Citizens need to be heard
On Wednesday, I attended a meeting sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) seeking public comment on the revisions to Chapter 78 of the state’s oil and gas drilling regulations. This meeting was announced on short notice and the number of industry people speaking outnumbered the number of common citizens, who do not have a good way of hearing about these types of meetings.
I spoke as a citizen who is affected by a drilling pad within 1,000 feet of my house. In addition, a transmission pipeline carrying petroleum byproducts of shale drilling was installed last year within 100 feet of my house. Now, a small company from Kentucky wants to open a deep coal mine on the property that abuts mine.
When I moved to rural Nottingham Township, I did not realize that I would be living in the middle of an industrial zone. The citizens of our state need to have more input on the industrial development that is forced on them. A local citizens group, the Protectors of Mingo, is having a meeting May 12 at 7 p.m. at the Valley Inn Social Hall in Monongahela to provide information on the coal mine permit application and to prepare for the May 20 DEP public meeting about the mine permit at the Peters Township Recreation Center. Citizens need to know their rights and how they can make their voices heard.
Mary Ann Pike
Venetia