CECIL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Residents stirred in their seats as they anxiously awaited the answer to months of uncertainty over the future of oil and gas development in their township.
For years, these Washington County residents have been fighting for increased setbacks from oil and gas well pads after recent studies demonstrated a link between health issues and fracking.
And now, the votes were in. The Cecil Township Board of Supervisors voted 3-to-2 on Nov. 4 to increase the minimum setback distance of future unconventional oil and gas wells to 2,500 feet away from protected structures like homes and businesses and 5,000 feet from schools and hospitals.
Cheers erupted from the room. People jumped up and down and hugged each other while others yelled sweet thanks to the township supervisors
“I finally feel like we’re going in the right direction,” said Michelle Stonemark, a Cecil Township resident who lives 530 feet from a Range Resources well pad. She has spoken at numerous board of supervisor public hearings for the ordinance, discussing her harrowing experience of living so close to oil and gas activity.
Cecil Township is one of few communities in western Pennsylvania to increase well pad setbacks in response to new evidence that shows increased health risks connected to living near unconventional oil and gas activity.
As other residents in other townships struggle for more distance, environmental organizations see Cecil Township as a success story that could help spur what they see as a necessary change at the state level.
Cecil Township
The first unconventional oil and gas well in Cecil Township was drilled in 2009 on Troyer Farms, in one of the most rural areas in the township. Since then, the township has gained more than 3,000 residents between 2010 to 2020.
As the population grew, so too did oil and gas activity, which, in turn, moved closer to residential areas. Cecil Township’s minimum setback distance from protected structures was 500 feet and 1,000 feet from schools and hospitals, established in an ordinance in 2011.
The board of supervisors was supposed to update the ordinance in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the process. Since then, increased complaints from residents living close to wells have driven a need for change.
Stonemark is one of these residents. She moved to the township in 2012, but her family has owned 30 acres of land in Cecil Township since 2010. Her father gave her a portion of the land to build a home in 2018.
Shortly after the Stonemarks began construction on their house, Range Resources’ Augustine George well pad was approved to go in 530 feet away from their property. Since then, Stonemark has lived in “constant fear” of using her outdoor areas.
Her house vibrates when drilling occurs and loud noises are frequent, often waking her up at night. The smell of diesel is also constant and she spends countless hours worrying about her children’s health.
Stonemark raised her concerns with Range Resources, which prompted the company to conduct sound studies. These studies found that the well complied with the township’s noise limits. Nevertheless, Stonemark began recording instances of loud noise and bringing them directly to the township.
Other residents described the noise coming from the pad as “beyond what the human body can take.”
“It’s hard to tell everybody here what it might sound like but it’s basically a helicopter, about 100 feet over your head, that never lands,” said Merle Lesko, during one public hearing at Cecil Township. He lives 600 feet from the Augustine George well pad.
Setbacks
Drilling into the Marcellus Shale began two decades ago in Washington County, but discussion about how safe it was to live near this new type of oil and gas activity didn’t begin until years later.
The state extended the minimum setback from homes and private water wells from 200 feet to 500 feet in 2012 under what would become known as Act 13. The setback change was part of a comprehensive overhaul of the state’s oil and gas law to address the rapidly growing Marcellus Shale industry.
Since then, there’s been little movement at the state level to further regulate the industry, even as a growing number of scientific studies show the negative impacts of living close to fracking.
Concerns were first raised in a 2019 story published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that found several young adults in Canon-McMillan School District, in Washington County, had a rare bone cancer called Ewing sarcoma. Out of the six individuals with the disease, five were from Cecil Township and three died.
The Post-Gazette identified 27 more cases of Ewing sarcoma in Washington, Greene, Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health later determined these cases did not signify a cancer cluster. The report, however, did find increased incidence rates of some types of radiation-related cancers — breast cancer, colon cancer, gallbladder cancer and leukemia — in Washington County and in Canon-McMillon when compared with state incidence rates.
Janice Blancok, a Cecil Township resident, lost her 19-year-old son Luke to Ewing sarcoma in 2016, less than two years after he was first diagnosed. Blancok attended most public hearings for Cecil Township’s new oil and gas ordinance to advocate for increased setbacks.
“Don’t let the current setback in our township ordinance continue to put our children, and grandchildren, your children and your grandchildren, in harm’s way,” Blancok said, at the final hearing. “I am pleading with you to do the right thing and vote yes to the 2,500-foot setback.”
The 2,500-foot setback was first recommended by a statewide grand jury report released in 2020 by then-state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. The report, the result of a two-year investigation, condemned the state’s Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health for failing to protect residents from the negative impacts of the unconventional oil and gas industry.
“Everything we’ve seen confirms that all the impacts of fracking activity are magnified by proximity,” the report stated. “The closer you live to a gas well, compressor station or pipeline, the more likely you are to suffer ill effects.”
The grand jury recommended a 2,500-foot well pad setback but acknowledged that even that distance may not be enough. “We do not believe such a modest buffer zone is too much to ask when it comes to people’s health and homes,” the report said.
Last year, the University of Pittsburgh released the results of three studies on asthma, childhood cancer and birth outcomes in communities with unconventional gas development.
The studies were commissioned by the state Department of Health to further address community concerns about the health impacts of living near fracking. The studies looked at observational health records from 1990-2020 in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
The Pitt studies found that people living within 10 miles of an unconventional well during the production stage were four to five times more likely to see their asthma worsen. The study also found that children living within one mile of a well had a five to seven times greater chance of developing lymphoma than those living within five miles of a well.
The oil and gas industry, for its part, criticized the grand jury’s findings and the results of the Pitt study. According to the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the Pitt study “relied on a very limited proximity metric which doesn’t identify any exposure pathways, assumes constant emissions and ignores critical factors like weather, work, air dispersion, lifestyle choices and other sources.”
The coalition said Cecil Township’s decision to instate 2,500-foot setbacks is “not grounded in science or public safety.”
“Let’s get the facts straight. There is no scientific reasoning behind a 2,500-foot setback. It was only suggested in a politically-motivated Attorney General Report that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection cited as ‘factually and legally inaccurate’ and ‘a disservice to the citizens of the Commonwealth,’” the statement said.
West Deer Township
Residents in communities like West Deer Township in Allegheny County are also fighting for “safe setbacks.” Unlike Cecil Township, however, well pads in West Deer may be allowed even closer than before after the township’s Board of Supervisors revised its zoning ordinance in September.
For some residents like first-time homeowner Nicole Howell, the latest changes to the ordinance make her question her family’s future in West Deer Township. Howell, who moved to West Deer last year and recently got married, says she never would’ve considered living here if she knew what she does now.
“There will be two operational fracking pads within a mile of my house which means that the children I was planning on having are already five to seven times more likely to develop lymphoma,” Howell said. “Do I risk the health of my family or do I sell the home that I just bought at a financial loss?”
The ordinance, passed by a 3-to-1 vote, established a 750-foot setback distance from principal-use structures — residences and businesses. The previous ordinance, updated in 2012, set a 600-foot setback from a well pad to any structure, said Josh Wiegand, a West Deer Township supervisor, which included a garage, barn or a children’s playset.
The ordinance extended the setback distance by 150 feet, but changed how it’s measured, which is what worries members of the Concerned Residents of West Deer Township, or CROWD.
“You could have a well pad that’s 100 feet from the back end of your lot and, as long as your residence is 750 feet from the well pad, it would be allowed, even though your children play back there and you have a garage back there,” said Jack Rearick, a West Deer resident and member of CROWD.
CROWD is advocating for safe fracking within the community and wants a 1,500-foot well pad setback. Rearick said the group was started by two residents in 2020 when the first unconventional well in West Deer was proposed less than 600 feet away from a number of homes. The proposed well was about a quarter-mile from Rearick’s house which compelled him to join the group.
According to Wiegand, the board had been looking to update the outdated ordinance for several years. Wiegand was the only supervisor who voted against the revised ordinance.
The revised ordinance now allows drilling in R2 semi-suburban residential districts and R3 suburban residential districts, which Wiegands says are the two of the most populated areas in the township.
It also designated oil and gas infrastructure — like pipelines and gas dehydrators and compressors — as a permitted use instead of a conditional use application, meaning no public hearings are required.
According to Joseph Shook, assistant manager and zoning officer for West Deer Township, the ordinance also imposed new requirements for oil and gas development that weren’t previously specified.
This includes a mandatory sound study conducted by applicants before development; restricted hours of operation; prohibited well pad operators from using exclusively residential roads; required information on well pad operators who can be contacted seven days a week, 24 hours a day to address emergencies, complaints and concerns and forbid the disposal of waste of any kind on site.
Two unconventional wells were permitted in West Deer Township earlier this year and are in the early stages of development.
Wiegand says it is unlikely the board will be making changes to the ordinance anytime soon, as it has other matters to handle. CROWD members, however, will continue to push for change at the board of supervisor meetings.
Harrisburg
As residents struggle at the local level, environmental organizations are advocating for increased setbacks at the state level that could benefit all Pennsylvania communities.
Environmental advocacy groups Clean Air Council and Environmental Integrity Project recently filed a rulemaking petition to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Environmental Quality Board asking the agency to increase the minimum well pad setbacks distance to 3,281 feet from any building or drinking water well.
The rulemaking petition, filed Oct. 22, also calls for a 5,280-foot setback from schools and hospitals and a 750-foot setback from any surface water. The petition would allow landowners to waive the setback distance if they get approval from all landowners within the setback zone.
Included in the petition are 42 peer-reviewed scientific studies that encompass over a decade of research across various states detailing the impacts of fracking, like air pollution, water contamination, public health impacts and threats to agriculture.
The coalition has been working on the rulemaking petition to change state law since the group was formed five years ago. According to Lisa Hallowell, senior attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, oil and gas companies would still be able to drill new wells because of technological advancements in drilling laterals, or the horizontal direction of a wellbore that extends from the vertical shaft.
“Because companies have now been widely advertising that they can drill much longer laterals, even four to five miles out, we don’t think this should affect their ability to get you oil and gas,” Hallowell said.
Axis Energy Services drilled a 23,700-foot lateral — equivalent to 4.48 miles — in Ohio in 2023. Range Resources also drilled a 22,000-foot-long lateral, roughly 4.2 miles, around that same time period in the Marcellus Shale region.
The rulemaking petition was approved by the EQB on Nov. 21. Next, the coalition will give a presentation to the board where the DEP can provide input. If the EQB decides to proceed, it will draft a proposed rulemaking petition that will be released for public comment. Hallowell expects the process to continue into next year.
According to Hallowell, changes to setbacks at the state level would protect all Pennsylvania residents more quickly than local ordinances could.
“Cecil is a success story for the people that wanted these increased protections, but that was so many years in the making and so much work,” she said. “It would take forever to try and replicate that one by one in every single township.
Cecil Township landowners
Tom Casicola, chairperson of the Cecil Township Board of Supervisors, is aware of how this new ordinance could impact Cecil Township landowners. When public hearings started in April, he received calls from landowners who were concerned about their ability to lease and profit from their mineral rights.
That’s why the new ordinance allows landowners to waive the 2,500-foot setback if all neighboring properties within that distance sign off. It puts the responsibility of finding a location back on the company. “If property owners want to lease, then let them negotiate and leave us out of it,” Casicola said.
Cecil Township’s landmark decision could be appealed by oil and gas companies and landowners in court if they claim it violates their rights. Despite this, Casicola feels the increased setback was the right decision.
For years, oil and gas operators have been trying to reduce the noise impacts on residents, but according to Casicola “it wasn’t good enough” so the township had to intervene.
The new setbacks won’t help Stonemark and her family, who will continue to live close to the Augustine George well pad and remain subject to constant drilling noises and vibrations. But the passing of the 2,500-foot setback was a win she couldn’t help but smile about.
“Honestly, I feel validated because, finally, they’re listening to the things I’ve been saying for years and years and years. People believe me and the township believes me,” Stonemark said. “Nobody should have to deal with what I dealt with and am still dealing with. Nobody should have to go through that, nobody should have to worry about their kids’ health.”
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
