Range monitoring air at Cecil gas well site

Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
Emissions are an ongoing issue in the natural gas industry. So in an effort to alleviate public concerns, Range Resources is monitoring a natural gas well site in Cecil Township.
The Southpointe-based company has launched an ambient air monitoring program at the Augustine well pad in Cecil Township to measure volatile organic compounds and particulate matter. Third-party consultants for Range have set up six monitors around the site to collect data, which will be sent to a certified lab for analysis before going through a quality check process.
That information will appear once a month on the company website, rangeresources.com/air-monitoring.
This is the second time the drilling company is doing this at a Marcellus Shale site in Washington County. It previously collected data for nearly two years at the Yonker well site, near the Fort Cherry School District campus, before completing that work a year ago. Range released a public health and air monitoring report afterward, which, according to spokesman Mark Windle, showed “all of our data set was below the health-based average.”
Some county residents have expressed concern about a possible link between gas processing and cancer. The Observer-Reporter reported last year that a state Department of Health investigation determined there were “no conclusive findings” of a cancer cluster in the county.
Windle said the company requested public input from the area around the Augustine site, near Bedner’s Farm Market, then started to monitor the site last July. He said Range moved the drilling rig onto the pad last week, and the data will be monitored “through the production phase” later this year.
“(The Augustine project) will paint a broader profile of our operations. This should be a more robust data set.”