Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019 - 19

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As natural gas liquids, they are very valuable, and Pennsylvania is building the first of several ethane cracker plants
in order to create these plastic precursors. The unfortunate
problem is that ethane cracker plants are heavy air polluters and
also feed a growing problem of plastic pollution in our oceans.
The industry sees Pennsylvania like a giant bowl of natural gas
liquids and fracking is the straw.
A big problem is that the fracking wells are not near the
ocean where they can transport natural gas liquids to other
locations. As a result, companies have built pipelines, many
through eminent domain, through people's backyards in order to
transport natural gas liquids to Marcus Hook, a local port with
access to the Delaware Bay and Atlantic Ocean. The controversial
$5.1 billion Mariner East pipeline is a 350-mile pipeline which
will encourage even more fracking in the state and put volatile
natural gas liquids within a blast zone of people's homes.
All of this is built on the Faustian deal of jobs created as
we drill more wells and produce more fossil fuel energy for heat
and plastics. Our state is already the third leading producer
of greenhouse gases, which is dramatically contributing to
climate change. Methane, the gas product of fracking, is a
potent greenhouse gas and is 86 times more heat trapping than
carbon dioxide, the other major greenhouse gas produced by
burning fossil fuels. Climate change and greenhouse gases are
largely ignored by our state legislators who can only see the short
term bonanza of fracked gas. The DEP has happily granted
over 27,000 well permits since 2011 all with the blessing of
state leaders. So when the gas industry and government are
aligned together, there is really no concern about inconvenient
truths like the crisis of childhood cancers or contaminated air
or water pollution.
Despite many health complaints lodged against gas well
drillers, the industry has essentially silenced the opposition by
having residents sign "non-disclosure" agreements (NDA) which
include no participation in independent health research studies
or public disclosure of health problems. This is frequently
conditional in exchange for getting water buffaloes so that
you can drink water. Somehow, it is considered legal to force
people to sign these NDAs even though clean water is essential
for life. Really, what choice do they have? And they can't sell
their property which is worthless with contaminated well water.
Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution states,
"The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the
preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values
of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are
the common property of all the people, including generations yet
to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall
conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."
Whatever is going on in Washington County is not good,
and a violation of the state Constitution. The old Iroquois
Indian principle states that our decisions today should be made
in the context of sustaining our children seven generations
from now. It is hard to justify the pollution that currently is
having an impact on our children today. And unless we change
our dependence on fossil fuels, it will have an impact on their
children seven generations hence. *

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Fall/Winter 2019 : Philadelphia Medicine 19

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Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Philadelphia Medicine Fall/Winter 2019