Help Braddock Residents Resist Fracking at Edgar Thomson Mill!

We are sharing a post from from North Braddock Residents for Our Future. All opinions and claims are their own, but we are delighted to share their post and hope that the NoPetroPA readers will consider supporting their cause.

“The industrial area makes this unique. It allows us to kind of blend in with the current activity that’s there.” -Merrion Oil and Gas spokesperson [StateImpact, 12/27/17]

 

Let’s make sure that the ACHD, DEP and Merrion Oil know we are here.

What Can I do?

Contribute to our legal fight!!
For attorney–client privilege purposes we cannot disclose our strategy, but we are on it! And it takes $$$. We are currently working on getting a fiscal sponsor, but in the meantime every dollar you contribute means that we will be more capable of fighting the fight immediately and actively.
You can give money to the legal campaign right now by replying to this email. We will send you instructions on how to send money over Paypal , U.S. mail or simply dropping off a check/cash.

Show up!
Join us at the next Allegheny County Health Department Meeting March 7 2018 at 12:30pm to be held at the Main Conference Room, ACHD Administrative Offices, 542 Fourth Ave.  We are asking the Health Department to get involved in this issue and protect air quality and health for the residents of our communities.
You need to register to speak at least 24 hours before the meeting by calling or emailing:  boardofhealth@alleghenycounty.us, or by phone at: 412-687-2243. (subj: Air Pollution at Edgar Thomson Works and health concerns).
Please note. The ACHD is not the permitting or regulating agency for hydraulic fracturing. However, Edgar Thomson has received a “Notice of Violation” from The Allegheny County Health Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This means that the ACHD and EPA have promised to monitor and make sure that Edgar Thomson is under compliance.
At the ACHD meeting on March 7th we are asking ACHD to do their job and bring the ET plant within compliance. In our opinion refusing increased emissions due to fracking is part of this mission.

MORE INFO:
http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/12950707-74/notice-of-violation-issued-for-us-steels-edgar-thompson-plant
Also check out the Smell PGH reports and see how the Edgar Thomson plant is already affecting our air.
And, the well pads are headed smack into an environmental justice area as defined by the DEP.

Meet up!
This weekend we met with 28 community members and divided up into 5 committees.
Research
Education
Canvassing
Media
Graphic Design
If you would like to join a committee and get involved reply to this email! We need you!

Speak Up!
Talk to your neighbors! Do they know about Edgar Thomson’s notice of violation? Do they know about Merrion Oil and Gas’s hydraulic fracturing plans? And do they know what that means for them?

Write a letter to the local Department of Environmental Protection about any concerns you have.  Concerns for our group include:
Community Health: A well pad for hydraulic fracturing will add to the air, land and water pollution concerns for our community. The site of the proposed wells, Edgar Thomson Works, is already in violation of its Title V permit, and this proposal is located at the mill and will affect air quality and health.  Many peer reviewed studies are documenting health risks of living near unconventional well sites, including the recent study “Hydraulic Fracturing and Infant Health: New Evidence from Pennsylvania”, co-authored by researchers at Princeton University, the University of Chicago and UCLA, which showed a decrease in health of infants within 1.8 miles of a well and a 25% increased chance of low birth weight for infants born to mothers living within .6 miles of a well.
Environmental Justice: the proposal of an unconventional gas well pad at the Edgar Thomson site is an issue of environmental justice, the idea that the costs of industrial development shouldn’t be disproportionately shouldered by poor or minority communities.  We live near Edgar Thomson and breathe the air that it over-pollutes into every day.  We do not need more pollution.  Our community’s right to health outweighs any potential benefits that a unconventional drill pad can bring to our region.

DEP Southwest Regional Office
Attention: District Oil and Gas Operations
400 Waterfront Drive
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Thank you!!