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DEP To Monitor Air Quality Near Silica Station

TUNKHANNOCK TOWNSHIP — After opposition to a facility that will serve the natural gas industry, the state began a project to monitor air quality in part o...

TUNKHANNOCK TOWNSHIP -- After opposition to a facility that will serve the natural gas industry, the state began a project to monitor air quality in part of Wyoming County.

A transfer station bringing sand for natural gas fracking is planned for the Tunkhannock area. The DEP will monitor the air before and after that station moves in.

The work being done by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection near Tunkhannock comes after months of outcries from people worried about a facility that will transfer what's considered frack sand or silica for the natural gas industry.

"Well, I think it's very dangerous because of the dust," said Leo Harvey of Tunkhannock.

The DEP is assembling equipment that's part of a project to see if there really is any danger. After a request by the Wyoming County commissioners, the DEP will monitor weather conditions, then air quality conditions before and after the D&I silica transfer station is built.

That facility faced a fight, but it is still planned near the intersection of Routes 6 and 92.

"This could be an operation that could be popping up in many parts of the state. It's already in two locations, Bradford County for one. So this gives us an idea of the atmosphere before and if it changes if an operation like this moves in," said DEP official Colleen Connolly.

There has been concern in the area that particles blowing to where kids will be on soccer fields and ball fields playing. The DEP will be monitoring that but that doesn't mean they'll be stopping it.

"What this will tell us is how this is affecting the atmosphere and how they can change business practices so not to affect the atmosphere that much, if we find that problem," Connolly said.

While the DEP will monitor the air quality, the company building the facility has told us the process and product is safe and common.

Those against it don't buy that.

"This is going to be in the air. Why even monitor it? Why in the name of God even do it?" asked Gerri Kane of Rushboro.

Kane, a fracking opponent, wishes the plant could be stopped completely. She says she doesn't need testing like this to see the results of the frack sand or silica at her home, surrounded by all the drilling and fracking.

"You could come to our house in the summer and it's funny because it looks like fiberglass in the air, and on the pool it's like white fiberglass dust."

The DEP says this type of silica facility is considered by the state to have minor emissions, so it did not need a DEP permit.

The DEP is doing this testing only to know the impact of a facility like this and have data to provide Wyoming County after so much concern.

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