Drilling Safety Bill Headed To Corbett's Desk

Scott Detrow

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Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

January 19, 2012 | 12:41 PM

Scott Detrow / StateImpact Pennsylvania

Tioga County's emergency call center

A bill increasing safety standards at natural gas well pads is headed to Governor Corbett’s desk for a signature.
As Pennsylvania Public Radio’s Mary Wilson reports, the measure will require energy companies to post GPS coordinates at each well site.

“It really is about the basic rules of public safety with planning, sharing those emergency plans, and giving 911 the information at their fingertips in the event of an emergency,” said sponsoring Sen. Lisa Baker, a Republican of Pike County.
Cory Angell, a spokesman for the state Emergency Management Agency, said many counties are already requiring drillers to take similar safety precautions, but it’s important to establish statewide standards.
“The drilling’s occurring in locations in the state that are very rural. There aren’t street addresses and so it’s very important to have those GPS coordinates. That way, our first responders that are local to the area can get there and help save life and limb if necessary.”

As the post points out, this is something many drillers have been doing for awhile.
This is a state law local officials have been pushing hard for. Many drill pads are situated in rural areas with no clear address. And the rig workers aren’t usually from the immediate area, and don’t know what information to provide to emergency responders when they call for help. We’ve covered this in a couple StateImpact Pennsylvania reports: our look at how Pennsylvania’s natural gas boom is stressing county 911 call centers, and a story about how emergency responders train for drilling-related disasters.