Some Cecil Township neighbors worried about fracking coming to the area

CECIL TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Frustration over fracking in one Washington County community has neighbors speaking up.

Cecil Township neighbors are worried that well pads could be coming to their backyards and are concerned over potential health impacts.

Deborah Lee and Nancy Alloi-Edmonds have lived in the densely populated Georgetown Estates community for two decades.

“We’re anxiously awaiting the decision as to whether or not this disaster is gonna come closer to us,” Lee said.

Cecil Township’s current proposal would put fracking quite literally in their backyards.

“Not only did they propose one potential well pad, they proposed one on either side of our community which has about 10% of the population of the entire township in less than a mile radius,” Alloi-Edmonds said.

The women say they found out three months ago after the Cecil Township Board of Supervisors held a series of public meetings to revise the gas and oil ordinance to change rules about how close fracking wells can be built near homes.

“The current ordinance says 500 feet which is horrifying. We’ve listened to the testimonies of people who have well pads 1,500 feet from their homes and their lives are tortured. Their children are sick, they develop rashes, tumors, nosebleeds, they can’t go outside when the wells are flaring,” Alloi-Edmonds continued.

“The public comment, the outcry has been enormous. So many people are suffering, so many bad stories, so many heartbreaking tales,” Lee said.

Lee and other concerned community members attended the Planning Commission meeting Thursday night to change the ordinance from 500 to 2,500 feet, which is the recommendation from the PA Grand Jury and physicians for social responsibility.

The Cecil Township Planning Commission listened to concerns about the proposed sites which include placing one of the fracking wells between the Valleybrook Country Club and Georgetown Estates.

“I don’t own Valleybrook, I don’t belong to Valleybrook, but I would imagine that a multi-million dollar golf course is not going to disrupt their greens to develop a well pad,” Kristy Budavich, part of the Cecil Township Planning Commission said,

A public hearing on the issue was slated to take place on July 1, but it’s been postponed.

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