FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE \u2013 May 4, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contact: Karen Feridun, Berks Gas Truth, 610-678-7726, berksgastruth@gmail.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thousands Tell PA House They Don\u2019t Want Radioactive Waste on Their Roads<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Berks Gas Truth Submits Letter & Petition in Advance of HB1144 Vote<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This morning, 78 organizations, institutions, and businesses and more than 3,150 concerned citizens called on state representatives to vote no on a bill that would roll back rules on conventional drillers, many that have been in place for decades. The letter and petition organized by Berks Gas Truth was sent in anticipation of consideration of the bill by the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the bill is full of bad provisions, the group focused on the same issue it focused on in the last session when a similar bill, SB790, was making its way through the legislature. Last year\u2019s bill would have reinstated the practice of road spreading of toxic, radioactive drilling waste on unpaved roads. This year\u2019s bill, and its Senate counterpart, SB534, would allow the waste to be spread on paved roads, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, the group presented a letter to the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee the morning of its consideration of SB790. The Committee amended the bill to remove the road spreading provision. Today\u2019s letter updates and appends that letter to express that much attention has been given to the contents of drilling waste since last year and concerns for potential impacts to water and air quality, human health, and safety have only increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe people spoke clearly last year and the Committee, and ultimately Governor Wolf who vetoed the bill he rightly considered to be a bad bill even without the road spreading provision, heard them. This time, the House is moving this bill very quickly. With only a short time to circulate the letter and petition, we exceeded the number of signatures we\u2019d gathered last time. Let\u2019s face it, \u2018I\u2019d like toxic, radioactive drilling waste to be spread on the roads where I live,\u2019 said no one ever,\u201d said Karen Feridun, Founder of Berks Gas Truth<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ###<\/p>\n\n\n\n View the HB1144 Letter<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n View the HB1144 Petition<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n UPDATE, May 5, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n We received many more signatures after the delivery – 3 more organizations for a total of 81 and 131 individual signers for a total of 3,258 as of 11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To see the current list, use the following links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n