Jun 30, 2023 2 min read

Impact fees don’t help those impacted by gas drilling

Last week, the Washington County Courthouse was the scene of Bryan Latkanich, a local man, suing two major gas-drilling companies for contaminating his drinking water, exposing his family to radiation and PFAs (forever chemicals).

This is a big deal, and yet the Observer-Reporter did not report on the event that made Pittsburgh TV news and drew reporters from as far away as New York. Instead, the Observer-Reporter reported on impact fees delivered to the county with such a positive spin on being the top recipient of fees in the state. The paper quoted Washington County Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan’s excitement about getting the money.

The O-R and Irey Vaughan fail to realize that impact fees do not help residents who have been impacted by gas-drilling activity. It has caused a variety of harms, from water contamination to air pollution exposure and erosion of property over the past 20 years.

For better or worse, the O-R is the newspaper of Washington County. It is the paper in which industry publishes their required notices, yet so many people no longer subscribe or buy it and are uninformed. The O-R should be following these important stories from beginning to end.

They begin with the public notices by industry. They end with lawsuits and stories of harm by locals against industry. The O-R needs to show the big picture of an industry that Irey Vaughan loves so much.

Cathy Lodge

Bulger