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CNX CEO Tells DEP’s Citizens Council Their Monitoring Shows ‘No Material Impact’ To Air Or Water Quality From Natural Gas Development; Citizens Said CNX Lacks Scientific Rigor, Offers Misleading Greenwash

On February 11, CNX Resources CEO Nicholas Deluliis told DEP’s Citizens Advisory Council a year and a half of air and water monitoring shows “no material impact” to air or water quality from their natural gas development operations.

Deluliis did a presentation to the Council on ‘Radical Transparency,’ a program CNX launched with Gov. Shapiro in November 2023.

"The objective remained pretty simple: to create this transparency on a real-time basis where there's no adjustment of data, no interpretive, just straight up reporting of data as real-time as we can get it concurrently to all interested parties using a third party to verify the sort of custody of the data chain,” said Deluliis.

“We came up with the concept of applying state-of-the-art technology on pad, so not from distant monitoring stations, but basically on pad, to monitor, record these type of data-- PM2.5, BTEX, and then obviously expanding that into water quality and chemistry with respect to what we're putting downhole.”

After about 1.5 years of monitoring, Deluliis said, "preliminarily, a year and a half or so into this, what we had hoped to see is exactly what we have seen, which is the air quality metrics from BTEX, the PM2.5, water quality data that we've been tracking pre and post activity have indicated no material impact to what's going on with those ambient air quality or water quality levels where you have natural gas development occurring."

“There's also some other things coming down the pike with Radical Transparency. One of them is that we've expanded this into the arena, and we have a slide on this that you see now, on methane to basically hone in on that metric.

“The reason I like methane emissions and disclosures in particular is that if you've got methane emissions, you typically will have emissions of other things that you'd be interested in from a health impact.

“So although methane may not pose some sort of an asthma or cancer risk, if you've got low methane emissions and very low methane intensity through your development, that usually means you don't have emissions of other things that you would be more concerned about from a health perspective.

“The other one is DEP has selected, I think, a pair of sites that will basically be what we're calling a "soup to nuts" assessment, where it's going to assess those locations even from basically the pre-permitting phase, so literally from zero activity all the way through to post-production,” said Deluliis

“So that would be an exciting development, as well, just to look at that from a start of inception of potential development on through.

“So this effort expands. It's continually evolving. We built this to be open-sourced, to be copied.

“Anybody wants to come see how we're monitoring data integrity, reporting, measuring, we're welcoming anybody that would be interested in doing that. We'd be happy to host this group to a site or a location to learn more about it.

“Industry is free to adopt it, modify, if somebody's got better ideas on how to take it to the next level. We're all about continuous improvement. That would be a welcome set of developments or ideas to bring to the table,” said Deluliis.

Click Here for a copy of the presentation slides by Nicholas Deluliis.

Information related to this initiative is posted on the CNX Radical Transparency webpage.

Shapiro/CNX Statement Of Mutual Interests

In November 2023, CNX Resources and Gov. Shapiro signed a “statement of mutual interests” to increase air monitoring around shale gas drilling sites and other infrastructure, temporarily extend some setbacks and do more to disclose chemicals used in the fracking process. Read more here.

CNX Resources CEO Nicholas Deluliis called the new approach “Radical Transparency.”

At the announcement, Deluliis said the purpose of the new policy was-- “To definitively confirm, for all stakeholders, that there are no adverse human health issues related to responsible natural gas development, and to confirm what we already know, that the natural gas industry is essential, it's responsible, and it's inherently good for society.”

The major provisions include--

-- Setbacks - Residential Structures: CNX ssid it “expresses its intention” to increase setbacks from 500 [minimum now] to 600 feet from a well bore [not well pad] from residential structures [Minimum setbacks now recommended by health and environmental groups are 2,500 to 3,300 feet from well pads based on health studies.]

-- Setbacks - Schools, Hospitals: CNX ssid it “expresses its intention” to increase setbacks to 2,500 from well bore [not well pad] from schools and hospitals. [Minimum setbacks now recommended by health and environmental groups to be from 3,300 to 6,600 feet from well pads based on health studies.]

-- Fracking Chemicals: CNX said it will post fracking chemicals to be used ahead of fracking operations [but fracking chemicals protected from disclosure due to trade secrets will not be released and have not been.]

-- Air Monitoring: CNX said it would engage in “intensive air” monitoring around some of its facilities and post the results on a webpage.

Air monitoring turned out to be one upwind and one downwind monitor at sites.

In August 2024, CNX declared “natural gas development is safe and poses no public health risks” based on CNX air quality monitoring from 14 sites for from just 4 to 24 weeks. Read more here.

The pronouncement was roundly criticized by environmental, health and citizen groups as “dishonest and irresponsible.” Read more here.

Most of the limited monitoring at drill pads started in October or November 2023 ended in April. Monitoring at other sites lasted less than a year.

Of the 10 well pads in the air monitoring program, five are now being actively monitored for less than a year and five had their data archived after less than a year.

-- Radiation Monitoring: CNX posted its generic radiation protection plan and its annual self-assessment plan [but not the results on its Radical Transparency webpage so far]

-- Water Quality/Drinking Water Monitoring: CNX posted its generic plans for water quality and drinking water monitoring from the “statement” [but not the results on its Radical Transparency webpage so far. Some results would be subject to landowner identity protection, CNX noted].

Information related to this initiative is posted in the CNX Radical Transparency webpage.

Public Comments

Later in the Council meeting, several representatives of health, environmental and citizen groups presented comments on the CNX ‘Radical Transparency’ presentation.

Here are comments by some of those groups--

Alison Steele, Executive Director of the Environmental Health Project, made these comments--

We are a non-partisan non-profit organization headquartered in Pittsburgh with the mission of defending public health in the face of oil and gas development.

Thank you for the opportunity to make some remarks this afternoon about CNX's so-called Radical Transparency program and the corresponding report they released last fall with the subtitle, CNX Natural Gas Development Poses No Public Health Risks.

If you have not already had the chance to do so, I encourage you to read my submitted written comments, which are more comprehensive than what I'll have time to share now, and focus specifically on that report. [Read more here]

They detail the lack of scientific rigor in the report, including misleading statements, questionable methodologies, and premature conclusions, the limitations of their approach, including incorrect assumptions about what constitutes safe exposure to hazardous chemicals, and how they have downplayed and discredited the existing wealth of peer-reviewed research on the subject that clearly details a significant relationship between shale gas development activities and a range of adverse health outcomes.

In short, site-specific data is critical in understanding human health impacts from shale gas development, but the limited information the company has gathered to date, the assumptions they have made from cherry-picked data, and the apples-to-orange comparisons that they have made with a substantial body of epidemiologic evidence are insufficient to support any claim that the operations in question are safe.

Frontline residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania, families my organization works with on a regular basis, do not feel safe.

They have seen very real and very concerning health impacts since the advent of fracking and related activities in their communities.

These health impacts include poor birth outcomes, asthma exacerbations, heart failure and high blood pressure, stress and mental health issues, and cancer.

And these lived experiences track with what we see in the literature; dozens of comprehensive peer-reviewed epidemiologic studies, which are the gold standard of public health research, and hundreds of other investigations using data gathered around specific sites.

There are roles for both, and together they paint a clear picture of substances that are hazardous to human health, realistic pathways of exposure, and prevalence of expected human health outcomes based on exposure to those substances.

There are a few things I'd like to note in my time since we've been talking about the interpretation and application of data this afternoon.

This report uses selected criteria from just two wells and compares it to EPA standards that are reference levels, not safety levels from a human health standpoint.

The studies also cover a limited number of pollutants, just PM2.5 and BTEX chemicals, excluding other harmful compounds associated with shale gas development, including nitrogen dioxide and other harmful VOCs.

The report indicates that 24-hour averages for the compounds they track fall below EPA standards, but it fails to take into consideration intermittent peaks or spikes in emissions that can raise the risk of health harms, especially for individuals in vulnerable populations, like children, the elderly, people who are pregnant and those with pre-existing health conditions.

CNX then implies with the title of their report that their limited findings at two highly scrutinized well pads indicate no risk to public health at any of the other 13,000 active well pads across the state.

This implication is nothing short of greenwashing.

It is irresponsible to allow a company with an extensive history of regulatory violations to make such unchecked assertions about the safety of its own operations.

Some residents we work with have described this report and Governor Shapiro's tacit support of the plan as a slap in the face for communities that are counting on better protections.

I know I'm short on time, so I'll wrap up by saying that if the goal here is truly health and safety for frontline communities, I encourage you, members of the Citizens Advisory Council, to push for more comprehensive and meaningful community engagement when it comes to decision-making around shale gas activities within our borders.

To utilize healthy skepticism with reports like these, and to remember that there are legitimate health concerns and well-earned mistrust on the part of residents whose lives have been impacted, sometimes irreparably by this industry, and that we already have a wealth of existing scientific information from unbiased sources pointing to very real health risks that are not being addressed by the Radical Transparency Program.

So, thank you very much for this time and opportunity to share my expertise.

Jodi Borello, Community Organizer for the Center For Coalfield Justice, presented these comments--

My name is Jodi Borello. I am a community organizer for the Center for Coalfield Justice and a victim of CNX Resources crimes.

I am here to advise the DEP and the Office of the Governor to drop all collaboration with this criminal company.

CNX Resources received criminal charges for misreporting annual air emissions data and not accurately reporting emissions. [Read more here]

It is naive to believe that CNX can be trusted or relied upon to accurately record and report data in a way that is radically transparent.

It is clear to me that they are using this initiative as a political Trojan horse to provide legitimacy that covers their inability to handle data related to their operations and their inability to operate in a way that does not harm communities across Washington County.

On the heels of receiving criminal charges for the horrors CNX inflicted on my family for 13 years, Mr. Deluliis approached Governor Shapiro with the idea for this mutual interest agreement.

I testified at both the 43rd and 46 statewide grand juries about my life experience living next to a CNX Resources site.

My testimony directly led to eight grand jury recommendations and CNX Resources pleading no contest to criminal charges.

If CNX wants to make a radical statement, they would be pushing these recommendations given by a jury of our peers.

Furthermore, if they were interested in best practices and radical transparency, they would cease from continuing the same activity they received criminal charges for, however, they have not.

The site of their criminal charges, CNX Oak Springs Pigging Station, continues to blow unprecedented amounts of methane VOCs and HAPs into my yard and my neighbors.

Why is this site not a part of their radical transparency initiative?

All of you are welcome to visit my home and see how this company operates when no one is watching.

The criminal actions I witnessed and experienced at the hands of CNX Resources is unconscionable, and nothing short of a nuisance.

CNX Resources is wasting millions of SCFs [standard cubic feet] of methane, allowing it to blow freely about my community with no regard to human health or the methane's monetary value.

It appears CNX does not care about its own bottom line, so why would they care about our communities or the health of my family and my neighbors?

Let me be clear, CNX Resources has a history of wrongdoing and criminal activity.

The unprecedented Radical Transparency initiative is beginning to look not so transparent to the residents living next to these sites.

The primary focus of the mutual interest agreement is to collect data and make it available to the public.

This data includes water monitoring. In order for CNX to publicly share residents' water test results, they needed to provide CNX permission to take those samples and then post them online.

Because of my close relationship with my community, I know of landowners who opted into this program.

To my knowledge, as of this date, their data has not been shared publicly and the site was archived.

Is this not a clear violation of the mutual interest agreement?

These emissions make a mockery of the spirit to the mutual interest agreement.

The DEP and Governor Shapiro should no longer lend their political capital to a company that will ultimately embarrass them by taking advantage of the Commonwealth's efforts to help.

If you are a part of the mutual interest agreement or radical transparency collaboration with this criminal company, now is your time to demand true transparency.

It is clear that CNX is either unable or unwilling to be trustworthy or a transparent partner.

While my recommendation is that the mutual interest agreement be dissolved, at the very least, residents of the Commonwealth and neighbors of the Radical Transparency sites deserve to know that our state agencies tasked with protecting human health and the environment are not being duped by this criminal company.

I am prepared and ready to be radically transparent about what is happening in my community at the hands of this company, and so are the residents living next to the radical transparency sites.

Thank you.

Shannon Smith, Executive Director of the FracTracker Alliance, offered these comments--

FracTracker Alliance and other environmental organizations across Pennsylvania have been vocal in opposing Governor Shapiro’s partnership with CNX, a fracked gas company seeking to influence public discourse and policy through its so-called Radical Transparency program.

Our analysis has found nothing particularly radical about CNX’s approach to protecting public health.

What is transparent, however, is their intent: to position themselves as the ultimate authority on fracking operations in Pennsylvania while dismissing independent science and public concerns.

Extensive peer-reviewed research has already established that air, soil, and water pollution from unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD) contributes to serious health impacts, including respiratory disease, cancer, cardiovascular issues, congenital disabilities, and premature birth.

Additionally, UOGD exposes workers and residents to dangerous levels of radioactive material.

Fracking not only contaminates water but also depletes fresh water resources.

Water use per well has increased dramatically, with each fracking operation now consuming an average of 14.3 million gallons of fresh water.

Despite these well-documented risks, CNX Resources President and CEO Nick Deluliis has made claims that contradict decades of independent scientific research--

“The initial results and ongoing monitoring from our Radical Transparency program indicate that natural gas development done the CNX way is safe and inherently good for the communities where we operate. We call on our industry peers to join us in these important efforts to ensure that public policy in Pennsylvania is driven by directly-measured data and facts instead of agendas and speculation."

The conflict of interest here is obvious.

CNX is attempting to use its own selectively reported data to shape public policy while dismissing decades of peer-reviewed research that demonstrates the public health risks of fracking.

Allowing a fracked gas company to dictate the terms of environmental and health policy would be irresponsible and a disservice to Pennsylvanians.

We urge the Citizens Advisory Council to take the following actions to protect public health and environmental integrity in Pennsylvania:

-- Reject CNX’s Radical Transparency program as a credible source for policy-making.

Industry-generated data should not replace independent, peer-reviewed research.

-- Strengthen regulatory oversight of industry self-reporting. Any industry-reported data must be subject to independent verification and strict accountability measures.

-- Ensure public policy is based on independent, peer-reviewed science. Policy decisions must prioritize unbiased, scientifically rigorous research over corporate-driven narratives.

Public policy based on self-reported data from a fracked gas company would undermine the integrity of Pennsylvania’s environmental governance and endanger public health.

The Citizens Advisory Council has a responsibility to ensure that decisions are informed by scientific evidence, not corporate interests.

We ask that you stand with communities, scientists, and public health experts—not polluters.

Tom Pike, Environmental Policy Advocate from Protect PT presented these comments--

Thank you for having me. My name is Tom Pike. I'm with Protect PT. We're a local non-profit which seeks to safeguard Pennsylvanians' rights to clean air and water under article one section 27 of the PA Constitution.

We operate mainly in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, and many of our members live in the shadow of fracking wells and operated by CNX.

I do want to caution members of the CAC to be skeptical of what we heard today from the company.

As far as radical transparency, I mean, our position is pretty much we'll believe it when we see it, but the CNX that we have seen operate in our communities has been a rampant and unrepentant polluter.

They've logged countless violations with the DEP. The Shaw well pad incident, for example, resulted in a methane migration that extended for a mile in all directions. The incident should have been preventable.

CNX has been given free license by our regulators and water authorities to operate however they want.

During drought, when our local water authority has asked residents to cut back on watering their vegetable gardens, CNX continues to withdraw millions of gallons from Beaver Run Reservoir.

CNX even illegally took some 389,518 gallons in 2023. And although they were made to pay a fine, the water's unrecoverable. It's been contaminated with radioactivity that was once contained within the Marcellus shale layer and it cannot be returned to the watershed.

That water was, according to our Pennsylvania constitution, the common property of all Pennsylvanians, but it's ours no longer. It was the common property of generations yet to come, but none of them will be able to use it for any purpose.

I believe radical transparency is a brand choice.

We haven't seen the changes on the ground that reflect an actual change in the way they're doing business.

So be wary of promises from this corporation that are not verified by Pennsylvania residents who live near this company's operations.

I want to add a few notes to my written remarks based on what I heard today.

CNX is wondering why organizations like mine don't want to partner with them.

We would prefer to maintain our own air, water, and noise monitoring program. Bias is induced when a researcher's funding pushes them towards a particular conclusion.

We don't currently have that bias, so if our data didn't show giant flashing red flags, I would be working on other issues.I wouldn't be working on this.

But bias does cut the other way. I could be making three times this much money if I worked for CNX. So please consider what conclusions their data will be pressured to support.

As far as our own monitoring programs, I'll also note our funds appear have been illegally frozen, which I realize is not the purview of the DEP or of CNX, but CNX, if you're listening, you've got lobbyists, you probably have connections to the administration, if you want to help us get our funds unfrozen, then maybe we can talk, but I believe that trust has to be earned.

And in closing, the best thing that could be said about this project, assuming it is in good faith and assuming that giving them the benefit of the doubt, which I don't believe we necessarily need to give them, assuming they are genuinely doing accurate monitoring of their sites, that would mean they are conducting a public health experiment.

No board of review would ever approve such an experiment on humans, on thousands of living humans, including children, without first experimenting on mice or pigs.

Leaping immediately to mass human testing is wildly unethical, and any medical researcher who did this would have their license suspended and would probably be prosecuted.

So just in closing, their leadership does not live in the shadow of fracking wells. And if you have the opportunity, I would encourage you to ask them why.

If radical transparency is enough for our communities, why is it not enough for them and their own families?

And thank you for your time.

All written comments offered during the public comment period will be posted on the Council’s webpage.

Visit the DEP Citizens Advisory Council webpage for available handouts. Questions should be directed to: Ian Irvin, Executive Director, iirvin@pa.gov or (717) 787-8171.

Resource Links - Increasing Setbacks:

-- Range Resources And MarkWest Liberty Midstream File Legal Challenges To The 2,500 Foot Shale Gas Facility Setback Ordinance Adopted By Cecil Township, Washington County [PaEN]

-- Cecil Township Supervisors In Washington County Adopt 2,500 Setback From Shale Gas Well Pads From Homes, Businesses, 5,000 Foot Setback From Hospitals, Schools [PaEN]

-- Cecil Township, Washington County Posts Proposed Ordinance Increasing Setbacks From Shale Gas Well Pads Of 2,500 Feet From Homes, Businesses; 5,000 Feet From Schools, Hospitals; Nov. 4 Hearing, Meeting Set [PaEN]

-- Cecil Township Supervisors Direct Solicitor To Prepare Ordinance Increasing Setbacks From Shale Gas Well Pads By At Least 2,500 Feet; Another Hearing, Vote Expected Nov. 4 [Hearing Summary] [PaEN]

-- PA Senate Republicans Reintroduce Bills To Eliminate State Appeals Of Pipeline Permits; Limit Grounds For Appeal Of Any DEP Permits; Punish Communities For Protecting Their Constituents Against Shale Gas Drilling Impacts [PaEN]

-- House Committee Hearing On Increasing Safety Setback Zones Around Natural Gas Facilities Heard About First-Hand Citizen Experiences On Health Impacts, From Physicians On Health Studies And The Gas Industry On Job Impacts; Sen. Yaw Calls Bill ‘Stupid’

-- State Dept. Of Health Apologizes For Not Listening To Communities Suffering Health Impacts From Shale Gas Development; New Health Study Results ‘Just The Tip Of The Iceberg’ [PaEN]

Resources Links - CNX Since Nov. 2023:

-- CNX Gas Company Reports It Did Not Stop Pumping Shale Gas Wastewater Through A Punctured Pipeline For 24+ Hours During An Incident In Morris Township, Greene County In May [11.28.24]

-- Protect PT, Three Rivers Waterkeeper Appeal DEP Permits For CNX Slickville Natural Gas, Shale Gas Wastewater Pipelines Project In Westmoreland County [11.4.24]

-- Capital & Main - Audrey Carleton: CNX Resources: Our Operations Pose No Health Risk; You Can’t Be Serious, Activists Say [9.24.24]