Lynne Peeples
If everything goes as planned, Angie Nordstrum’s son may look out the window of his second-grade classroom at Red Hawk Elementary this fall and see a full-scale natural gas drilling operation.
He and his classmates, Nordstrum noted, will then have no choice but to breathe emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), benzene and other toxic pollutants — even while they tend to a 1,500-square-foot organic garden at their LEED-certified school.
“This is so disturbing on so many levels,” said Nordstrum, of Erie, Colo.
Natural gas production is rapidly increasing across the country — from Pennsylvania to Colorado. According to many public health experts, the natural and manmade chemicals released during drilling, hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) and reinjection steps are making more and more people sick. Adding to the concern are new findings showing the associated air pollution, and the dangers of exposure to very small doses of certain chemicals. Developing fetuses and young children can be the most vulnerable to these effects.
In addition to the pollutants, and the intense noise, a natural gas operation looks like a “Christmas tree on steroids,” noted Nordstrum, a member of the grassroots group of parents, Erie Rising, which is battling the gas wells.
“So much is being said in news about how this is the new clean fuel,” she said. “It’s not.”
Water pollution has been the focus of the fracking debate on the East Coast, however, air pollution may be the main source of exposure in many areas. According to a new study in Colorado that sampled air quality over the course of three years, people living within a half-mile of an oil or gas well were exposed to a number of toxic chemicals including benzene, a known carcinogen. VOC levels measured five times the safety limit set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“For children, the potential cancer risk is a serious consideration. They are more sensitive, exposed at younger ages and for longer periods of time,” said Lisa McKenzie, lead researcher on the study at the Colorado School of Public Health.
McKenzie said the results also pointed to potentially significant respiratory and neurological effects. For children, this could mean more headaches, sore throats and asthma. “Children are more sensitive to all of these pollutants, whether traditional ozone, dust or particulates caused by hydrocarbons leaking out of the wells or the diesel trucks carrying the materials,” added Sonya Lunder, a senior analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, whose goal is to protect public health and the environment.
Lunder called the new findings “sobering” and emphasized the need for further study. “There are an incredible number of other industrial chemicals involved,” she said. But research is complicated by the fact that these chemicals tend to vary from well to well, with names and quantities not always disclosed by the fracking company.
But, not everyone is convinced of the associated airborne risks. “It is important to put this paper into context,” said Tom Amontree, executive vice president of the America’s Natural Gas Alliance. “Not a single human being’s health was evaluated here.”
“Natural gas companies take seriously the health and safety of their workers and the communities in which they operate,” he added.
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