Our blogs are written by the staff of the Center for Coalfield Justice, with an occasional guest post. The most recent post appears on top, and others show up below in order of publishing date. You can receive the blogs in your inbox by signing up for our mailing list. Once per month we publish a newsletter, which contains most of the blog posts.
An update on ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) funding from the American Rescue Plan
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act was passed in March of 2021 and allocated $122.7 billion dollars in supplemental Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding; this is now known as the ESSER III fund. The first two-thirds of the funding has already been disbursed to individual states to be distributed. In order to…
Your reminder to vote, and helpful information on voter registration and mail-in voting
It’s that time of year again, right before the holiday season. Halloween is at the end of this month, Election Day and Thanksgiving are just around the corner, and Christmas and the New Year will be here before we know it! Just after Halloween, another day that many are preparing for will occur: the municipal…
Health Advocacy Groups Meet with PA DOH and DEP to Discuss Community and Physician Interaction, Setbacks, Water Provisions for Affected Residents, and Tour of Communities Impacted by Shale Gas Development
October 1, 2021— On September 21, public health advocacy groups Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania (PSR PA) and the SWPA Environmental Health Project (EHP) met for a fifth time with the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) to press the agency to consider a number of actions that would lower the risk of health impacts to residents from shale gas development emissions. Secretary Alison Beam and seven other DOH representatives attended the virtual meeting. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), including Deputy Secretary of the Office of Oil and Gas Management Scott Perry, also attended.
The latest on the efforts to close the hazardous waste loophole in PA
Under current PA law, oil and gas waste is not classified as hazardous, although it contains radioactive and other dangerous materials. This waste is allowed to be disposed of in our local landfills. Eventually, some of this waste makes its way into our streams and rivers, posing a health risk to all Pennsylvanians. CCJ has…
What we have asked for, and what they are giving us
Who determines whether we have clean air or not? As members of the public, do we hold a responsibility to ourselves and each other to ask for clean air? On the other hand, if we don’t ask for clean air, should we be surprised to find that our air is considered dangerous to our health?…
The climate crisis is here, and collective care is a solution
A few weekends ago, Hurricane Ida hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 and decimated communities, causing many people’s homes to be destroyed and millions to be without power and clean water and with limited access to internet/cell service. In Pennsylvania, many of us felt the impacts as Hurricane Ida downgraded to a tropical…
Close the Loophole in State Laws Governing the Disposal of Toxic Drilling Waste
Because of a shortsighted exemption made 30 years ago, Pennsylvanians are exposed daily to potentially toxic and radioactive waste produced by the oil and gas industry. For the last three decades, these companies have taken advantage of a loophole in state laws governing the disposal of toxic drilling waste.
PA Department of Health meets with families whose children have been impacted by rare cancers
“It is always surreal for me, as an impacted resident, to watch others experience the grief of some of our neighbors whose lives have been uprooted by the oil and gas industry,” said Heaven Sensky, Community Organizer for Center for Coalfield Justice. “It is uncomfortable to put ourselves up for display, and sometimes I even forget how vastly different our lives are compared to those who hold the power to make decisions about our safety. I want to thank the DOH for being respectful witnesses to our suffering. I am hoping with everything that I am that they will carry with them what they have seen here and that they will do something about it.”
NRDC’s Report: There is Radioactive Waste in our Water, Air, and Communities
Last week, the NRDC released a comprehensive report highlighting the gaps in our federal and state laws concerning how radioactive waste, generated from oil and gas development, gets into our water and air. The report, which is aptly titled: A Hot Fracking Mess: How Weak Regulations of Oil and Gas Production Leads to Radioactive Waste…
PA Department of Health Visits Communities and Families Impacted by Shale Gas Development, Hears First-hand Accounts of Health Harms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Lois Bower-Bjornson, Southwestern Pennsylvania Field Organizer, Clean Air Council, 412-979-5509, lbb@cleanair.org Laura Dagley, Medical Advocacy Coordinator, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, 540-556-0132, laura@psrpa.org Ned Ketyer, Board Member, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, 724-255- 7440, ned@psrpa.org Stacey Magda, Community Organizer, Mountain Watershed Association, 724-455-4200 x9, stacey@mtwatershed.com Tammy Murphy, Advocacy Director, Physicians for…