At the heart of the Marcellus shale natural gas development debate in Pennsylvania lies a basic question that John H. Quigley feels hasn't been satisfactorily answered: Does gas drilling make people sick?
There have been plenty of unsatisfactory answers, Quigley told a conference examining shale gas's potential to dramatically change the US energy outlook on Sept. 25.
Groups representing the industry say no health problems ever have been linked to hydraulic fracturing, a key part of tight shale gas production, Quigley said. Opponents insist that problems several residents have reported, as the state's gas production rebounds, are related to the process, he continued.
Quigley, who served as secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from April 2009 to January 2011 and is now a consultant, said the argument has mainly consisted of denials from one side, and horror stories from the other. It's time to change the equation by bringing public health experts to the table, and help them gather data for a scientific explanation, he maintained.
The Geisinger Health System, which serves nearly 3 million residents in northeastern and central Pennsylvania, has hired him to help create an electronic health data system covering 44 Pennsylvania counties and five in nearby New York atop the Marcellus.
Six universities and eight public health systems want to participate, Quigley told his Washington audience at the conference cosponsored by the Howard Baker Forum and Lawrence Livermore Laboratories. Other states are interested, he added.
Mostly anecdotes
Budget cuts have kept state public health officials from doing much so far, according to Quigley. "Some community health organizations have tried to get information, but it's mostly come from people arriving at emergency rooms complaining of nosebleeds and blaming drilling operations nearby," he said.
Collecting data from environmental monitoring devices in producing areas would be a significant improvement, he suggested.
Terry Engelder, a Penn State University geosciences professor who also attended the conference, said he served on a committee formed by Gov. Tom Corbett (R) that recommended the kind of study Quigley described. State lawmakers rejected the idea despite Corbett's endorsement, Engelder said.
Quigley said Pennsylvania's state health department has nevertheless signed on to Geisinger's project. "The fact that its records will become part of [the effort] is huge," he said.
When one large producer offered to help fund the project, Geisinger said no because it thought this potentially could taint any results, Quigley said.
A better industry role would be to share data it collects, he suggested. "Any sensible producer will test water supplies before starting to drill," Quigley said. "If it could confidentially and comfortably share the information, it would help a lot."
