(The Center Square) — One state agency wants Pennsylvanians to better understand what environmental justice means.
The Department of Environmental Protection wants to tackle legacy pollution and also emphasize that EJ-affected communities are not only non-white communities in cities, but rural areas, too.
DEP Secretary Rich Negrin, during a meeting of the Environmental Justice Advisory Board on Tuesday, argued environmental justice means “really focusing on and supporting communities that have been impacted by environmental emergencies.”
“We all know it’s not just about communities of color,” Negrin said, “but it’s also about the poor, rural communities that are environmental justice communities.”
DEP’s Office of Environmental Justice aims to involve residents most at risk of pollution in the decision-making process for permits and other issues, and Negrin was excited about a recent Montana ruling that found youths were deprived by the state of a clean environment.
“We’re at a critical inflection point from a climate perspective, I think we’re all living a new reality that is fascinating,” Negrin said.
Environmental justice “is really about disparate impact,” he said, and “talks about what’s happening in your community in a real way…it’s about vulnerable populations across all of Pennsylvania.”
He pointed to the state pressing Norfolk Southern to reimburse Pennsylvanians in Beaver County affected by the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio and the $5 million fine paid by Shell for air quality violations as “true environmental justice for me.”
“I don’t think there’s anything more progressive…than letting the public identify, create a protocol, and figure out how they’re gonna spend $5 million,” Negrin said.
While not directed by the broader public, the board also discussed ongoing efforts to ramp up its efforts to plug orphaned gas and oil wells.
The commonwealth received $25 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for plugging wells and has, as of August 14, plugged 74 wells. Pennsylvania has a staggering number of orphaned and abandoned wells: anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000.
“With that $25 million, we are going to plug 226 wells, so we’re making good progress,”
Louie Krak, DEP’s infrastructure implementation coordinator, said. “Just for context, the past five years combined, DEP has only had enough funding to plug 60 wells total. So this is a truly transformational amount of funding, and we’re going to be receiving more funding.”
Over the next four years, Krak said Pennsylvania is eligible for $305 million to pay for well plugging, which will require an annual application. DEP is also launching a new orphaned well plugging grant program with some of those funds.
“There will be grant funds available to a qualified well plugger that plugs an eligible well,” Krak said. “If you’re able to demonstrate access to the equipment, materials, and resources and services you need to plug a well, then you would be eligible to receive funding under this grant program.”
More funding for well plugging could be on its way as well from the EPA and Department of Energy in the form of a methane emission reduction program that will make $1.5 billion available nationally.
“With Pennsylvania having potentially a lot of eligible wells, we hope to get a sizable chunk of that funding,” Krak said.
Critics of DEP have argued that current well-plugging efforts have lacked transparency. Non-profit groups have also made an effort to plug abandoned wells, which can sometimes be much cheaper, though experts warn that every well differs and estimating the cost of plugging is tricky.
The Sierra Club has estimated that plugging all of Pennsylvania’s wells would cost $14.5 billion — which often falls on taxpayers.
