PA Environment Digest

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FracTracker Alliance Announces 7 Winners Of 2022 Community Sentinel Award For Environmental Stewardship; Including PA’s Laurie Barr

On November 22, the FracTracker Alliance announced the seven winners of the 2022 Community Sentinel Award For Environmental Stewardship.

The annual award ceremony celebrates individuals whose noble actions exemplify the transformative power of committed and engaged people.

The award will be presented to multiple recipients at a virtual reception on December 8 before fellow activists, allies and conspirators, all of whom are working towards a healthier and more just future.

PA Award Winner - Laurie Barr

Community Choice Award Winner Laurie Barr is an activist, citizen scientist, co-founder of Save our Streams PA, and a co-founder of Defend Ohi:yo‘, the advocacy alliance formed between indigenous and non-indigenous allies along the Ohi:yo’ or Allegheny River.

She has spent the last decade hunting for orphaned and abandoned wells and researching stream health in Pennsylvania.

Laurie’s work has been used by state and federal regulators, oil and gas well plugging companies, a slew of reporters, and has led to breaking, influential studies on the link between abandoned wells and methane emissions.

Her tireless reporting to officials has led to changes in regulatory policy and administrative practice, helped residents finally get wells leaking for 20 years or more plugged (sometimes twice), influenced legislative agendas, and inspired academic study in the too-often neglected and economically depressed northern tier of Pennsylvania, as well as the southern tier of New York.

Click Here for the names and backgrounds of all other Sentinel Award winners.

Visit the FracTracker Alliance website for more information on programs, initiatives, upcoming events and much more.

Oil & Gas Compliance Dashboard:

-- Pennsylvania Oil & Gas Weekly Compliance Dashboard - Nov. 19 To 25 [PaEN]

-- PA Oil & Gas Industrial Facilities: Permit Notices/Opportunities To Comment [PaEN]

NewsClips:

-- AP: Court Plea Hearing Scheduled Tuesday On Criminal Charges Against Coterra Energy [Fmr Cabot Oil & Gas] For Contaminating Water Supplies In Dimock, Susquehanna County

-- AP: PA American Water To Provide Clean Drinking Water To Residents Of Dimock, Susquehanna County Who Have Gone Without For 14 Years Due To Contamination From Shale Gas Drilling

-- Post-Gazette Editorial: Catastrophic Natural Gas Storage Well Leak In Cambria County Shows Need For New Regulations; Incoming Shapiro Administration Should Expand DEP Oil & Gas Methane Leak Rule

Related Articles This Week:

-- DEP Oil & Gas Advisory Board To Hear Updates On Chapter 78 Regulation Changes; Federal Abandoned Well Plugging Program Dec. 1 [PaEN]

-- EQB To Meet Nov. 30 To Consider Emergency Regulation Setting VOC/Methane Limits For Conventional Oil & Gas Facilities [PaEN]