By CASEY JUNKINS Staff Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Reg
Michael McCawley continues letting West Virginia lawmakers know that carcinogenic air pollutants from Marcellus Shale drilling pose a serious threat in the Northern Panhandle.
McCawley, chairman of the Department of Occupational & Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at West Virginia University, testified last week before the state Legislature's Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary. He discussed a series of studies he helped prepare for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
One of these studies measured levels of cancer-causing benzene in the air 625 feet away from one Wetzel County site, which were so bad that McCawley said he would recommend "respiratory protection" for those in the area. Current West Virginia law requires wells be drilled at least 625 feet away from an "occupied dwelling," but McCawley emphasized that air pollution can move.
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