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Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Lois Bower-Bjornson - What It’s Like Living In Frackland - Residents Talk About Dealing With The Health, Environmental Impacts Of Shale Gas

On February 27, the Physicians for Social Responsibility PA, the League of Women Voters of PA, and the Department of Environmental and Energy Engineering at Duquesne University hosted a Shale Gas and Public Health Conference in Pittsburgh and online.

The Conference brought together scientists, public health experts, industry leaders, and advocacy groups to explore the latest research and insights on unconventional oil and gas development, its environmental impact and associated health risks, and community wins and responses.

PA Environment Digest is highlighting the remarks of several speakers at the Conference on these important issues.

Lois Bower-Bjornson

Lois Bower-Bjornson is the Southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer with Clean air Council and the host of frackland tours.

Frackland tours were implemented to give people a first hand account of what it is like to live and grow up in the shale fields of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Lois lives and grew up in the most heavily fracked county in Pennsylvania-- Washington County. Lois is the mother of three boys and a girl.

Along with Lois her four children have advocated for their health and the right to live in a healthy world.

She advocates for all communities impacted by oil and gas activity. Lois collects stories of impacted residents. She shares their health impacts from the oil and gas industry.

Lois has hosted numerous state, and federal elected officials, along with national and international reporters, and documentary filmmakers on a tour.

She has hosted and collaborated with various researchers such as Penn State and Towson where her tour is part of the curriculum.

Lois has testified in Harrisburg and Washington D.C. to advocate for her family and all Pennsylvanian’s right to breathe clean air, have safe water, and live in a safe, healthy community for a better future for everyone.

Lois is a board member with Center For Coalfield Justice and a consultant with the MAD FACTS organization.

Here is a transcript of her remarks and a link to her longer Frackland Tour video.

I really appreciate the introduction. It's nice to see a lot of friendly faces here.

As Tonya had said, Clean Air Council's been around for 50 years. We've been advocating for the right to breathe clean air for over 50 years.

Those of you that know me, and there are a lot in this room, but I fell into this work...

There's an ongoing joke. People have heard me say this a million times. I'm a dancer, I can count to eight.

So if I can do this, anybody can do this and show that people need healthy communities and they need to be protected.

Documentary

So I'm not going to talk much longer. I have a little mini-documentary that some people have seen already. Some people have not.

And this documentary is really to, again, stress the need for setbacks and to protect people in the community.

[This is a longer version than the one presented at the Conference.]

[Click Here for Frackland Video Tour. After an introduction, the comments from impacted residents begin at time mark 17:00. See what real people living next to shale gas operations experience.

[The following are short excerpts from the video shown at the Conference to give you a better idea of what’s included.]

Video Introduction

As of 2024, the US produces more natural gas than any country, ever. This has come at a cost, one that residents have become more and more aware that they are paying.

In Washington County, Pennsylvania, the majority of residents live within a one-mile radius of a pad.

Which begs the question, how close is too close? This can be a very hard question to answer.

Fracking is an extremely controversial topic and much of the publicly available information on it is either biased or incorrect.

Searching for something more authentic, we decided to visit residents of Washington County and asked them what they thought.

Resident 1: While Range [Resources] was doing the vertical drilling, our house would shake and vibrate. I could have a glass of water on the counter and you could watch the movement of it.

I couldn't sleep at night. The noises were so loud. I mean, this is our home and we felt like we were prisoners in our own home.

Resident 2: We dealt with water trucks, major sand cans, traffic going 60 miles an hour right in front of the house, a house built in 1877. Rattled our house.

And in 2019, my husband and I decided that we did not want to live in Scenery Hill on the main road there with all of the traffic and the air pollution that was in Scenery Hill.

Scenery Hill has a lot of gas wells in it. It's very, very heavy air pollution. It stinks pretty bad.

So that's when we decided... We found an area. You can see I live on five acres here in Charleroi Fallowfield Township.

We live in a cul-de-sac neighborhood. We thought when we moved here, we would be a little bit safe.

And within a couple months of us moving here in August of 2019, we started hearing a lot of noise but we realized they were fracking in the cul-de-sac.

So what I thought I was trying to get away from gas wells a little bit, it did not work.

I thought I was safe with five acres surrounded by trees and woods.

We couldn't get away from it. It's right here, 0.25 miles from my house.

Resident 3: And the noise, it's crazy. The noise never gets talked about. I mean, if I sit here and leave my Harley running out here, they can call the police.

They'll come up and arrest me. But I can listen to over a hundred decibels 24/7, which we've already recorded, usually in the 70s, and nothing can be done.

Nothing can be done. They're exempt from it and that's not right.

Resident 4: I had to check my spring [water] one morning and beyond my shocker, there was an oil film on it.

So I took a sample of it. I called EQT. They sent somebody out right away.

Well, DEP came first. Instead of them taking a sample out my spring, they took the sample out of my water tanks which made no sense at all.

They could have came and scraped that off like I did and put it in a jar. It is nice and clean right now. It's what it is. It’s oil.

Resident 5: The one time we called the DEP, I called them, they came up. We ran my pump dry in the basement.

They let us fill up again. They took a water sample. They said they'd let me know in a month.

Well, six months later, I keep calling them and they tell me, "Well, we're not quite done with it. As soon as we're done, we'll let you know."

Well, two weeks later, I get a letter in the mail and I open it up. It's from the gas company with the results of my water test from the DEP.

I never talked about the gas company. I just wanted my water checked.

And so, I don't even know how they got involved but they did.

And of course, it came back, "Oh, it's not bad."

Resident 6: I know right here there's a hill with gas well on it and I would see a flickering light in the middle of the night or just a red light or I'd see flames and I'd be so confused on what it was.

And I was like, "What is that thing doing in my backyard? Why does it have fire? Why is it a red light? Why is it a white light? Why is it blinking?"

And then, there would be other times where the entire pad would light up with super bright white lights. And then you would see all the lights go up and then you would just see a [burning] flare on top.

Residents: About twice a month, we can be upstairs in our bedroom and I'm looking out the window and I'll see this big... I don't know if it's smoke or- fume.

It's just some kind of fumes that they set off. We can't open a window.

I haven't had a window open here since this plant got built, because they let out these fumes every so often.

And I have terrible breathing now. I'm on an inhaler and my wife's on an inhaler. She's had two open-heart surgeries. I've had throat cancer now.

Residents: They build these things. "Oh, yeah. You're going to have jobs." Wait. There are no jobs. These are all robotic.

The compressor station has zero people working at it.

A functioning well pad has no employees. There are no jobs with this stuff

Once they're built. And the only jobs that are left are things like cleaning out the radioactive sludge from the pipelines and the brine [wastewater] trucks and-

Well, that's a deathly job

Lois Bower-Bjornson: “That's it. I just wanted to say that all of those sites that you saw, with exception of Michelle's that's about 20 minutes from my house, are all either around my house or within a 5 to 10 mile radius. So thank you.”

Click Here for an interview with Lois Bower-Bjornson.

Click Here for her profile.

Visit the PA League of Women Voters Shale Gas and Public Health in 2025 - New Directions webpage for videos of the Conference presentation [when posted].

2025 Shale Gas Health Conference Presentations:

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Dr. Pouné Saberi, MD Speaks On How Healthcare Providers Can Better Serve Individuals Exposed To Health Threats From Shale Gas Development [PaEN]

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Alison Steele, Environmental Health Project - The Science Is In, Shale Gas Development Harming Public Health - Arming People To Prevent, Reduce Harm [PaEN]

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Lois Bower-Bjornson - What Its Like Living In Frackland - Residents Talk About Dealing With The Health, Environmental Impacts Of Shale Gas [PaEN]

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Bob Donnan - 15 Years Of Shale Gas Development Through Aerial Photos - Hiding In Plain Sight [PaEN]

-- Shale Gas & Public Health Conference: Gillian Graber, Protect PT -- We Need To Work Together, Pool Our Knowledge To Push Back Against This Industry That's Harming Our Communities [PaEN]

Resource Links - Health:

-- Frackland Video Tour, with Lois Bower-Bjornson, Clean Air Council

-- Part I - Environmental Impacts: State Dept. Of Health, Penn State Medical Webinars On Caring For Persons Living & Working In Communities With Oil & Natural Gas Extraction [PaEN]

-- Part II - Health Impacts: State Dept. Of Health, Penn State Medical Webinars On Caring For Persons Living & Working In Communities With Oil & Natural Gas Extraction [PaEN]

-- University Of Pittsburgh School Of Public Health Studies Find Shale Gas Wells Can Make Asthma Worse; Children Have An Increased Chance Of Developing Lymphoma Cancer; Slightly Lower Birth Weights [PaEN]

-- 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]