purposes of this evening's public hearing is to accept comments or to proposed ordinances which will amend the existing zoning and subdivision ordinances the proposed ordinance changes if adopted will regulate future are a result of numerous workshops involving council the planning commission the staff and public hearings a variety of methods were used and advertised tonight's meeting was placed in the observer reporter on friday september second and monday september twelfth replace notices on the township board boards our website cable television message board posting a placards near properties of the affected areas sending email notices to ten thousand five hundred fifty individuals who subscribe to the township email those and sending letters to all affected property owners including those removed from the overlay district and and deliberate deliberate made take action on these ordinances at our next regular council meeting which would be monday september twenty sixth and we should be back in council chambers at that time to correct d a number of documents the first is a document written by casey jenkins in title purple haze well stretches three point five miles of natural gas continues b the second is an article by lisa mackenzie entitled human health risk assessment of area missions for development of unconventional natural gas resources the third is an article written by shakiness stacy and others in titled prenatal outcomes in unconventional natural grass operations in southwest pennsylvania the next is the article written by marsha haley and others titled the adequacy of curds setbacks for directional high volume hydraulic fracking in the marcellus barnett in neo bay area shale pla the next is an article written by aaron tusk in others in titled association between unconventional natural gas development in nasal and sinus migraine headaches and fatigue civs symptoms in pennsylvania the next is an article entitled when the wind blows tracking toxic chemicals and gas fields in impact impact of communities the next is a videotape of a council planning commission workshop that was held on april eighteenth two thousand and sixteen we have a letter from the washing county planning commission that they've received and review the proposed peters township mineral extraction ordinance and they have no comment i would also like to enter in a copy of the proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance like to enter in a copy of the ordinance that will amend the subdivision land development regulations of ice the to enter in a memo that was written by ed zoop dated september sixteenth indicating that the planning commission has removed and recommended that propose owning and subdivision ordinance amendments and finally have like to enter in to the record a letter from john smith to the peters so we're we wanted to begin tonight was with a brief presentation and this is meant more as a broad brush review of how we got to where we are today  and one of the things that i would suggest to you is that if you want to much more detailed and nuanced discussion of we're we are today i would refer you to the letter that mr smith has written to council in if anyone's interested we can provide you a copy of that you know the fact the matter is in pennsylvania we have we have the longest history with the oil and gas industry of any state the union the first gas the first oil wells were here the first gas wells were here and all of that in what we know about that changed when in two thousand and three range resources drilled this well in washington county and hydraulically fractured it in october of two thousand and fo the fact of the matter is there is little similarity between conventional gas drilling in unconventional gas drilling in the differences between the two in part have to do with the scale the nature of the operation if you've been to a dimensional gas well site you know this is a large industrial operation of a scale that is not like conventional gas drilling it occupies a large portion of land it uses enormous quantities of water it results in enormous quantities of water that or pool of pollutants coming back out of the well it involves a duration of operation and it longer than one in a conventional gas well would be and then in addition to that even when those wells are are complete it is obvious that gas owners of gas wells will be back to those wells as well as potentially drilling additional wells additional layers of the public and private interest direct infrastructure needed to support these operations goes beyond that which we you would see with the conventional well there's old there's a demand there's a large demand put on the transportation systems to and from the well site there's a large to be and put on public water supplies that service these  addition to that these wells are serviced by collecting a lines gathering lines for the gas as well as compressor stations and equipment needed to process these wells and then finally the nature and scale the impacts are much greater than they are with him mention wells and that's true both in a positive sense as well as a negative sense you know the fact of the matter is these wells generate a tremendous amount of natural gas and there is value to that there is also value that is recognized the jobs that they create but on that we're on the other side of that the environmental impact of these of these well of act thirteen the rules that regulated oil and gas drilling were fairly well established and the way that broke down is that the state of pennsylvania through the oil and gas act reserved to itself the right to determine how the natural gas drilling would be occurring in the state of pennsylvania what was reserved to the municipalities was a determination of where that activity would occur and the method in which we go about determining where it occurs in peter's township is through our zoning ordinance so the common belief in prior to the act was that we derived our ability to  e for natural gas or any other activity by the powers that were were vested and enabled through the miss a palette he's planning code there's a there's a few porton things that you need to keep in mind prior to that act and that is that with few exceptions in pennsylvania minister paladins are required to provide for all legal uses regardless of the size of the m pelly there is this presumption that you will provide for all uses the other thing is zoning districts are intended to contain only compatible uses and then finally there is a  municipality planning code that reads zoning ordinances shall provide for reasonable development of minerals in each municipality and we're to come back to that and talk about that in light of the supreme court decision techniques to be able to address that concern or in the case of peters township what was developed was a overlay district for gas wells and the idea behind this was by large tracts of land that were separated from structures so that in fact the gas drilling could occur and that the impact on neighboring property owners and residents would be thereby minimized and as a result of that in each of these these locations which are forty acres or greater under the overlay zoning this would be permitted now the thing to keep in mind is that the underneath this overlay what exists as a zoning a baseline zoning is our one agricultural so one of the things that occurred was the adoption of act thirteen of two thousand and twelve and what what this act said was is that because of the unique nature of unconventional gas drilling and the patchwork of zoning regulations that had been imposed upon gas trailers in across the state of pennsylvania that it was an undue burden and to to alleviate that any location within peter's township or any other municipality you could have a drilling rig or you could have a compressor station you could have processing plants you could have pipelines in no local zoning zoning rules  the operation and application of zoning and what that supreme court decision did and this is why perhaps if you get a chance you would want to read mr smith the first time although i would agree with mr ball of this i thought this right existed before but for the first time to reveal to a lot of people that municipal zoning isn't simply a matter of us being unable to do it under the municipalities planning code we have a constitutional authority to protect the health and safety of residents of peters township as well as an obligation to enforce the restrictions as imposed by  the environmental amendment which appears in the pennsylvania constitution and it it indicated that this environmental rights amendment was a shared responsibility at all levels of government it also spoke in the decision to the industrial nature of unconventional gas drilling and reinstated this principle that is been wide held in municipal zoning that there is a need in zoning districts that use compatible nature so where does that leave us today well where it leaves us is in some regards back where we started but in some regards in a much different place first of all the state still has the responsibility for determining how many here that would argue that if ever challenge it would that provision would fail for the same reason that the act itself failed that had that question hasn't has yet to be litigated though the other item that the court decision talks to is the fact that there must be a consideration of the environmental rights as provided for within the constitution in all decision making and many would argue that that exist stands beyond this question of zoning but in the into all types of decision that council might make and finally zoning districts are intended to contain only compatible uses and the court goes a great length to talk about the fact that unconventional gas drilling is an industrial use and therefore needs to be contained within a district which has compatible uses that are industrial so where does that leave us but what it tells us is that this overlay zoning district is in is no longer permitted under the the decision of the supreme court that you cannot oberl industrial activity over top of residential property and this must be repealed and in point of fact if you look at the two ordinance the one thing that the ordinance does is remove this as a way in which gas drilling will be handled within peter's township it leaves us with two potential approaches and one of those approaches was to rezone property to provide for industrial activity the other approach was to provide for under conventional gas drilling in the existing industrially zone properties within peter would be compatible when we did that one of the the things one of the things we looked at were the minimum setbacks required under the act in those minimum setbacks still apply even though portions of that act were declared to be unconstitutional and what we discovered was that there were three areas in the township that could support a reasoning that would allow for this type of industrial activity one of the things that we went out and did was we went out and contacted each of those property owners to ask them whether or not they would be amenable to having their property rezone for this purpose either as a industrial zone or as a mineral extraction zone which would also allow agriculture no property owner indicated a willingness to have this occur now i should tell you that simply not wanting your property rezoned is not the finity of in terms of the municipalities ability to rezone property but having said that council isn't interested in pursuing a course of action that imposes upon property owners a change in the zoning in which their property has existed for quite some time so that leaves us with the second approach which is to look at including unconventional gas drilling in existing industrial zones and there are there is a limited amount of space within peters that ship that is owned industrial the a lot of that is located down the valley road towards lawrence if someone were to come in it would allow counsel the opportunity planning commission encounter the opportunity to review that up occasion and set special conditions but based upon the circumstance of that development in addition  the setbacks are five hundred feet from the edge of the well pad to a protected structure and five hundred feet from the edge of the well pad to a property line and that is a distance that is much greater than the minimum distance that's prescribe for in the act and the reason why it's a much greater distance and this is actually a drawing of the tracks well site if what the act talks about is being five hundred feet away from the wellbore what we proposing is that you would be five hundred feet away from the edge of disturbance and as a result of that it's a much greater area the other thing that in this is somewhat that novel to peter's township is that until such time as the unconventional gas well as plug of five hundred foot easement will surround the well pad and which those structures can be built the way this works now is that if in fact you need to have a separation from an existing structure but once that well goes in it there is nothing to stop somebody building a house closer to that well pad and the concern is that once the wills are drilled in the area is reclaimed you can buffer and wind scape that and people not understand what that activity is and find themselves down the road with additional wells being drilled an additional fracking occurring and they would be within close proximity and this is an attempt to make sure that pewter homeowners also have this is type of separation ordinance goes on to require that the there is water quality testing before and after drilling your soil testing before and after drilling that there be submitted a plan for truck routes and that the roads be bonded impoundments and prior drilling notification must be sent to residents as within one thousand feet of the well with regard to compressor stations they will also be a conditional use in the industrial zone district applications must include viral impact statements they must be enclosed in buildings that are architecturally compatible with the area in which they're located and they require that they have soundproof walls they also require that electric motors be used t unless it can be demonstrated that electrical service is unavailable there are standards for noise that are established there's an emergency action plan that must be filed with the peters towns of fire department with regard to processing plants processing plants will be conditional use in the existing industrial district electric motors will have to be used to let electoral services unavailable it establishes standards of noise for processing plants it is dam established as architectural standards particularly with regard to how the color of these these structures that may be out there that are used as processing plants i requires an inspection by the fire department prior to a processing plant  processing plant being stored so this is this is a summary of of what the ordinance provides for the purpose of the night is the take testimony from everyone here so that we can gather input from the community as to your feelings with regard to this mr smith has indicated to me that if anyone is interested it has to bind that they will need to be sworn in and i was hoping this demographer could do that for us if anyone here plans to give testimony night if you could stand up and will swear he went in at one time and we have a name a den of five years so at least those eight people have to stand thank you that was done in this township not so long ago like to read the letter the from a long with the referee the a lot of that sent out to residents of peter's township i'm not going to read the whole thing because of time but in that letter the referendum began with a group of well intended community members wanting to ban natural gas drilling however what they've created goes well beyond that infringing on an indian individual property rights and possibly bankrupting our township here is what the home rule referendum are really asking you to decide is really asking to decide on tuesday november  should the government be allowed to take your property mineral rights without due process and without compensation to you are you willing to pay much higher property taxes caused by potential barrage of lawsuits against the township as this referendum asserts and this letter went out to try to convince the people of peter's township to vote no on the referendum to keep it so that they would still have the power to do what they're doing today people voted it was natural and clearly didn't get into the people of town peters township did value people's mentor rights landowner rights and so on and so forth and here we are right now which they very eloquently expressed to you what they're doing and what it is and if you do please look at the map and i ask for an acreage thing this industrial product that's a minute part of peter's towns in my opinion it's a band aid they don't they don't allow you to use that word but give it to me it's there in the places where the duster are near tricks and everything but the e p a and so on and so forth is not going to allow drilling in most of those places anyway it's a bit so i don't see how we got from that from that this letter that peter's times have sent out to well we're going to take away the overlay my wipes out my potential for my family eighteen members of my family from ever possibly having the income from drill i think that's wrong i don't think it's right they when they had up on the screen up there they made it sound like they made this offer and my property was one of those properties that they identified and they spent a tremendous amount of taxpayer money on doing some side study it was thirty forty thousand dollars something like that i read in the paper to do this study to find out if there was any place in t we're taking that overlay away banning drilling from my farm i don't i don't get that i don't think it's fair that also told you that resident that acts thirteen says that residential and drilling cannot happen while i ask all of you to think about logical we have had all around us here in peter's township i checked every one of those paths is on property that can be developed residentially in the future so i don't quite see how they have singlehanded read that that means all those paths are illegal or unconstitutional and they're doing no not if they're going to do another one in nottingham township it is on property that can and probably will be developed residentially in the future this thing about the word industrial by the way agriculture is the biggest industry in pennsylvania i am a farmer i grow produce in peter's township i use truck i use trucks i use chemicals to use all of those and i make noise does that mean if that industrial use drilling is not allowed are they then going to take my aquaculture farming rights away of course i'm against that doesn't make sense i don't think when they say and when the when they use that industrial i don't know who decided that industrial drilling is not allowed to be on residential property and i am asking that somebody goes one step further and does a little more of a legal investigation of that fact and get another opinion that's not from any from an attorney i don't know where you get something like that but from somebody who has no bias i the only thing that i ever want to know i have had at least with ranger resorts for years it's a no service there was a farmer next door that was willing to have a cat on him they had gone to the thought we had gotten to the point where they were actually surveying and trying to figure things out and i just want to mention that that had that had peters township not to interfere and not happen you know i know most of you are totally against  but i just checked the closest home to where they were going to but that was like i believe by my bestest most about four thousand feet and that was only one home that there's just one close to rest on mark i think nearly a mile the trucks could have come in or they would have been on township roads for half a mile then they would have turned in onto a dirt road on my property on somebody else's property turned in on a dirt road so the impact on our township roads would have been half a mile it really may not have been that bad a on drill they were there i worked there every day i go pick tomatoes and corn there every day they drilled for about ten months they frac for about two months a lot of it they give you the impression here that is never ending and it will never stop it is temporary there when they were drilling mr mallock house he built a brand new beautiful home right beside the pad it was noisy and dusty when they were drawing it it was there's no question about it but other than that it wasn't as bad as everybody says it was and on fracking i own a farm in warren county this is the area of the famous film gas land that was filmed right in where i have a christmas tree farm we grow our christmas trees there we have a home it is not out in the middle of any where there are homes on both sides of the road city sewers it's not like it's out in the middle of nowhere there are eight well those on that  now these are complete these are the regular conventional ones which i know is a totally different thing however they did practice they frack them all they came and tested the water we have a well at that house we have a spring at the house they tested the water it was a very nice experience there was no problems at all they tested the water after they fry and that was they frac back many years ago this was when they came back refreshed this was only maybe four years ago i would say i still take a water jug up with me every time i go up there when i go to sear the trees or mo in the trees because the water is so good up there i bring it home because it's very good spring and well water we've never had any problems with water i'm sure there are cases there are that there are problems but my experience has not been that bad if they pass this it is going to very negatively financially hurt my family and i know finances compared to health and all that it is nothing but i do believe it could have been done in a safe decent manner with very little impact on the community and again it pad wasn't actually going to be on my farm if i was going to be on somebody else's farm but i think we're going to come under  e i would like i've been trying to just recently my son's about ready to graduate from college and i have been trying to convince him to come in on the farm to continue as my i have already have six generators and my brother's boy is already in on the farm and i've been trying to convince him to come in on the floor and it would have been great and i would have been great for my father for her to supplement his retirement but it would be great if i could say to him you know jake this is good it's a great place to have a farm before me and peter's township buying food for the community would be a great thing for you to chime in on that and i would like to say to them and you know even if it's not the greatest income in the world you know it's a lot of hard work it's hard to make a living you'd have this gas income that could be a great supplement to your income  your retirement like your four hundred one k or something like that you know that would have been a great incentive for me to say to him but here's township similar to what they're doing at rolling hills decided for the good and the betterment of the community they're going to take rolling stone three and for the good and the betterment of peter's top ship they're going to take my the only difference there is they're going to pay the people that have rolling hills for their and i don't think they're going to pay for my gas right i don't think it's right that they take the gas right i really wish they would have some pot some other legal person look at this to see really what the findings are fact thirteen and i really wish they would reconsider this thank you thank you mr simmons and you were very i think we've all been burdened with a conscious concern over the equity of what we're doing i will do my adeline because i can't talk now i'm supposed to do this later but that's ok you're in charge but what with this status do relative the conventional drilling on the simmons property will have no impact it would be permitted today and it would be permitted that's right next period that's right after this an act yes and the other you know and the other thing is what it doesn't prohibit is a a gas well being drilled somewhere else that can reach under mr simmons property doesn't break up with that either no and i do recall an appearance of yours some time ago relative to an opinion or thought that you were being denied with actions we' done on conventional drilling my office is actually in water and process so you have my business address as well i am the director of the southwest pennsylvania environmental health project and i'm here tonight to testify primarily on the health effects that we have seen i submitted written testimony and i believe you have all that so i'm not going to read my written testimony i just wanted to point out a couple of key things that i've learned in five years working as the director again of the southwest pennsylvania environmental health project and let me just clarify briefly our mission is to really work on health effects associated with conventional natural gas drilling so we were formed in two thousand and eleven to work precisely on this issue i relocated to peter's township knowing the situation in peter's township very intentionally because i wanted to remain in washington county but i was concerned about the extent and the scope of  shows the extent of drilling in southwestern pennsylvania and this is in two thousand and fifteen and what you see this is actually green and washington counties but  what you can see on this map is actually density population density is shown in these different shades these are production values so the size of these circles represent production of different wells this is peter's township right up here this is the tracks well pad so you can see that surrounding peter's township around in peter's township in green county washington county is a tremendous amount of production what i want to bring to the attention council tonight is the fact that we're actually seeing hell symptoms that are appearing to be linked to the amount of production so if you look at the numbers of production and you look at the population density you will start to see more health symptoms where the production values are higher this is not research i should emphasize this is not a control scenario this is not a long term epidemiological study largely because there is no control group in washington county apart from perhaps peters but what we see is higher production values more health symptoms those health symptoms i've documented testimony and many of these are being reflected in peer reviewed literature asthma migraines respiratory concerns neurological gastrointestinal skin problems there's a whole host of concerns that are starting to really really show up in the literature peer reviewed literature research but the problem we're facing now and i should back up and just say i completely support peter's township in its position but the problem we're seeing now is we've created a vast public health experiment on our population with little to no long term epidemiological data so in this situation to fully protect the health and well being appears township i support exactly this kind of approach exactly this type of ordinance because from my actual history which was more urban planning and zoning i can say without a doubt this is an incompatible use what we are seeing in terms of these health effects what we are seeing in terms of and this is just gas wells and this is two thousand and fifteen if you overlaid on top of this pipelines compressor stations processing facilities this would paint a very dire picture for the health and well being of washington county and green county i do not support seeing that happen in peter's township thank you make about mr lewis we  receipt of the percenters written comment and we will include those as a part of the record again thank you the third name would be cindy carroll of thomas ro students with the main emphasis of creative problem solving within my realm as far as my first degree was called industrial arts one of those main emphasis was on energy now it's called technology education but still with the idea of creative problem solving so to me what i try to teach my students is to make wise choices we have lots of energy needs no doubt and i appreciate being able to walk into my my home and turn on my electricity and my furnace to keep me comfortable but we also have alternatives that we can use that we don't necessarily need and i still like fracking to provide the in the needs of our society as someone on germany what they think about that which is one of the major uses of renewable energy and have gotten i lots of folks are completely taken care of by renewable energy so we have some choices  and died of cancer is their direct result and i can't tell you but i can also tell you that we have a elementary student that has cancer in today's inbox i have a student that was in my classroom last year that was just diagnosed with cancer it's not ok if anybody has experienced a loved one who had to deal with cancer it's not ok we have to do everything in our power to spend each person with the opportunity to have a healthy and well being type of life instead of being riddled with cancer that destroys not only that person but the entire network of family and friends around them my own foster mother died of cancer so it is a personal note with me and so for the idea of your income might be depleted you've got to be kidding our he being of our loved ones is the most important person or point here and the problem solving of technology by what i teach and what is made this country so great is that we are innovative we can find ways to improve our lives to redefine ourselves to find ways to support ourselves and our family with dignity and honor that the end of the day you felt good about what you did if you look at the studies for the health and well being of the workers in the oil and gas industry i would be very sorry as the mother of a child that worked in that industry because the stats are overwhelmingly against them for their own health and well be it's just amazing how many different features it's not just the water in the soil but the air even as much from the trucks there's been a number of workers that have been killed recently because of just the fumes from the hatch on the truck that's leaving the site from doing samples and just being able to measure what's inside the tanker it's that volatile and in the last notice that i saw from it one of the recommendations was a set up for the worker to go up there meeting on opening th hatch was to leave it open for at least three hours so i wouldn't be so dense for that person while they were up there which means all those contaminants get into our air we need air we need water we need clean soil there's are bas drilling on top of the swiss cheese of the mining tunnels around here plainly presents a recipe for unstable ground i don't have a whole lot of money i have put my investment into my home if i have unstable ground in mind surance company doesn't take care of my whole i don't know how we survive a source of retirement through over dates because that is mind that a cross section of fracking clearly shows a pipe going through the groundwater layer water vs pipe and metal is no contest water will always win down the road when this pipe than russ the contaminants from even the inside the pipe hits the water the gas that will continue to throw in minute layers amounts will be now in our drinking water in the dark woods every clear and humming insect is holy in the memory and expanse of my people the sack which courses through the trees carries the memory expanse of my people the sack which courses through these trees carries the memories of the red man the white man's dead forget the country of their birth while they go to work among the stars are dead never forget this beautiful earth for it is the mother of the red man we are part of the earth in this part of us the perfume flowers our sisters the deer the horse the great eagle those are our brothers the rocky crest the joyce is in the middle of the body heat of the pool and man all will all belong to the same family so one great chief in washington sends word that he wishes to buy or land yes much of us the great white she word he will reserve us a place so that we can live comfortably to ourselves we will he will be our father and we will be his children so we will consider your offer to buy your land but it will not be easy for this land is sacred to us  is not just water but the blood of our ancestors if you see if we sell your you land your mission or that is sacred blood of our ancestors and if you sell the land you must remember that is sacred and you must teach your children that is sacred and that each guest the reflection of the clearwater the and takes the land whatever he needs the earth is not his brother but his enemy and when he has conquered it he moves on the basis father's grace behind he does not care he kidnaps the earth through his children and he does not care similar as far as when the fracking is done what do they leave us his father's grave in a string of birthright are forgotten he treats his mother the earth as brother the same as things to be bought plundered sold like sheep or bright beads his appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert there with me as i'm close to them now is precious to the red man for all to ensure the same breath the beast the tree the man they all share the same breath the white man does not seem to notice that the air he breeze like  dying for many days is known to the stench but if we so you are lying you must remember that the air is precious to us that the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports the one i gave our grandfather his first breath also he sees his last if we sell you our land you must keep it apart and sacred as a place where even the white man can go to taste the wind that is sweeping by the meadows flowers so we will consider your offer to buy our land if we decide to accept i will make one condition the white man must treat t of this land as his brothers i have seen a thousand rotting buffaloes in the prairie left by the white men who shot them from a passing train most teacher to the left the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers that they will respect the man belongs to the earth this we know all things are connected like the blood which unites one family all things are connected whatever befalls the earth be false the sons of the earth man will not we've the web of life he is merely a strand in it what every does to the may think now that he that you own him if you wish to own our land but you cannot  because the other the last problem is basically the decisions that we have according to a couple of different nations we should be considering for seven generations so does this fracking opportunity help for seven generations for now my humble opinion absolutely not in any way shape or form so i do thank you for trying to keep myself healthy my daughter healthy my family neighbors healthy in the well being of anti community thank you very much has been the next speaker would be joan book from eighty four pennsylvania mr dunn wrote bob dornin one of the seventh out the court mcmurry looking through your ordinance a couple things i noticed under unconventional gas well he mentioned production of natural gas from an unconventional formation or that is deviated from the vertical i'm just wondering about the term unconventional formation because most i couldn't hear that either but anyway conventional gas drilling actually it's not the onondaga to the elk sands at the state and those people consider is the the delineation between conventional unconventional and i think weeks let's see in under item why isn't yankee the apple enjoy have the burden of persuasion with respect to the to demonstrate something's missing there is a word missing under why  that that is not enough most of the studies show at least a distance of a half a mile and significant respiratory upper and lower respiratory gastrointestinal and dermatologic problems with people living in that proximity the mackenzie study that you put into the record from colorado shows symptoms specifically congenital heart disease and babies up to ten miles from natural gas wells as a resident of peter's township the father of three graduates from peters township high school and as a pediatrician who works here in the township i would like to thank this panel for heeding the advice of people like rana ripple and some of the other speakers today as well as other public health experts and rejecting unconventional natural gas development in this reza residential community i thank you for recognizing as much this very heavy industrial industry trashes the landscape and pollutes the air that we all breathe the water that we all drink and the soil in which we grow our food and and in which we allow our children to play and i thank you for understanding the enormous amount of emissions that are produced by this very heavy industry emissions that adversely affect human health and especially the health of children we know that industrial air pollution like this means more asthma in children more chronic lung disease and heart disease in adults more cancer in adults and children and as some recent peer reviewed literature shows  perhaps autism more eighty h t and other neuro developmental problems that children have airborne emissions occur at every stage of unconventional natural gas development not just at the site of the multiple more carbon monoxide carbon dioxide nitrogen oxides and ozone science continues to tell us that each and every one of these emissions makes people sick especially children these toxic emissions are released inadvertently and on purpose at well pads during pipeline construction and maintenance at compressor stations and processing facilities also let's remember that approximately eight percent of the methane that is produced is released into the atmosphere i thank you for understanding that this has important consequences for our warming planet and our changing climate by taking responsibility and saying no to unconventional natural gas development in this community toxics generated by the oil and gas industry also spill into the ground and make their way into groundwater aquifers as well as rivers and streams with air pollution what goes up comes down with spills what goes down into the well comes back up in the form of flow back which is water contaminated with chemicals used in fracking many of which are known to cause pregnancy outcomes that are adverse birth defects cancer and many other human diseases also in that  toxic heavy metals such as arsenic and lead and naturally occurring radioactive materials such as thore and radium and urani there is currently no way to dispose of this toxic waste water water treatment plants can't treat it huge flowback in patents that well sites have fallen out of favor in fact we just heard that they're going to be banned due to obvious health reasons deep water waist deep waste water injection wells apparently cause earthquakes and dumping the waste into landfills dumps our health and environmental problems on to other communities finally i have been asked to speak many times in many different communities in many different venues about the peer reviewed consensus regarding health risks associated with unconventional natural gas development in each community that has invited natural gas development the social fabric that binds people together become severely torn what's heartbreaking is seeing the animosity and the stress that develops between friends and neighbors and even family members it happens in every community i've been to in this gas patch we experienced a little bit of that recently in peter's township during the teachers  strike the good news is that strike didn't last very long and then it was over natural gas development is never over there is no end to it urt least for the next fifty to one hundred years i thank you for acknowledging that council's efforts on this matter i know it's very difficult to work with a lot of people here and try to appease everyone's interests i too am concerned about the setback to five hundred feet seems absurdly little to me there seems to be no provision for baseline air quality monitoring it all in the ordinance i don't know if that's something you've thought about the other thing is we've been talking about that peter such a plant there supposed to be a serious amount of growth in the next ten years in this area how would this affect people like mr simmons if he were to be property and how would they be able to develop around that area in particular and then of course for me what's really striking is what's gone on in oklahoma in the last few months earthquakes etc that possibly could be attributed to fracking i mean do we really want all this to go on in our backyard i personally don't want it i'm really tired i'm not one of those people that clearly signed an agreement to have anyone come under my property and yet have as i've asked before you know where are my rights to protect the land that i have the mineral rights underneath my property i mean it's ok if my neighbor wants to sell his but how can you guarantee that my rights are protected so for me this is the real issue here misstep back is a major issue that's it i want to keep it short and simple thank sax for twenty eight center church road i'm glad to give as you give us an opportunity to voice our opinions i come from northern indiana and thus trio area born and raised  and i see the results of industry i'm glad to see that you're looking long term you're looking at it controlling an area that is an area we moved into ordinance we were able to enact we think like came about because of your good work and because of your wonderful legal counsel you have the best legal experience i'd like to spank about several things with it done the first is the experience that i am having listening to drilling activity on my well insulated home on a farm the devil an idea how much they would offer me it would be something i would not even remotely consider little of my background  the last year and a half with drilling activities and sellstrom township i have been the peaceful enjoyment of my friends has been compromised because all of the strangers in the consequences that you're most book out as i read your ordinance over the weekend i believe the five hundred foot setback is not enough we have fifteen hundred feet and it's not enough disclose potential liability that they are not cooperating but do not have coverage for a potential disaster every one of them says that the serpent the only way detail the financial facts as i have discovered them through months of research and looking at people's world the checks if you can possibly use them in the red record to protect your president thank you been here this evening and shown enough interest to come and participate in this public alas now i've pondered the council have comments or questions frank david zoning here and i would first of all i could just make sure everybody understands that it's zoning is a is a constitutional issue it is not a policy issue that means that when we talk about zoning considerations it's not necessarily something that we would like to do like change the width of the street with the sidewalk we are constrained by the constitution the rights of citizens are defined in article one of the pennsylvania constitution specifically when we talk about zoning we're talking about the rights of citizens that are defined in article one section one and section twenty seven as well as article five and fourteen or are the menace five in fourteen of the u s constitution these are inherent rights of systems that means that these are these are rights that limit government actions as far as abridging these rights the government cannot abridge the rights of citizens as they are guaranteed in the constitution so the government cannot pass a law that violates these rights this is very important to understand we can't just say hey it would be really nice if we did this or didn't do that the constitution constrains us as to what we can do and can't do we had a suggestion earlier gee you know we ought to we ought to allow drilling in a residential area you can't do that it's constrain no legislative act in a bridge the constitution we are part of the legislative act if we pass an ordinance that's a legislative act and that cannot abridge the constitution neither planning code or any ordinance that we passed mr lauer mentioned in his presentation some parts of the municipality planning code six o three i which is the you know have to allow drilling portion and a few others that probably wouldn't pass muster neither can any law be passed which specifically advantages one person one interest or one industry you can't pass a law specifically for the oil and gas industry it's against the constitution you can't pass a law for the specific interest of one person one party anybody specific interest is unconstitutional the industrial use many court decisions many keep many instances of case law say that you that you have to have compatible uses you know zoning district that's how you define as zoning district it is an area in which compatible uses are grouped that so that the rights of one person do not infringe upon the rates of another person that's these people are violating the constitution the fact that their citizens and their solicitors and the people in their township have not objected to it have not taken them to court is their problem that doesn't make it right and it doesn't mean that we can they guarantees the rights of an individual to acquire and use property these rights can be limited by government only to the extent that they protect the lives health safety and morals and comfort and general welfare of the populace these are called police powers to be constitutional or police power restrictions must assure that one persons use of his property does not harm a neighbor's use of his property i would ask the person who is talking about having growing on his property if he has given surface rights on his property i think the answer is no and so the if you have you know there the reason is that you can't  property and that their that their right to have the enjoyment of their property as residential property would not be infringed upon the us supreme court has held that proper zoning is upon is accomplished by the creation of zoning districts  were incompatible uses are allowed and incompatible users are excluded it's really simple this isn't anything that just started with the robinson decision that war goes back probably a hundred years it didn't just start all the supreme court did in the robinson decision was tell the legislature sylvania that act thirteen was an unconstitutional  overreach so the other thing is that zoning has to be consistent with a comprehensive plan we've spent a lot of time in peter's township developing a comprehensive plan this tells us in our citizens what one section twenty seven the environmental rights amendment this is received a lot of press one way and the other there are those that say all the supreme court decision was only a plurality decision it doesn't mean anything cetera et cetera it means something believe me because that amendment tree's is in the constitution that you know i didn't have the supreme court decision didn't change any of that article one section twenty seven says that the people are entitled to clean air clean water and a healthy environment it says that it says some other things it's actually really three sentences in that were in that in that  section and it defines two sets of rights the first one is what we as local officials really concern ourselves when they're called first sentence rights and that is people have the right to clean air clean water and a preservation of the environment and in various court interpretations it says that all levels of government us being one of them the firm of the obligation to uphold those rights we don't have a choice we have an obligation this is something that we can do you know out of the goodness of our hearts or because we choose to it's an affirmative obligation under the constitution  so that's that there's another important point the entered into evidence mr lauer mentioned some exhibits b c d e n f but i would just like to point out a couple things with those exhibits exhibit b was a was entitled human health risk assessment from era missions and unconventional natural gas resources you know it's a big title it was a big thick piece of paper and i'm sure everybody here read it and memorized it but the conclusion of it in one sentence really it said that both non cancerous and cancer is risk is greater for people living a half a mile from natural gas development than it is from people living greater than a half mile from from wells there's no more granular distance it doesn't it doesn't say you know this distance this this isn't this distance but it does say that if you live within a half a mile of heavy gas drilling activity you have a lot you have a greater chance doesn't say how much greater but you have a greater chance of both cancerous and non cancerous health risks exhibits see her her natal outcomes and unconventional mass natural gas operations in southwest pennsylvania that's us the study was done around here ran i believe mentioned mentioned this but at the conclusion was that there are indications of a relationship between exposure to drilling and birthweight lower birth weights correlate with higher exposure doesn't say how much it's just says that there's a correlation this is a this is an uncool good outcome it's not a positive thing to look at exhibit d adequacy of current setbacks for directional high volume hydraulic fracturing marcellus barnett and i shall place this was presented to us in a workshop but this looked at threats from explosion radiant heat toxic gas clouds air pollution from hydraulic fracturing activities it looked at current state mandated setbacks in state in the states of texas pennsylvania and colorado pennsylvania mandates five hundred feet colorado up to a thousand feet in texas up t eleven hundred twenty five feet become clear reason of this study was that the current setback distances are not sufficient to protect the public health and welfare it goes on i believe some of the studies are shown in young people and children and what what is out in the eastern part of this township near where some of these activities are proposed by our school and the these are exposure of young children to certainly something we certainly don't want to see so we can go on and on with this kind of stuff but the point of it is that we as public officials are charged with doing a couple things putting together an adequate ordinance to control drilling in this town ship and fulfilling our obligations under the constitution to to maintain a healthy environment  i personally have to ask if five hundred feet isn't enough a thousand isn't enough what is enough how do you how do we fulfill our obligation are mandated obligation under the constitution and still fulfill the law were we want we certainly have in mind the you know the interest of some of our citizens who do have gas leases we understand their interest in their financials of return but on the other hand i don't think that there's one person deriving financial benefit at the at the risk of a large number of other people in the township if their their health and their well being i don't think that that's a fair trade and i think that that we are very limited in what we can do because our conscious is owned residential primarily and if we were to look at any place to put drilling it can't be in a residential area the solution as mr lauer pointed out at the beginning would be to say look where to look at a place where we could rezone it to an industrial area but as we talk to people who might be interested in that we said ok would you like to see your area around your rezone residential by the way let me mention to you if it is rezoned residential you can't develop it for  you know so you know there's a there's a whole lot of things going on but the other part of it is that there's zoning isn't something you just arbitrarily do it has to pass a couple tests there's a test of spots zoning you can't just take a specific little piece of property and safe i want to stone this something different or put a different use here that's unconstitutional you can't that's why one of the reasons that the overlay districts didn't you know were unconstitutional so we're caught between a whole lot of things and i want people to understand that we have looked at this from a thousand different directions we have talked to the best lawyers that exist our solicitor is one of the best lawyers in the state understand this we didn't do this by just flying blindly we spend a lot of time a lot of looking we investigate we we read all of the briefs that are filed in all of the cases that are clear and we talk to other lawyers we know but when it was suggested that maybe we ought to find a good lawyer to talk about zoning a we've got the best lawyer to talk to about zoning and they we've got a lot of other lawyers that work with us on this and this is the conclusion that they have come to that this is the best way that we can proceed so i want everybody in this township to understand that the people in this council have put forth a great deal of thought and a great deal of effort to come to to what we hope can be a conclusion it's not it's not going to be something that's popular with everybody in thank you mr lewis i had one particular question if you could clarify under thirty eight five if she's made three eighty five dollars thirteen under the definitions conventional gas well talks about trailing above the base of stansted and shale for mation there is no similar right friend sunder unconventional gas well should there be a reference to a certain formation in that definition economic closure rate so it goes on past that so i think the one clarification that we can make because that's all it would be it is not a substantial change in the order it is to reference the fact that that definition is as provided within the oil and gas act one i would accept i would suggest we do that just for consistency among the definitions and then i had one second question on page seven and the other ordinance  and post hydraulic fracturing but what it what the requirement is that prior to an after drilling that that there would be a soil survey the pre drilling of course is to create a baseline so that we understand what the conditions of the soil were prior to drilling the post drilling would allow us to know what contamination has occurred as a result of the drilling activity that's what that's after does that preclude bringing any dirt in or taking their out after the fact i don't know that it precludes that all what it is trying to do is to find out whether or not the drilling activity has resulted in contamination of the soils is a problem technically they are typically going to do the reclamation of the point that's on the soils going to be disturbed again so any contaminants that you're looking for could likely be removed at that point anyway as i'm sure you're all accomplishing  well i think with the intent is to make sure that the site is remediated at the point in time that the real is done whether that involves taking those soils and disposing of them and another location properly or or or any other thing that remediation site thank you i did have one comment i won't go on too long but i think one of the things that's been difficult with this and even with a comprehensive plan that zoning ordinances you know if you were planning peter's from scratch you could figure out where to put all these things and not affect anybody and put everything in its own little section and make it work but we're we're working in a township that's developed and it's grown over a number of years  in speaking with people who've lived here forty years or fifty years you know i'm sure that a lot of the people who had all these farms weren't wild about putting all these residential developments in but progress comes through and now we're faced with this unconventional drilling and we're trying to figure out how to a first of all comply with the state constitution because as elected officials in a township under the state we have to and second how to protect the citizens  and the health and safety of everyone involved and we are hopefully trying to reach that compromise it's a balancing act and nobody is really one hundred percent satisfied with it but it's probably the best we can do given the fact we have an existing township with people living here now the thing that bothers me a little bit is that as much as we're trying to protect our residents of peter's township there are residents who live near the border of other townships and as was pointed out there's activity going on in other townships that we're not going to be able to necessarily protect people from and that's one of the deficit's of this particular ordinance but i think given everything in my mind i think we've done as best we could trying to balance both of our responsibilities so thank you for coming and your ca e that concludes the matters of this public airing i would also like to thank all of you for attending those that spoke we didn't value your opinions we've listened to some of you for a long time and pondered what message you've carried into making this decision i think i want to thank staff for the hours that they put in to help put these revised ordinance together and really my co counsel members here for enduring hours worth of tedious discussion both of public hearings and workshops the one person i feel sorry for tonight is the star naga for whose fingers of not stop and  obligated to put together a text of everything that everybody has said so this two hour you're about ready to tell me you have something else you want to say