the municipality level.</p> <p>"We use these data to evaluate the impact of environmental justice on the health of our community and have evaluated the impact of environmental inequities on outcomes including asthma, childhood lead levels, and birth outcomes," Dr. LuAnn Brink, chief epidemiologist at the Allegheny County Health Department and a co-author of the study, told EHN, adding that the Department is currently looking at environmental justice and COVID-19 incidence by community.</p> <p>Heather McClain, the environmental justice organizer with OnePA, said she hopes the Health Department will go beyond just crunching the numbers. </p> <p>"Some of the initiatives aimed at defending these environmental justice communities don't seem to have any teeth," McClain said. </p><p>"It's not enough to just do the studies and give this issue lip service, or even just to work with local officials—government agencies need to be reaching out to organizers and activists on the ground, and really listening to and engaging with the people in these communities whose lives are being impacted by environmental injustice every day."</p><p><em>Banner photo: Youth speaker at a Pittsburgh Climate Strike, 2019. (Credit: Mark Dixon) </em></p>
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05 June 2020
Air pollution from fracking killed an estimated 20 people in Pennsylvania from 2010-2017: Study
Particulate matter pollution emitted by Pennsylvania's fracking wells killed about 20 people between 2010 and 2017, according to a soon-to-be-published study.
<p>Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. after Texas. Between 2010 and 2017, there were 20,677 permitted fracking wells in the state, about half of which had been drilled. Fracking, another name for hydraulic fracturing, is a process of extracting oil and gas from the Earth by drilling deep wells and injecting liquid at high pressure.</p><p>One of fracking's byproducts is particulate matter pollution, also referred to as PM 2.5, which consists of tiny, airborne particles of chemicals that, when inhaled, make their way into the lungs and bloodstream, increasing cancer risk and causing heart and respiratory problems. Exposure to PM 2.5 kills an estimated <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/200000-americans-die-every-year-air-pollution-that-meets-epa-standard-1473187" target="_blank">20,000 Americans</a> each year.</p><p>Previous studies <a href="https://www.ehn.org/fracking-harms-health-new-report--2638917368.html" target="_self">have found</a> that heavily-fracked communities face higher rates of numerous health effects including preterm births, high-risk pregnancies, asthma, and cardiovascular disease—but this is the first to investigate the direct relationship between the local increase in PM 2.5 caused by fracking and deaths from respiratory and heart issues that can be attributed to that increase.</p><p>"Our study is not only looking at negative health outcomes, but investigating how fracking actually caused these deaths through increased air pollution," Ruohao Zhang, a researcher at Binghamton University who specializes in environmental economics and the study's lead author, told EHN.</p><p>Zhang and a team of four other researchers used satellite data from NASA to calculate daily PM 2.5 emissions from all fracking wells in the state over the seven-year period between 2010 and 2017. To determine how many people died as a result of exposure to those emissions, they used county-level mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paired with established methods for calculating how many of the deaths seen in Pennsylvania during that time period were caused by increases in PM 2.5 exposure.</p><p>"The levels of increased PM 2.5 concentrations that came from fracking wells in the state are associated with about 20 additional deaths during that time period," Zhang said. These are deaths that presumably would not have occurred in the absence of air pollution from fracking. The estimated economic loss caused by these additional deaths is around $148 million, according to the study.</p><p>Washington County was the most heavily affected county in the state, with an additional 4.26 deaths caused by PM 2.5 emissions caused by fracking between 2010 and 2017.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM3MzIxNi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTk2OTY2MH0.AZ6ldEqgr8loitc4-9NmZxjTbLErDGRN62IseBNUaU0/img.png?width=980" id="3056e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="88cb1ff8773cf2c4b84892bbcd82354e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1196" data-height="1106">
</p><p>"When we accounted for airborne spillover of pollution from multiple wells in the same area we found that, overall, fracking made the particulate matter pollution of a three-kilometer area around each well [roughly 1.8 miles] higher by between 1.27 percent and 5.67 percent," Zhang said, explaining that the high end of that spectrum usually reflected a higher density of wells in the area.<br></p><p>While the increase in PM 2.5 was highest closest to the fracking wells, Zhang noted that increased levels of the pollutant were also detectable at least as far as 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) downwind of emission sources.</p><p>The study also found that without accounting for "spillover," each individual well caused an increase in PM 2.5 in the surrounding three-kilometer area of between 1.35 percent and 2.19 percent. The higher end of that spectrum generally represents wells in the active drilling phase, while the lower end generally reflects the pollution caused by wells that are already up and running, or in the "production" phase.</p><p>The NASA satellite data the researchers used became available about two years ago. Without it, Zhang said, it would have been impossible to calculate the specific air pollution increase caused by fracking in the state due to a lack of continuous, on-the-ground air monitoring systems.</p><p>"In the U.S., air quality regulations are highly dependent on ground-based monitors, which only cover a small portion of the whole country," Zhang said, noting that this is especially true in rural areas that tend to be home to lots of fracking. Even in places that are covered by ground monitors, he added, monitoring is rarely continuous—they often only take samples every six, eight, or 16 days. </p><p>"There are huge monitoring and data gaps there, allowing for what's referred to as 'unwatched pollution,'" Zhang said. "But this satellite data allows us to continuously monitor air quality everywhere."</p><p>The NASA satellite data itself doesn't directly relay air pollution data. Researchers like Zhang look at the degree to which aerosols in the air prevent the transmission of light to determine concentrations of PM 2.5. While this method has previously been used to estimate PM 2.5 levels across the globe or over specific countries or continents, Zhang said, it's most accurate when used to calculate air pollution in a smaller area, such as a single state.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM3MzIxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDY0MDYxOH0.yHtZJOQNpNaMaWBEiC8yycOYxO2TuSH-7Ihjy4bL0a8/img.jpg?width=980" id="44890" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7f6e59e1c5c1059c351c935384c3f23d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1245" data-height="934">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit..."> A resident of Washington County, Pennsylvania, points to fracking infrastructure near his home. (Credit: Kristina Marusic/EHN)</small></p><p>Based on their findings, Zhang said he would encourage local and state elected officials to regulate the shale gas industry to reduce PM 2.5 emissions and protect the health of residents. In the meantime, he said, people living near fracking wells who are concerned for their health can minimize the impacts of PM 2.5 exposure by keeping their windows closed and not exercising outdoors in close proximity to operational wells.<br></p><p>"I would also tell residents in Pennsylvania that if they learn they have shale gas under their property, they should be aware that their decision about whether or not to lease their land for drilling may impact not only their own health, but the health of their neighbors as well," he added. </p><p>Zhang also pointed out that while their study focused on deaths caused by PM 2.5 pollution from fracking, the extraction also generates many other kinds of pollution—such as <a href="https://www.ehn.org/pennsylvania-fracking-too-close-to-homes-2598167729.html" target="_self">volatile organic compounds</a> and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/oil-gas-fracking-radioactive-investigation-937389/" target="_blank">radioactive waste</a>—that can endanger the health of residents and should be accounted for.</p><p>"We think it's important to know how every kind of pollutant caused by fracking impacts human health," he said. "We hope that future studies will help us more fully understand the impacts of fracking on local communities."</p><p><em>Banner photo: A resident of Washington County, Pennsylvania and his son approach fracking equipment near their property. (Credit: Kristina Marusic/EHN)</em></p>
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29 May 2020
Fracking linked to rare birth defect in horses: Study
A new study has uncovered a link between fracking chemicals in farm water and a rare birth defect in horses—which researchers say could serve as a warning about fracking and human infant health.
<p>The study, published this month in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720320106?dgcid=coauthor#!" target="_blank"><em>Science of the Total Environment</em></a>, complements a growing body of research linking fracking to <a href="https://www.ehn.org/health-impacts-of-fracking-2634432607.html" target="_self">numerous human health effects</a>, including preterm births and high-risk pregnancies. This is believed to be the first study to find fracking chemicals in farm water linked to birth defects in farm animals.</p><p>In 2014, veterinarians at the Cornell University Hospital for Animals in Ithaca, New York, realized that they'd diagnosed five out of 10 foals born on one farm in Pennsylvania with the same rare birth defect. The birth defect, dysphagia, involves difficulty swallowing caused by abnormalities in the throat. Dysphagia causes nursing foals to inhale milk instead of swallowing it, which often results in pneumonia if milk gets into their lungs. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyNzc3Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1Mzc5NzQzOX0.fqReWfFhZdbQmYr_J8SDNTuhiIa6mjiY8tRjyMNGCXk/img.jpg?width=980" id="3743d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="939199cbecfe4255dfb67539e054a122" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2213" data-height="886" />
<p>"We'd hear a gurgling sound when the foals nursed, and we confirmed they were dysphagic by using video endoscopy to look for milk in their tracheas, instead of in their esophagus where it should be," Kathleen Mullen, a veterinarian and the study's lead author, told EHN. "We treated them by passing a feeding tube so they could eat, and if there was pneumonia from the aspiration, we treated that with antibiotics. The foals generally recovered with time, but some never nursed again."</p>
<p>The birth defect is so rare that the rate among the general population isn't known, but <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26538009/" target="_blank">one paper</a> on health outcomes in horses from a large university veterinary neonatal intensive care unit documented just five cases of dysphagia out of 1065 hospitalized foals—a rate of less than 0.5 percent.</p>
<p>The owner of the Pennsylvania farm the horses came from also owned a farm in New York. Both farms used the same commercial horse feed and sourced hay from the same place—but none of the horses born on the New York farm ever had dysphagia. Additionally, several mares that lived on the Pennsylvania farm for the first half of their gestation had healthy foals after being moved to the New York farm mid-pregnancy, while several mares who started out in New York and were moved to Pennsylvania mid-pregnancy had dysphagic foals.</p>
<p>The only difference the farmer identified was that in Pennsylvania, there were 28 fracking wells within seven miles of the farm—two of which were within 1,500 feet of the property's two water wells. There were no fracking wells near the New York farm. The state banned the practice in 2015 following a seven-year review of its health and environmental impacts, during which time there was a moratorium on it.</p>
<p>"We realized this was a really rich study opportunity," Mullen said, "so we decided to look more closely to see if environmental factors were associated with the dysphagia cluster." </p>
<p>Over the next two years, Mullen and colleagues analyzed samples of feed, soil, air, and water, and samples of blood and tissue samples from mares and foals at both farms. During that time, 65 foals were born, 17 of which were dysphagic—all of them from the Pennsylvania farm. </p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzMyNzc3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNjE0MTYxNX0.rGgJSkSPxFE_nUSxXc4KsDyfmO7njsUmwfrCDnA8Ljg/img.jpg?width=980" id="ebca3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bc80ad3fe8b4c46c60cb651b75d5819f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="horses farm" data-width="1245" data-height="698" />
Credit: Paz Arando/Unsplash
<p>They didn't find significant differences in the feed, soil, air, or blood and tissue samples from the two farms. But they did find a significant difference in the water: There were higher levels of four kinds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)—chemicals <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5134738/" target="_blank">commonly used in fracking</a>—in the water at the Pennsylvania farm that weren't seen in water at the New York farm. Those chemicals included fluoranthene, pyrene, 3,6-dimethylphenanthrene, and triphenylene, all of which have been linked to health problems in humans and animals.</p> <p>Following that discovery, the farmer installed a water filtration system, which brought the levels of PAHs in the water on the Pennsylvania farm down to levels comparable to those seen at the New York farm. After that, they saw a marked decrease in the birth of dysphagic foals: In 2014, 26 percent of all of the farmer's foals had been born dysphagic; in 2015, 41 percent were dysphagic; and in 2016, after the installation of the filtration system, the rate fell to 13 percent. </p> <p>The researchers believe the reduction in PAHs in the water, along with a reduction in the amount of time the mares were spending on the Pennsylvania farm during their pregnancy, led to the corresponding reduction in birth defects in the horses—though Mullen added that more research is needed to evaluate the toxicity of those chemicals at the levels they observed.</p> <p>"I think it's a bit soon to say that all farms should have filtration systems installed for their wells," she said, "but this study does provide at least preliminary evidence that well water in places with unconventional natural gas development can see increased levels of PAHs."</p> <p>A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau told EHN the organization hasn't yet had time to fully review the study, but noted that "animal health is among the top priorities for Pennsylvania farmers, and scientific research plays a critical role in helping farmers develop practices to best care for their animals and understand factors that may affect their animals' health."</p> <p>Mullen said she believes the study adds to the growing body of literature linking fracking to problems with human fetal development. </p> <p>"Horses are often sentinels of health risks to humans," she said. "Right now we can only speculate that what we saw in these foals also translates to human health risk, but the implications are certainly worrisome."</p><p><em>Banner photo credit: <a href="https://unsplash.com/photos/FPGuvs1dso0" target="_blank">Soledad Lorieto/Unsplash </a></em></p>
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01 May 2020
Pittsburgh region is a hotspot for air pollution and COVID-19 deaths: Report
PITTSBURGH—Allegheny County, which encompasses Pittsburgh, is among the 10 percent of U.S. counties that have both high relative density of major air pollution sources and high relative rates of COVID-19 deaths, according to a new report.
<p>The <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/kristi-pullen-fedinick/epa-non-enforcement-policy-endangers-millions" target="_blank">report</a>, which used data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the U.S. Census, and the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, was published by the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) in response to a recent <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/air-pollution-linked-with-higher-covid-19-death-rates/" target="_blank">Harvard study</a> that found Americans with COVID-19 who live in places with high levels of air pollution are more likely to die from the disease than people who live in less polluted places. </p><p>Nationally, NRDC's report found that the 10 percent of counties with the highest COVID-19 deaths and the highest density of major pollution sources account for at least 114 million people. Counties in Michigan, Louisiana, Colorado, and other parts of the Northeast top the list along with Allegheny County.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE4MDQ5OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzI4MTk2M30.u7lfWo4O9W86-R8DQtf47r7FavG9COGTwe9cptS-hMs/img.jpg?width=980" id="79498" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c360672685c9f591d51d25afe4cc0fc5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Pittsburgh air pollution COVID-19" data-width="2080" data-height="1378" />
Highlighted counties are those that are in the top quartile for both the number of facilities designated by EPA as having high priority violations of the Clean Air Act per square mile and the rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita. (Credit: NRDC)
<p>Air pollution exposure has long been linked to higher death rates among those with other cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses.</p> <p>Of the nation's 3,141 total counties (or county equivalents), the report places Allegheny County among 310 counties that meet two criteria: they're included in the top 25 percent of all U.S. counties for COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people, and they're in the highest percentile for density of major air pollution sources relative to population size. </p> <p>Facilities considered "major pollution sources" under the Clean Air Act include sites that either emit 100 tons or more of any air pollutant, emit 10 or more tons of a single hazardous air pollutant that causes cancer or other serious health problems, or emit 25 tons per year of two or more hazardous air pollutants. </p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE4MDUwMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMDQ3NDAyMH0.Ihs7RSjl_z4yALeYnGIq2lRfCJTkk5MqOxA-l0fe3xk/img.jpg?width=980" id="e1a8d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="916e3c9c8819fe9754723bb2dede5c6d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Pittsburgh air pollution COVID-19" data-width="2032" data-height="1404" />
Highlighted counties are those in the top quartile for both the number of facilities in chronic violation of the Clean Air Act per square mile and the rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita. (Credit: NRDC)
<p>To date, Allegheny County, which has a population of 1.2 million, has <a href="https://www.alleghenycounty.us/Health-Department/Resources/COVID-19/COVID-19.aspx" target="_blank">counted</a> 1,289 cases and 94 deaths from COVID-19. This means that 7.3 percent of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the county have died from the disease. At the national level, the death rate for positive COVID-19 cases is around <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/coronavirus-death-rate.html" target="_blank">4.3 percent</a>—though all of these numbers are in constant flux as testing capabilities expand.</p> <p>"The patterns of COVID-19 deaths are likely not accidental," Kristi Pullen Fedinick, director of Science and Data for NRDC and lead author of the analysis, said in a statement. "Though where you live should not impact how long you live, we see far too often that health disparities are linked to structural racism and economic inequality."</p> <p>The report also places Allegheny County among the U.S. counties with both the highest relative COVID-19 death rates and the highest density of facilities in chronic violation of the Clean Air Act, and among the counties with both the highest relative COVID-19 death rates and the highest density of facilities that have been identified as having "High Priority Violations" of the Clean Air Act by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). </p> <p>Allegheny County is one of 130 counties that's in the highest percentile for both relative rates of COVID-19 deaths and relative density of facilities in chronic violation of the Clean Air Act, according to the report. Being in "chronic violation" of the Clean Air Act means three consecutive years of violations between 2017 and 2019. </p> <p>Allegheny County is also one of 179 counties that's in the highest percentile for both relative rates of COVID-19 deaths and relative density of facilities EPA has identified as having committed "high priority violations" of the Clean Air Act between 2017 and 2019. "High priority violations" are violations so egregious they indicate a need to step up enforcement, with the potential for federal intervention. </p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE4MDUwNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTk2NzAyOH0.0tIUe5qu0KQv8pf36yhYtN9HaKnZO-jt_rHuuoVVZvQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="652b4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="78175cabf977beb64bcd94ce24e47a12" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Pittsburgh air pollution COVID-19" data-width="2100" data-height="1394" />
Highlighted counties are those in the top quartile for both the number of major facilities per square mile and the rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita. (Credit: NRDC)
<p>The report comes on the heels of the American Lung Association's annual State of the Air report, which ranked the Pittsburgh region the <a href="https://kdkaradio.radio.com/articles/report-pittsburghs-air-quality-still-among-worst-in-country" target="_blank">8th worst in the country</a> for particulate matter pollution. Earlier studies have also placed Allegheny County in the <a href="https://www.ehn.org/cancer-in-pittsburgh-pollution-hampers-prevention-progress-2628074364.html" target="_self">top 2 percent</a> for cancer risk from air pollution nationwide.</p><p>While the region has seen <a href="https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/04/22/coronavirus-shutdown-lowers-air-pollution-almost-overnight-scientists-say/5144707002/" target="_blank">a dip in air pollution during rush hour</a> amidst lockdown, an estimated 58 percent of Pittsburgh's air pollution comes from industrial sources, according to the EPA's National Emissions Inventory. Just 10 industrial facilities are responsible for more than 70 percent of the region's industrial air pollution, according to <a href="http://toxicten.org/" target="_blank">a report</a> from environmental advocacy group PennEnvironment, and many of them—including U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works and Edgar Thomson Plants, Universal Stainless and Alloy Products, ATI Flatrolled Products, and the Cheswick Power Plant—are exempt from the state's coronavirus business closure requirements.</p><p>Meanwhile, the EPA <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/27/trump-pollution-laws-epa-allows-companies-pollute-without-penalty-during-coronavirus" target="_blank">announced</a> at the end of March that it will allow companies to break pollution laws without penalties during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, prompting widespread concern among public health experts. A coalition of environmental advocacy groups, including NRDC, have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/epa-guidance/in-brief-green-groups-sue-epa-over-new-covid-19-pollution-guidance-idUSL1N2C41ZH" target="_blank">sued the agency</a> in response.</p><p>"Instead of easing the pain of people, this administration is focused on easing the pain of polluters," Gina McCarthy, president and CEO of NRDC, said in a statement. "There is no excuse for giving polluters a free pass while loved ones all over this country are dying."</p><p>The Allegheny County Health Department, which oversees local air quality locally, has <a href="https://patch.com/pennsylvania/pittsburgh/achd-air-pollution-enforcement-not-impacted-epa-policy" target="_blank">promised</a> that it will continue enforcing clean air standards in the Pittsburgh region as usual. The Department did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the NRDC report.</p><p><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor">Banner photo: The Pennsylvania National Guard deploying to assist at a nursing home. (Credit: The Pennsylvania National Guard) </em></p>
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23 April 2020
Oil and gas methane emissions in US are at least 15% higher than we thought
Methane emissions are vastly undercounted at the state and national level because we're missing accidental leaks from oil and gas wells, according to a new study.
<p>
Methane is a greenhouse gas that, when initially released, is about
<a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/MethaneMatters" target="_blank">87 times more potent</a> than carbon dioxide at driving global warming (it doesn't last as long in the atmosphere, however, so when averaged over a century methane is about <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/understanding-global-warming-potentials" target="_blank">30 times</a> more potent than carbon dioxide at driving global warming). Methane causes about <a href="https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-other-important-greenhouse-gas" target="_blank">25 percent</a> of human-driven climate change according to the Environmental Defense Fund, and the oil and gas industry is the leading emitter of methane. Last year, global atmospheric methane reached <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-06/methane-emissions-hit-a-new-record-and-scientists-can-t-say-why" target="_blank">a 20-year high</a>.
</p><p>
The new study, conducted by researchers at Cornell University and published in the journal
<a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.0c00863" target="_blank"><em>Environmental Science and Technology</em></a>, looked at 589,175 operator reports on methane leaks from both fracking and conventional oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania from 2014-2018. The researchers found that methane emissions in the state are at least 15 percent higher than previously thought—and they believe a similar under-counting is happening at the national level.
</p><p>
"Another 15 percent of methane going into the atmosphere that we didn't know about is very significant for climate change in the short term," Tony Ingraffea, professor emeritus of engineering at Cornell and the study's lead author, told EHN.
</p><p>
Ingraffea also authored a
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-011-0061-5" target="_blank">groundbreaking study</a> in 2011 that determined methane emissions from fracking accelerate global warming more than carbon dioxide emissions from either coal or conventional oil and gas. Pennsylvania is the second largest producer of natural gas in the country after Texas. Ingraffea's study comes on the heels of a study published this week <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/17/eaaz5120" target="_blank">by Harvard researchers</a> that found methane emissions in the Permian basin in Texas and New Mexico are more than two times higher than federal estimates.
</p><p>
Methane exposure is rarely a threat to human health except under extreme circumstances, but "as a climate change exacerbator," Ingraffea said, "it affects the health of every human on the planet."
</p><p>
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) has required all oil and gas well operators in the state to measure the amount of methane leaking from producing wells once per quarter since 2014. Fracking wells are required to submit quarterly reports on their findings, while conventional wells must submit reports at least once a year. No other state has such extensive methane leak monitoring, and this study, which took three years to complete, marks the first time the data has ever been analyzed.
</p><p>
While other studies have estimated methane leaks from oil and gas, such as flying over gas wells in aircrafts with methane detection equipment, this is the first to use data that's been self-reported by oil and gas well operators.
</p><p>
"This is a profoundly important database," Ingraffea said. "There's nothing comparable happening in any other part of America."
</p><iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ch4-concentration" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe><p>
Ingraffea and his colleagues found that the Pennsylvania oil and gas wells that reported methane leaks over the five year period emitted an average of about 56 gigagrams (or 56 billion grams) of methane into the atmosphere every year. These emissions are not currently included in the state's methane emissions inventory.
</p><p>
PA DEP director of communications Neil Shader told EHN the agency is still reviewing the study's findings and can't yet speculate about what actions it may take in response.
</p><p>
A
<a href="https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-studies" target="_blank">series of studies</a> conducted by the Environmental Defense Fund previously estimated that around 10 teragrams (or 10 trillion grams) of methane are leaking from the oil and gas sector across the country each year. "The amount of methane coming from leaks in Pennsylvania is a relatively small subset of that," Ingraffea said. "But if we take a wild guess and extrapolate what we're seeing in Pennsylvania to all of America, we're looking at three million wells and 20 times the methane emissions we saw in the Pennsylvania data."
</p><p>
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration has
<a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-08/documents/frn_oil_and_gas_review_2060-at90_nprm_20190828revised_d.pdf" target="_blank">proposed rolling back existing methane regulations</a> at the federal level through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA's rule, which is not yet finalized, aims to lift rules from the Obama Administration that required companies to detect and fix methane leaks. In a statement, EPA Administrator said the revisions would remove "unnecessary and duplicative regulatory burdens from the oil and gas industry."
</p><p>
"EPA is moving in the wrong direction," Ingraffea said, adding that a major part of the problem is a failure to accurately measure our current methane emissions.
</p><p>
"Missing 10 to 15 percent of methane emissions would be like saying we're off about carbon dioxide emissions by factor of two," he added. "No one would accept that. Everyone would be saying, 'We're in big trouble.' Being off this much in our methane accounting is just as important."
</p>
Unreliable reporting
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE1OTk5NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Nzc2MTQ0OH0.PQMNttVkYNuUs2NgbQkcWGsqGl2qXPnRzhpupdmWYX8/img.jpg?width=980" id="333ef" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b0c864936c0cc76c70f365c30481b3b3" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Fracking Marcellus Shale Pennsylvania" data-width="1145" data-height="612" />Marcellus Shale rig and gas well operation in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania. (Credit: WCN 24/7/flickr)
<p> Ingraffea noted that their calculations are likely on the low end of true methane emissions from oil and gas well leaks in Pennsylvania. </p><p> There are around 132,000 operating oil and gas wells in the state, but fewer than half of those reported data on methane leaks to the PA DEP as required. Of the some 60,000 wells that submitted reports, about half of those didn't actually include any data, citing various reasons they couldn't take measurements on methane leaks (like inability to access the well site). The study also only looked at data from wells that are actively producing—it didn't account for methane leaks from abandoned wells or wells that were still being actively drilled or fracked (and not yet producing). </p><p> Shader said that the wells missing data are conventional wells, not fracking wells, and include things like home-use wells and wells from small operators. "DEP often receives data from these operators on paper, and it must be entered manually, which can cause delays in making the data available electronically," he said, "however, DEP has and will continue to take enforcement actions against operators that do not comply with the reporting requirements." </p><p> The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association (PIOGA) declined to comment on whether the industry is working to resolve these issues with reporting. </p><iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/methane-emissions-by-sector-gg-coe" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe><p> The researchers also noted some major issues with the reliability of the data. For example, some wells that reported large quantities of methane leaks for several years in a row would suddenly report none after being purchased by a different operator the following year. One likely reason for this is a lack of consistency in testing techniques, Ingraffea said. Operators aren't all required to use the same testing equipment or methods. </p><p> "Not only is much of the data unreliable," he said, "but I will go on record as saying that some of the data being reported to the state is downright fraudulent." </p><p> There's also no minimum reporting requirement, so some operators would note that the emissions were too low to report, but the researchers have no way of knowing what threshold they used to determine that. All of these factors likely mean the reported emissions the researchers analyzed are underestimates. </p><p> Ingraffea said there should be a requirement to measure and report on methane leaks in a consistent manner and "super emitters" should be targeted and required to fix leaking equipment. </p><p> "Most wells aren't leaking," he said. "If they're operating correctly, they shouldn't leak. Maybe just 10 percent of all unconventional wells are leaking, for example, but they're not all leaking the same amount, either. Some leak just a little, and some, the super emitters, leak like sieves. DEP should require those to be fixed." </p><p> Many of those super emitters are coalbed methane wells, most of which are located in the Southwestern part of the state where a majority of the state's fracking also occurs. </p><p> "DEP is also concerned with these 'super emitters,' Shader said, "and is exploring ways to identify them, as well as being interested in suggestions for identifying them." </p><p> He added that DEP is aware that methane leaks are also a problem at abandoned wells (which were not looked at as part of the Cornell study), but that the agency "has very few resources to devote to plugging," and hopes initiatives like <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/governor-wolf-restore-pennsylvania-is-still-the-only-comprehensive-plan-to-address-community-infrastructure-needs/" target="_blank">Governor Wolf's Restore PA initiative</a>, which would provide funding for critical state infrastructure including plugging abandoned wells, will help address the leaks. </p>Lack of regulations, lack of accounting
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE1OTk1NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjMxMDYxMX0.X7ipVFZbopGr4KWRiO6Fn6gpj8tpmC2m4dYDidyEC8k/img.jpg?width=980" id="d1713" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6d410d248831a4f1689cfcfb78770438" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Clean Air Pennsylvania rally" data-width="1245" data-height="489" />Rally and testimonies regarding the EPA hearing on methane emissions in Pittsburgh in 2015. (Credit: Mark Dixon/flickr)
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzE1OTk4MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MjM2NzQ0Mn0.7-Oa5O7qpqWeWY3v37HohjmtslA4ujaCrcGMTA1ElLo/img.jpg?width=980" id="216d8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3ab2007386c2e4cb7dc422e1b10be247" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Methane clean air Pennsylvania" data-width="799" data-height="440" />
(Credit: Mark Dixon/flickr)
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<p>In December, Pennsylvania's Environmental Quality Board <a href="https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/proposed-methane-emissions-rule-passes-pennsylvania-environmental-quality-board/" target="_blank">voted in favor</a> of a new set of regulations aimed at reducing emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) like benzene, toluene, and other chemicals linked to cancer and other health effects from fracking sites. The rule is slated to be enacted following a 60-day public comment period, which the PA DEP said is expected to occur sometime this year, "likely next month."</p><p>Governor Tom Wolf's office, which drafted the regulations, <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/pennsylvania-moves-forward-with-governor-wolfs-plan-to-control-methane-and-other-air-pollution/" target="_blank">claimed</a> the new rule would also indirectly reduce methane emissions by more than 75,000 tons (about 68 gigagrams) per year, but environmental advocates <a href="https://apnews.com/13d588e6f2e84f51a335741ec776cdcf" target="_blank">expressed frustration</a> that the rule doesn't directly address methane leaks.</p><p>"We have known for years that PA DEP's emissions inventory, which relies on industry-reported data, significantly understates the actual emissions coming from the Pennsylvania oil and gas sector," Joseph Otis Minott, executive director and chief counsel for Philadelphia-based advocacy group Clean Air Council, told EHN. "We are encouraged to see that DEP estimates its proposed existing source rule will reduce over 75,600 [tons per year] of methane emissions and would respectfully urge the Department to open a public comment period on the proposal as soon as possible."</p><p>Ingraffea said there have been "hundreds of reports and papers looking at methane emissions published since my first paper came out in 2011...and the scientific consensus is that what EPA is reporting to all of us, and to Congress, and to the President significantly underestimates the actual methane emissions from the oil and gas industry."</p>
<p><em>Banner photo: </em><em>Residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania tour a producing fracking well pad. (Credit: Kristina Marusic/EHN)</em></p><p><em>Editor's note: The story has been updated to clarify Pennsylvania's annual methane leak reporting requirements.</em></p>
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15 April 2020
When coal plants decrease pollution or shut down, people have fewer asthma attacks
Asthma attacks decreased significantly among residents near coal-fired power plants after the plants shut down or upgraded their emission controls, according to a new study.
<p>Coal-fired power plants emit air pollution that includes mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter. Living near coal-fired power plants is <a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-09-health-effects-coal-burning-power-unknown.html" target="_blank">linked to</a> higher rates of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and cancer, and premature death.</p><p>According to a study published this week in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-0600-2" target="_blank"><em>Nature Energy</em></a>, when those plants shut down or upgrade their emissions controls, rescue inhaler use, emergency room visits and hospitalizations for asthma all decrease among nearby residents. The study is the first to show decreased inhaler use following a reduction in pollution from coal plants, and builds on previous evidence that living near these facilities leads to increased asthma exacerbations.</p><p>The study was conducted between 2012 and 2017 in Kentucky, which ranks among the top U.S. states for air pollution from power generation. Researchers focused on Jefferson County, where one coal-fired power plant shut down and three others upgraded emission controls around the same time, and found that inhaler use, ER visits, and hospitalizations all fell—in some zip codes by up to 55 percent—following the reduction in emissions.</p><p>"We saw about three fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations per quarter per zip code," Joan Casey, assistant professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and lead author on the study, told EHN. "That translates into about 400 prevented asthma-related hospital visits per year across the county."</p><p>While many studies have looked at health impacts associated with living near coal-fired power plants, this is the first to use digital sensors to track rescue inhaler use among the same group of people before and after a drastic reduction in emissions. They did this by attaching sensors to rescue inhalers distributed among Louisville residents with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, commonly referred to as COPD, starting in 2012. The sensors tracked the date, time, and location of each inhaler puff.</p><p>The researchers had data for 207 participants before and after the installation of "scrubbers," or emission reduction equipment, at the three coal-fired power plants in 2016. Comparing people to themselves before and after the pollution reduction allowed them to control for factors like socioeconomics, underlying conditions, indoor air quality, age, etc., which is harder to do with hospital data, Casey said.</p><p>In the months following scrubber installation, Casey and her colleagues saw an average reduction of inhaler use of about 17 percent, with continued declining use after that. </p><p>"A lot of studies have shown that populations living near coal-fired power plants have higher rates of respiratory hospitalizations," Casey said, "but it's been difficult to attribute those directly to coal-fired power plants because poor communities of color tend to be located closer to these facilities in the U.S., and they have a higher burden of diseases like asthma and COPD."</p><p>Because of the "natural experiment" created by the drastic change in emissions and the addition of the inhaler data, Casey believes their research more definitively links asthma attacks and resulting hospital visits to unchecked emissions from coal-fired power plants. </p><p>"All of that information together convinced us that what we were seeing was probably real," she said.</p>
Rolling back regulations
<p>Coal-fired power plants have been decommissioned at increasing rates each year as the cost of other power sources, like natural gas and renewables, become cheaper.</p> <p>As of December 2018 (the most current data available), there were <a href="https://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/html/epa_04_01.html" target="_blank">336</a> predominantly coal-fired power plants still in operation in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.</p> <p>It's likely that similar improvements in asthma outcomes occurred in communities across the U.S. during the same time period of the study, thanks to a sweeping change in pollution regulations.</p> <p>In 2014, coal-fired power plants accounted for 63 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions in the nation. The 2012 federal Mercury and Air Toxics (MATS) rule required all coal-fired plants to install scrubbers that reduce toxics like mercury and sulfur dioxide in emissions by 2015 (or 2016 if they got a special extension). During 2015, plants that had recently installed this equipment reduced their sulfur dioxide emissions by <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=29812" target="_blank">49 percent</a>. </p> <p>"I think our findings are exciting," Casey said, "because we're seeing that the cost to install these scrubbers can be made back quickly just through prevented healthcare visits. We're only looking at asthma here, but we know there are other related health outcomes as well, so the benefits are likely far greater than what we're estimating."</p> <p>But despite these benefits—and the fact that these pollution controls have already been successfully installed at coal-fired power plants across the country—the current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administration intends to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/the-epa-is-about-to-change-a-rule-cutting-mercury-pollution-the-industry-doesnt-want-it/2020/02/16/8ebac4e2-4470-11ea-b503-2b077c436617_story.html" target="_blank">roll back the MATS rule</a>, undoing the regulations that have kept people in places like Jefferson County, Kentucky, healthier. </p> <p>The administration also recently <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/489753-epa-suspends-enforcement-of-environmental-laws-amid-coronavirus" target="_blank">announced plans</a> to suspend enforcement of environmental regulations during the coronavirus pandemic.</p> <p>"It's disappointing to see the EPA suspend enforcement of environmental laws during the COVID-19 pandemic," Casey said, "especially as we're starting to see stark disparities in COVID deaths among the same groups—communities of color and the poor—that face the greatest respiratory harm from pollution, including coal-fired power plants. We should be tightening environmental regulations, not abandoning them during this time."</p><p><em>Banner photo: The Mill Creek Generation Station coal plant in Louisville, Kentucky. (Credit: William Alden/flickr)</em></p>
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