Tom Pike: Leaders aren't helpless and must take action on fracking

On Aug. 15, researchers with the University of Pittsburgh and the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced they had found strong links between lymphoma and fracking, as well as asthma and fracking. Lymphoma was found to be 5-7 times as common in people who lived near fracking well pads as those who didn’t.

The announcement capped several years of research involving data from tens of thousands of individuals. Dr. Edward Ketyer, with Physicians for Social Responsibility, described the report as “a bombshell.”

As someone who was in the room when the results were announced, I can tell you that the mood was tense.

People who lost loved ones were looking for answers and closure but did not find it in the clinical language of the research scientists. Questions grew pointed, with many in the audience essentially asking, “We know fracking is dangerous; we’ve been saying that for years. What are you going to do about it?”

The Pitt researchers, of course, are not policymakers and did not create this problem. Nor did they operate fracking wells. But the people who are responsible did not show up to the meeting.

I call on the elected officials and policymakers of Pennsylvania to change this. Watch the recording of the call. Listen to the pain in the voices of those who attended. These people are trying to talk to you.

The Department of Environmental Protection has the authority under the Clean Streams Act to regulate how close fracking infrastructure can be located to water bodies. It should exercise this authority for the first time.

The state Legislature, of course, holds the power to solve the problem. But state Senate President Pro-tempore Kim Ward, who represents Penn-Trafford, has put up roadblocks for any legislation that seeks to put buffers between fracking wells and homes. She must allow bills like House Bill 170 to make it to a floor vote in the Senate. (Ward’s office has 1.5 stars out of 5 on Google reviews.)

But our local elected officials are not helpless either. Here in Penn Township, Protect PT has called on our township commissioners to vote on an ordinance that would create health and safety buffers between fracking infrastructure and our homes, schools and day cares. As long as the ordinance is not exclusionary, the Penn Township commissioners have the legal power to enact buffer zones. But they have, so far, chosen not to adequately protect their constituents.

Fracking is not an abstract problem; it is an ongoing danger to human health and well-being of families in the Penn-Trafford community and statewide. The Pitt study is not the first study to show this, and it won’t be the last.

Elected officials and regulators at all levels of government must stop feigning helplessness and start taking action.