DEP emergency line breakdown

Odor report goes uninvestigated

By FRITZ MAYER

DAMASCUS, TOWNSHIP, PA — If you live near the Woodland Management gas well, and if you have a two-year-old child at home, a strange chemical smell in the air can be especially alarming.

Greg Swartz and Tannis Kowalchuk, who have a two-year-old boy and who live about a third of a mile from the well, were concerned when they smelled a sulfur-like chemical odor at their organic farm in Damascus Township on September 5. But, they were picking and packing vegetables to sell at a farmers market that day, and didn’t pursue the matter.

When they woke up the next morning, Labor Day, they smelled the same strong odor again. This time, they decided to take action, and they called the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) emergency response line. The call was fielded by an answering service, and the person on the other end of the line said the “appropriate” person at the DEP would be contacted.

After waiting an hour or so with no response, Swartz also contacted the Equinunk Volunteer Fire Department, which responded within minutes. Chief Don Moss confirmed the smell, but did not think it presented any danger. Moss contacted security at the well, who told him the smell was caused by a wastewater pond that was due to be pumped out the next day.

Swartz was grateful that the fire department responded so quickly, but he noted they are not trained in air quality monitoring. In an account of the incident that was circulated in an email he wrote, “We don’t know exactly what has been flying in the air. It may or may not be acutely toxic.”

But most disturbing was the lack of response by the DEP. Over the course of the next couple of days, Swartz spoke with various DEP officials, including deputy secretary Denise Brinley and emergency management coordinator Kerry Leib.

According to the DEP’s website, the agency “is required to have management personnel on around-­the-­clock standby to receive notifications of pollution incidents and environmental emergencies. The program has emergency response team members available to respond on­site whenever there is an immediate threat to the public health, safety, or the environment.”

But in this case, the response didn’t happen. Swartz was told by agency officials that “the answering service had no record of our call and they don’t know why the communication breakdown occurred.”

Swartz wrote, “We can’t help but wonder what will happen when there is a catastrophic gas drilling emergency and how long it will take DEP to respond?”

Swartz described his communications with the agency as “ongoing.” DEP spokesman Mark Carmon said, “The department is reviewing all the circumstances of this situation and that review is ongoing.”