Dec 19, 2014 5 min read

Employment soared in Washington and Greene counties as a result of Marcellus Shale development, but the region also saw an increase in crime, traffic fatalities and sexually transmitted diseases, according to a new study that is being dismissed as “misinformation” by an industry group.

The report by Multi-State Shale Research Collaborative suggests a link exists between these impacts and drilling activity in the six Pennsylvania counties with the most natural gas wells. Washington was third on the list with 755 wells drilled between 2005 and 2012 – the span of the study – and Greene was sixth with 517 wells.

According to data, Washington and Greene counties accounted for 71 percent of all job gains (13,579 jobs) of the six counties analyzed, while the other four counties – Tioga, Lycoming, Bradford and Susquehanna – had only “modest” employment gains. The study attributed growth in Washington and Greene to the fact the two counties “accounted for a third of the wells drilled in Pennsylvania since 2005,” and growth occurred in both industry and non-industry sectors.

But the study, which utilized public data and included case studies and interviews with local residents and officials, also pointed to a rise in violent crime and property crime in the six counties. Washington County reportedly had a 6 percent increase in violent crime and a 9 percent increase in property crime over a seven-year period. In Greene, violent crime went up 103 percent, and property crime rose 53 percent.

However, the group also saw a statistically significant increase in violent crime in low-drilling counties, which researcher Mark Price described as puzzling.

Price, labor economist with the Harrisburg-based Keystone Research Center, said the increase in crime in higher-drilling areas points to a “boomtown effect” as opposed to a direct link to drilling activity. As “transient young men” enter the shale workforce, traffic increases at local bars and restaurants, and there is a culture shift, according to the study.

“You get a lot of activity, it’s very intense and it generates these problems,” Price said. “You get an explosion of activity in a very small-world place, and it’s going to create urban problems in a rural setting.”

The study states arrests and calls to police in Greene County increased during the height of the gas boom, especially in Cumberland Township.

Greene County District Attorney Marjorie Fox said the county has seen an increase in crime, but said she hasn’t heard anyone attribute it to the impacts of natural gas drilling. She said heroin addiction fuels many crimes, including home burglaries and even thefts from industrial sites like well pads.

“They have some very valuable equipment, and people steal things of value. I will say they have been victimized,” she said of the gas industry.

Price said most surprising was the fact there was no significant population increase in the six Pennsylvania counties. The study also looked at impacts in West Virginia and Ohio but found no significant results.

“Trends that are apparent in Pennsylvania are absent in West Virginia, perhaps as a result of slower and less concentrated drilling development, and are hinted at in Ohio, where drilling accelerated in 2012, the final year of our analysis,” according to the study.

In addition, the study found a 27.8 percent increase in traffic fatalities in the six counties; a 10.2 percent increase in median rent costs; and a 24 percent to 27 percent increase in rates of chlamydia infection compared to areas with less drilling activity.

The study was funded by the Heinz Endowments, Stoneman Family Foundation, Hillsdale Foundation and Park Foundation. Travis Windle, spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, called the study a “political attack” by anti-fracking advocacy groups.

“Despite such efforts to spread misinformation, Pennsylvanians and the American people support the safe development of job-creating natural gas by overwhelmingly broad bipartisan margins,” he said in an email.

“The economic and environmental benefits being generated by shale development are clear in communities across Pennsylvania, especially in Washington County. It’s unfortunate that some special-interest groups refuse to acknowledge this positive and shared progress.”

The study also recommends the implementation of a severance tax on the natural gas industry as a way to mitigate impacts to communities. Governor-Elect Tom Wolf proposed a 5 percent tax on the industry.

Price said his organization’s role as a public policy and research group is to offer recommendations, and he denied any bias in the study.

“This is a way of making sure those communities are aware of, in a rigorous way, what the impacts of this development are – that there are both benefits and cost,” he said.