Jul 21, 2024 By Rick Shrum 4 min read

Lois Bower-Bjornson wants to clear the air about the environment. It is not as clean as she believes it should be.

An active activist, Bower-Bjornson is a Southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer with Clean Air Council, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that was founded before the Environmental Protection Agency, before Earth Day and before the modern Clean Air Act.

She is one of five field organizers in the Pittsburgh office who serve as environmental stewards, monitoring issues and suspected issues for the statewide advocacy organization.

Bower-Bjornson contends “there is no safe way to do fracking. It contaminates the air, contaminates the water,” she said.

“Another thing a lot of people don’t realize about the energy that Pennsylvania is supplying to the rest of the world: It is not staying in Pennsylvania. It is being shipped to Ukraine and elsewhere across the sea.”

Fracking, properly known as hydraulic fracturing, is the technique by which natural gas is accessed from a mile underground. The process has been transformative, to be sure, resulting in an abundance of a cost-effective energy source for consumers.

Yet that comes at a price, for fracking results in emissions, including methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Carbon capture and storage are regarded as potential solutions, but questions abound about the effectiveness of each initiative.

Bower-Bjornson, husband Dave and their four children have a vested interest in her work, which goes beyond fracking. They reside in an 1830s home in North Bethlehem, Washington County, which – annually – is among the most fracked counties in the state.

Natural gas and its infrastructure – including compressor stations and pipelines – are prevalent in the county where Bower-Bjornson grew up. Then about a half-dozen years ago, her children reported a variety of ailments: rashes, nosebleeds and swelling of limbs.

She suspected the presence of two natural gas compression stations “within a mile or so of our property” to be the culprit, but could not prove that. These illnesses provided her the impetus to start Frackland Tours in 2018, an initiative that continues today.

Tours begin at her home with health and environmental experts discussing fracking, followed by travels to sites, including well pads and pipelines. Tours are open to elected officials, media members and the public, who “can get a first-hand account of what it is like to live near fracking and related operations.

“A number of tours,” she said, “are on private property, with the permission of owners who collect royalties from gas companies for letting them operate there.”

Bower-Bjornson said “some elected officials and agency officials respond with shock and disbelief.” She also asks elected officials to act on what they have learned and seen.

While touring, she finds it disturbing that a number of oil and gas well pads are located less than 500 feet from homes. “That is encroaching more on people’s homes and neighborhoods.”

The local field organizer’s travels have included a stop in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, two weeks after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials.

Thirty-eight cars derailed and several burned for more than two days. Emergency crews oversaw controlled burns of several cars, which released hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air.

“It’s the busiest rail line in the United States,” Bower-Bjornson said. “The (Environmental Protection Agency) said it was OK for people to go back to their homes, but it was hideous. They were aerating the water less than 300 feet from homes. When I took off my mask, I smelled an odor I did not recognize. With oil and gas, there are certain odors you can recognize.”

Once again, the Bjornson family had a vested interest. East Palestine is in northeastern Ohio, near the Pennsylvania line. Lois and Dave’s three sons and one daughter all have attended Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, in Midland, Beaver County. Two of them were enrolled there when the derailment occurred. They were not directly affected.

Bower-Bjornson said she is “as busy as ever,” which has become a standard. She also is a board member of the Center for Coalfield Justice, a local environmental nonprofit based in Washington, and has been a dance instructor.

She has a bountiful resume, which includes being a parent. Lois recently returned from a lengthy trip to Maine, where she watched her son, Kylan Bjornson, hike Mount Katahdin. It was the beginning of his quest to cover the entire 2,196-mile Appalachian Trail. Lois said she scaled most of the mountain, but could not make the summit.

She later learned that Kylan fell, sustaining a concussion and an ankle injury. He is recovering, but has postponed his long-distance hike for perhaps a year.

Add caretaker to her resume.