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Architecture is, at its core, about problem-solving: balancing aesthetics, functional needs, and technical constraints to create effective buildings and environments. The most innovative firms in the industry expand this notion, solving pressing issues in new ways that build on or scale up existing techniques and technologies.Los Angeles-based Lorcan OHerlihy Architects, for instance, has advanced the concept of shipping container architecture, ushering it into the realm of sustainable neighborhood development. The firms Isla Intersections project in South Los Angeles closed a nearby street (a rarity in car-focused L.A.) to create an active paseo, which hosts local farmers markets and other gatherings. Its staggered form, lined with outdoor bridges, terraces, and planted gardens, seamlessly combines multiple buildings and creates a unique setting for community that is nonetheless protected from nearby congestion.Seattle-based NBBJ partnered with North Carolina healthcare provider Atrium Health to expand the niche field of prefabrication, creating the largest prefab healthcare construction in the United States. Using factory-built units, like facades, bathroom pods, patient rooms, and mechanical systems, the effort has thus far saved $100 million in construction costs and 20% to 50% in construction time. Global firm DLR Group significantly broadened the scope of adaptive reusethe practice of repurposing existing buildings for new usesfinding new lives for buildings like department stores, hospitals, libraries, and even jails. And New York-based ODA found new life for a former parking garage in Buenos Aires, converting it into a mixed-use office building featuring planted walkways that connect directly to a nearby park.Not all advances in architecture involve physical buildings. Software giant Autodesk created Total Carbon Analysis for Architects, a digital tool that makes the evaluation of embodied and operational carbon far simpler and more intuitive than it had been for most designers. And Gensler rolled out its Product Sustainability Standards, providing for many in the industry a clear way to measure the carbon impact of the interior products they select. Innovation doesnt have to mean reinventing the wheel: Often it just means making it better, more relevant, and a lot easier to use.1. Lorcan OHerlihy ArchitectsFor turning an unbuildable site into a home for the formerly homelessIn 2024, Los Angeles-based Lorcan OHerlihy Architects (LOHA) created a new building on a parcel of land that had long been considered unbuildable. Isla Intersections, a supportive housing development for formerly homeless tenants, is built on a triangle of land right under L.A.s massive 110-105 Freeway intersection. The development is designed as a vertical village of sorts, with 54 rooms (maximum capacity 112 people) created out of dozens of retrofitted shipping containers.The buildings staggered profile lessens its overall bulk and provides a sense of privacy, particularly along its interior courtyard, while still connecting to the outside world. A key element of the design is its green paseo, located on a former adjacent roadway, which hosts a weekly farmers market. This and a series of rooftop patios and edible gardensirrigated by a system that reuses water from the buildings sinks, baths, and washing machinescreate a much more pleasant living experience, provide fresh food, and improve the overall neighborhood.The projects ground floor retail, reserved for local businesses, is designed to further activate the area. The city of Los Angeles is looking to sell more than 1,500 similar parcels to affordable housing developers in the coming years, and Isla provides a case study for how to do this efficiently and with beauty in mind.2. Kadre ArchitectsFor transforming emergency housing into a joyful place to liveAcross Southern California, Kadre Architects is transforming rundown motels into striking transitional housing. Part of Californias emergency housing initiative, Project Homekey, the firm recently completed three housing developments that show how transitional housing can prioritize joy and livability. Collaborating with local housing nonprofit Hope, the Mission, Kadre created Alvarado Tiny Homes Village (Los Angeles, 2022, 45 units), the Woodlands (Woodland Hills, 2023, 43 units), and the Sierras (Lancaster, 2024, 38 units).The architects enlivened the banal facilities and their bleak surface parking lots with striking graphics, bright colors, and humane architectural and landscape interventions like screens, porches, indoor/outdoor spaces, plantings, and courtyards. Just as significant, the projects were completed in as little as nine months from start to finish, thanks to Kadres management of both design and construction and its extensive experience managing codes and permitting. Kadre also made each project energy efficient via PV panels, shade structures, electric water heaters, permeable surfaces, underground infiltration basins, and more. The firm has been commissioned to work on eight additional Project Homekey sites throughout Los Angeles County, totaling more than 470 units of interim and permanent housing. Some of the projects will also add new community buildings, and all are aiming for net zero energy use.3. NBBJFor bringing scalable and stylish prefab architecture to healthcareSeattle architecture giant NBBJ, along with North Carolina-based Atrium Health, is undertaking the largest prefab healthcare construction program in the U.S., spanning six new hospitals across the state and saving millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of work. Three of the projects have been completed. The fourth, Atrium Health Lake Normal Hospital in Cornelius, North Carolina, opens in 2025, while the fifth, Carolinas Medical Center Critical Care Tower, has just completed its framing. Rather than building each hospital on site from scratch, the architects are using repeatable units, such as facades, bathroom pods, patient rooms, and mechanical systems. They are built in factories, delivered to the site, and then assembled. The effort has saved $100 million in construction costs and 20% to 50% in construction time on the first three projects alone, NBBJ estimates.The firms work includes the countrys largest prefabbed hospital, Carolinas Medical Center (2023), which was built with 60% prefab features. While prefab often results in boxy, generic designs, the firms approach is delivered with a flexible design framework that allows for more style and choice than typical prefab architecture.4. AutodeskFor creating a simple carbon-tracking tool with real impactAs the impact of climate change accelerates, determining a buildings carbon footprintthe amount of CO2 it generates from construction to operation to, potentially, demolitionhas become essential. But doing so is not easy. Many firms cobble together dispersed, highly technical sofware and calculators from around the industry. Autodesk, arguably the biggest name in architectural software (with more than 100 million users and yearly revenue over $5 billion, according to its figures), has helped change that. In April 2024, it introduced a new dashboard called Total Carbon Analysis for Architects in Autodesk Forma, its year-old cloud-based software focused on predesign and schematic design. It also incorporated embodied carbon analysis into Autodesk Insight, an energy modeling tool built to work with its Autodesk Revit building information modeling software. Both tools provide dashboards to evaluate both embodied carbon (greenhouse gas emissions generated during the production, transportation, and construction of a buildings materials) and operational carbon (emissions from energy consumption during a buildings operations, like heating, cooling, ventilation, and lighting.)The tools dramatically simplify the process of carbon measurement and allow firms to start tracking carbon usage well before they typically do, allowing them to be far more proactive at improving overall sustainability. Since Total Carbon for Architects was announced in April 2024, it has been used by customers to assess more than 59 billion kg of carbon on their projects, according to Autodesk.5. MAD ArchitectsFor changing how nature and architecture can coexistBeijing-based MAD Architects, one of Chinas most prominent design firms, excels at integrating nature, architecture, and urban design. But this year, its pushed the boundaries of what it means to connect nature and the built environment through two stunning projects: the Jiaxing Train Station in Jiaxing, China, and One River North, a mixed-use apartment building in downtown Denver.In Jiaxing, the firm created what it calls a train station in the forest, consisting of a new station building (a re-creation of a historic structure that had long been lost), large planted plazas to the north and south, and the renovation of the surrounding Peoples Park. The firm placed most of the new stations program and infrastructure underground to free up space for plantings and public spacein all, 1,500 trees were planted across the site. Benefits include enhanced habitat biodiversity, well-being, air quality, climate regulation, carbon sequestration, stormwater management, and a commercial resurgence in the area. The stations floating roof, equipped with solar panels, powers the station sustainably, producing about 1.1 million kilowatt-hours of energy annually. In Denver, the 16-story, 187-unit One River North apartment building features a carved, canyonlike outdoor atrium inspired by local natural topography and filled with greenery, waterfalls, and terraces, creating a vertical landscape within the city. Residents can connect with nature in an environment that feels like a hike through the mountains. The project provides a valuable case study for how to densify without sacrificing quality of life. Its also imbedded with local fauna, increasing local habitat biodiversity, reducing heat absorption, and contributing to stormwater management.6. ODAFor transforming a parking garage into a beguiling work of architectureIn Buenos Aires, a once-decrepit parking garage is now a gleaming mixed-used office building. The transformation is the work of ODA, a New York City architecture firm known for its boundary-pushing work. The building, Paseo Gigena, sits on the edge of a large park in Buenos Aires. The formerly decaying multilevel parking garage now contains restaurants, retail, and a sprawling series of open-air gathering spaces. The firm reused about 80% of the original structure to create 160,000 square feet of office space wrapped in a curving glass facade that mirrors the green surroundings while opening up to views and natural light.The buildings unusual shape was determined largely by how the public would experience it. In addition to a private terrace for workers, the buildings ramped public walkways stretch up from the street to the buildings roof and then curve back down to the El Rosedal de Palermo park on the other side. In effect, they act as an extension of the park itself, providing unique experiences for the public while activating the building and the neighborhooddrawing in new visitors and tenants alike.The projects public spaces have not yet opened, but 100% of the buildings retail and 80% of its office spaces have already been leased. The concept of energizing areas through unique building reuse and the blending of public and private spaces is a core part of ODAs work. Currently the firm is completing POST Rotterdam, a mixed-use hub of hospitality, residences, retail, and public spaces in and around a former post office in the center of Rotterdam.7. GenslerFor making it easy to choose more sustainable building materialsGensler is one of the largest architecture firms in the world, with more than 7,000 employees, 50 offices, and $1.8 billion in revenue. Its innovations can have seismic impacts. The Gensler Product Sustainability Standards (GPS), introduced in 2023 and rolled out firm-wide in 2024, give the architecture and design industry a unified way to measure the carbon impact of the interior products it selects.Firms previously had to wade through more than 100 certifications and eco-labels and consider more than 650 eco-related factors, such as Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), global-warming potential, ingredient disclosure, manufacturing location, end-of-life options, and indoor air impacts. GPSdeveloped with input from third-party organizations like the Carbon Leadership Forum, Mindful Materials, and the U.S. Green Building Councilis an open-source tool that gives designers, manufacturers, and clients a data-backed road map on specification, prioritizing sustainability and health.In 2024, Gensler expanded GPS from 12 to 20 product categories, with a focus on high-volume materials like acoustic ceiling tiles, carpet tiles, and resilient flooring. More than 2,800 products have been vetted for GPS compliance, and more than 1,500 Gensler designers and 1,000 third-party manufacturers have trained to employ GPS standards. Gensler estimates that use of GPS has the power to offset up to 341,000 metric tons of carbon annually.8. DLR GroupFor adapting adaptive reuse to unusual buildingsAs our cities age and our ecological crises intensify, building reuse has become the most commonand sustainablecategory of architecture. Between 50% and 75% percent of a buildings embedded carbon iscontained in its foundation, structure, and building envelope. But there is much more potential to be tapped beyond the familiar conversion of industrial spaces and historic offices.Omaha-based architecture firm DLR Group is widening the scope of creative reuse, tackling an unusually diverse range of projects and scales with its extensive in-house expertise. Since reuse can pose significant challenges in areas like engineering, life safety, and systems upgrades, DLRs ability to address all at once is a major advantage. As a result, it has retrofitted an impressive breadth of buildings, including malls, big box stores, strip malls, offices, hospitals, libraries, post offices, and even jails.Its recent work includes transforming a department store in Boulder, Colorado, into a biotech hub for the diagnostic solutions company Biodesix (2024) and converting a former probation office in Whittier, California, into the Greater Whittier LGBTQ+ Community Center (2024).For the Biodesix office, the firm revamped insufficient mechanical systems and cut into the building envelope to let natural daylight penetrate deep into the interior. In Whittier, it installed interior partition walls, colorful finishes, and new electrical and mechanical systems. DLR Groups upcoming conversion of a department store into the Albany Museum of Art, meanwhile, will avoid about 65% of the embodied carbon emissions (in this case, about 1,600 metric tons) of a new building.9. Diamond SchmittFor turning buildings into solar panelsRenowned Canadian architecture firm Diamond Schmitt is pioneering the use of building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) cladding in North America. BIPV, which incorporates photovoltaic cells into surfaces like concrete, glass, or stone, is common in Europe but has been slow to catch on in North America. Diamond Schmitt advocates for the technology as an easy-to-install, essential tool in the push toward net zero buildings across the continent.The year-old Innovation Village at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, serves as the most vibrant case study for Diamond Schmitts approach. The 95,000-square-foot space, designed to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration, features a custom panelized, staggered opaque-glass BIPV cladding, ranging from 120W to 470W per pane and generating an estimated 18% of the buildings power requirements. The panels efficiency is similar to that of typical solar cells, but since they are imbedded into the facade, they can provide more usable surface area.Diamond Schmitt now has more than half a dozen BIPV projects in the works across Canada, and it both promotes BIPV and helps shape its incentives and regulations. The firm works with Canadian cities, educational institutions, the Canadian Green Building Council (CAGBC), and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada to increase BIPV usage via presentations, conferences, awards, and marketing. And it collaborated with CAGBC to model energy requirements and performance opportunities for BIPV buildings. The result: buildings that effectively function as their own solar panel.10. Gresham SmithFor quantifying the built environment and then improving on itNashville-based design, planning, and engineering consultancy Gresham Smiths new Empathic Insights platform, MPATH, quantifies and analyzes how people feel in built environments via changes in heart rate collected by modern wearables or Bluetooth heart straps. The firm uses these insights to test and then improve designs of buildings, public spaces, and urban infrastructure.The firm recently deployed MPATH with the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, identifying high-stress locations like intersections, alleys, and parking lots. Guided by the data, the city enhanced focus areas with elements like bikeway protection, improved way finding, and green-painted bike lanes. The firm then rerecorded MPATH data, which showed almost across-the-board improvements to peoples sense of comfort and safety.Gresham Smith also collaborated with students at the University of Louisville to study the impacts of diverse urban conditions in the city, including green spaces, street trees, sky views, curb ramps, blank walls, private drives, and street furniture. That effort layered in data gathered by external sensors measuring the impacts of external stressors like lighting, humidity, and temperature. The results of that studywhich are being shared with architects, engineers, urban planners, and policymakers in a white paperare intended to help guide more informed architecture and urban design in the future.Explore the full 2025 list of Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies, 609 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. Weve selected the companies making the biggest impact across 58 categories, including advertising, applied AI, biotech, retail, sustainability, and more.
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Have you ever finished off your last pickle spear and, craving a little more of that vinegary punch, taken a couple of sips of brine straight from the jar? Or maybe youre more open about your pickle juice habits and like to mix up a pickle martini in the light of day, rather than hunched over your fridge light at 2 a.m. Whatever you prefer, now theres a product designed for exactly those kinds of moments. Claussen, the Chicago-based pickle purveyor, has picked up on the TikTok trend of using pickle brine as a mixer for everything from Diet Coke to pickle cereal, and theyre meeting customers where theyre at with a new drink called Just the Brine. As the name suggests, Just the Brine is an eight-ounce bottle of juice-sans-pickle. The limited-edition product comes in a six-pack, and it debuted for a short time on GoPuff over the weekend in honor of St. Patricks Day (for those who missed out, it’s now available to win on Claussens website while supplies last.) Just the Brine is the latest evolution of a pickle craze that started back in 2022 (remember Sonics pickle slushie?) and has shown a shockingly strong staying power in the cultural zeitgeist. [Photo: Claussen] Care for some pickles with that brine? Since 2022, weve gone from pickle pizza and potato chips to Grillos pickle toothpasteand, judging by TikToks ongoing pickle obsession, it seems like the trend has yet to run its course. Users are finding ways to use the preserved vegetables that even the most ardent pickle fans never couldve imagined, like a pickle fountain or a fried pickle board. The next evolution of the trend, it seems, is to just lose the pickles altogether. Last October, Dua Lipas viral TikTok video mixing Diet Coke with pickle juice sparked a cultural moment, amassing over 12 million views, says Caroline Sheehey, Claussens brand manager. Inspired by her mixture, Claussen responded by seeding a product concept, Just The Brine, on Instagram. The post received nearly 70,000 likes and thousands of comments from fans sharing how they already love Claussens beloved brine and use it in a variety of ways such as after a sports workout, as a brine for their chicken, to help with dehydration as a morning after cure, cocktail mixer, and more. After seeing the fan response, Sheehy says, the team knew they had to make Just the Brine a reality. Claussen is marketing its brine bottles as a kind of dual-purpose product: a mixer to pregame your night out, and an electrolyte beverage for your inevitable hangover the next day. One serving size is two ounces, which contains 630 mg of sodium (about half the sodium content of a standard instant ramen pack.) [Just the Brine] is perfect for pickling at night and using as a mixer in your cocktails or soda, and perfect for unpickling the next morning as a refreshing electrolyte boost, Sheehy says. Its a strange marketing tactic, given that curing your pickle-induced hangover with more pickles seems like the quickest way to never want to set eyes on the color green again. But, lets be honest, the chances that Claussen ever actually adds this stunt product to its permanent line-up are slim to noneso the lucky few who get their hands on it might as well enjoy it via a pickle-fueled rager while it lasts.
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Her voice cracking with emotion as she stood under the fluorescent lights, Janice Blanock asked her local legislators in southwestern Pennsylvania to take a moment and leaf through the photos of her son that shed handed them. Theres really nothing different that I can say to you that I havent said already over the last several months, she told supervisors for the tiny township of Cecil outside Pittsburgh. I can, however, share these photographs. These are just a few of the many pictures we have of our son Luke, from the time he became ill until before he died. The supervisors were gathered to vote on a zoning ordinance amendment that would greatly increase the required buffer zone between oil and gas drilling operations and homes and schools. The proposed rule mandating a setback of 2,500 feetfive times the distance of the current lawhad originally been proposed as a statewide requirement by Governor Josh Shapiro when he was Pennsylvanias attorney general. A bill based on that recommendation later stalled out when introduced in the state House of Representatives. Blanock, a 30-year resident of Cecil, had a reason to take the issue seriously. Her son waged a three-year battle with a rare type of bone cancer known as Ewings sarcoma and died in 2016 at age 19. Many believe, though theres yet to be demonstrable proof, that his cancer could be tied to oil and gas drillings many carcinogenic pollutants, some that are radioactive. In 2019, a cluster of Ewings sarcoma cases was identified in Washington County, where Cecil is located. Cecils school district was hit particularly hard. The county is home to more than 2,000 natural gas wells and was the 2004 birthplace of the states fracking industry. (Fracking is a process in which sand, water, and chemicals are blasted into the earth to free fossil fuel.) A growing body of peer-reviewed research has linked living near natural gas drilling operations to cancers and respiratory, reproductive, and neurological damage. In 2023, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the state Department of Health linked fracking exposure in the region encompassing Cecil to increased risk of asthma and lymphoma. Will you look at the damn picture, Darlene, Blanock urged one supervisor after handing her a photo of Luke. Around an hour later, the zoning ordinance passed and the room erupted with applause. With that, Cecila town of just 15,000 residents and no outsize political powerbecame the first jurisdiction in Pennsylvania to adopt such a restrictive measure, even as similar efforts at the state level have failed. But already it is facing legal challenges from two natural gas companies active in the areaTexas-based fracking company Range Resources, and Colorado-based gas pipeline company MarkWest Liberty Midstream. The Cecil Township Board of Supervisors meets monthly at the towns Municipal Building. [Photo: Audrey Carleton] Under current requirements, natural gas wells in Pennsylvania must be at least 500 feet from buildings and water wells, which environmentalists and medical experts say is not far enough. In 2023, a bill that would have required all new natural gas wells in the state to be located at least 2,500 feetnearly half a milefrom buildings and water wells was slated for a committee vote, but was abruptly killed at the request of Democratic leadership in the state House of Representatives. Three years before that, then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a grand jury report calling for a statewide 2,500-foot buffer between human activity and natural gas production. There is one point that is impossible to deny, the grand jury report stated. The closer people happen to live to a massive, industrial drilling complex, the worse it is likely to be for them. While that plea failed to get political traction, environmental groups continue to urge action. For their part, natural gas industry groups have minimized concerns about health risks associated with fracking exposure and have resisted proposals for setbacks or no-drill zones. But despite industry efforts, Cecil has gone its own way. The townships updated oil and gas ordinance prohibits new oil and gas wells from being drilled within 2,500 feet of protected structures, which includes homes, businesses, and religious institutions, and within 5,000 feet of schools and hospitals. Though the ordinance does not call for an outright ban on new drilling, Range Resources contends it would limit fracking in Cecil in such a way that it violates state law. The township argues otherwise: Wells located outside Cecil can still be drilled under the town. The ordinance also imposes additional restrictions on the industry that have generated less debate: It prohibits retention ponds for water used in the fracking process, places new noise restrictions on drilling, and limits work hours on well pads. I was not sure for the longest time that this was going to go this way, said Sarah Martik, a Cecil resident and executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice, a southwestern Pennsylvania-based nonprofit environmental justice organization. This one thing is as far as weve ever gone, as far as regulating this industry in a way that is protective of our communities. But the road to this outcome was fraught. Documents obtained by Capital & Main through right-to-know requests reveal an up-close look at life in the shale fields, with citizens largely fed up with living alongside the natural gas industry. Noise, bright lights, and shaking at all hours were among the complaints emailed to supervisors in the months ahead of the vote. Here I am once again trying to prepare for another sleepless night, one resident wrote to the supervisors in May. My whole house shakes, my children are disturbed from sleep, my pets are afraid to be out in the yardcan you please help us. “I have SUFFERED from vertigo for years, another resident wrote in June, referring to vibrations from drilling at a nearby well pad that she felt in her home. You know in some places they torture people with this kind of low res hum and vibration. Torturebecause that is what it is. Documents also offer a look at the playbook the industry followed to curry favor among Cecil residents. Over the five years before the ordinance was adopted in 2024, Range Resources, the townships only active natural gas well operator with 34 active wells per state records, donated nearly to $300,000 to the community. The money was disbursed throughout the township, the encompassing school district, and local volunteer first responder organizations, and it was spent on festivals, childrens sports teams, a science fair, and CPR training sessions, according to a spreadsheet obtained by Capital & Main through a right-to-know request. Range Resources did not immediately respond to Capital & Mains request for comment. At least one township supervisor has financial ties to Range Resources. Records show Supervisor Darlene Barni has, for many years, maintained an oil and gas lease with the company; she ultimately recused herself from the final ordinance vote but participated in earlier stages of its development and routinely shares pro-oil and gas posts on Facebook. The company also weighed in at multiple stages during the drafting of the ordinance, using experts to testify against existing science that ties fracking to poor environmental and health outcomes and urging town leaders to refrain from enacting a setback as large as 2,500 feet. At least 92% of Cecil Townships surface property would be excluded from future oil and gas development, an attorney for Range Resources told supervisors in a letter. This would have the effect of limiting residents oil and gas royalty payments, he wrote. The attorney said the setbacks were exceedingly restrictive and inconsistent. Though the company currently has no permits under consideration for new well pads, Range Resources is challenging the ordinance with the townships Zoning Hearing Board. This process could take months, and the challenge is opposed by the township, residents, and several local environmental groups. At issue is whether Cecils ordinance is legal. Its a very, very specific question, said Kara Shirdon, who chairs the Cecil Zoning Hearing Board but recused herself for Range Resources legal challenge to eliminate the appearance of bias (Shirdon has been publicly supportive of the setback ordinance.) Though she said shes confident the ordinance will survive, she believes it will strain the townships resources. I think, honestly, the whole entire thing is because theyre pissed and they want to drain as much money as possible out of the township as punishment for not letting them do what they want to do. * * * Michelle Stonemark moved to Cecil township in 2012 after her parents bought around 30 acres there with the intent of housing their children and grandchildren. Her parents, sister, and family friends all built homes next to one another, in succession. And then it was my turn, Stonemark told Capital & Main. Just as I had gotten the drawing . . . we find out that Range Resources had applied to put a well pad in right behind my new house. With around 30 days notice, she recalled, Stonemark and her family found legal help and learned everything we could about fracking, in order to oppose the project. But their effort failed. We didnt have enough time. We were starting from nothing, she said. Drilling at the pad began in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown, as Stonemark, her husband and three children were stuck at home. Today, the well pad, known as Augustine George, sits just over 500 feet from her home, she said, and routinely rattles the walls and windows and sends fumes into the air. She said she and members of her family often experience headaches, nausea, nosebleeds, and earaches. They can feel vibrations from the well pad in their chests, she said. Flaring would go off at any and all times, during the day, at night, she said. Flaring, which involves burning off excess methane, has been linked to asthma and other respiratory conditions. In response, Stonemark launched a Facebook page she uses to serve as an industry watchdog: She posts photos, videos, and documents relevant to the oil and gas industrys indiscretions, and publicly mourns the future she once envisioned for herself in Cecil. As I stand outside on this beautiful morning I cannot enjoy the day, she wrote in one post in May. A foul odor lingers in the air, and the constant low noises pulsate through my ears and head. Stonemark and her husband are also now attempting to intervene legally ad become a formal party against Range Resources challenge to the setback ordinance. Shirdon said she first caught wind of Range Resources plans for a well pad in 2017, less than a year after moving into her home. Since then, she said shes experienced headaches, sinus and respiratory issues, difficulty concentrating and sleeping, and irritability. The part that people underestimate, I think, is how much anxiety it causes, Shirdon said. Every time you feel the rumble, or every time you get stopped on the road, you start to worry, Are my kids being adversely affected by whats going on here? Merle Lesko has lived in his house nearby for nearly 30 years. Lesko said he and Stonemark often jokingly spar over who lives closer to the Augustine George pad. Salmon pink sound walls, dozens of feet high, poke through a line of trees behind his property. Lesko first urged the township to adopt a new buffer ordinance in early 2024, after regularly recording the decibel level emitted by the Augustine George pad at different locations in his house. He moved his bed and the desk where he works based on the lowest noise reading he found in his residencehis basementjust to escape the vibrations that would rattle his house. The noise was so bad, you could hear or feel the noise over a running lawnmower, he said. Theyve taken so many summers from me.” Though it took months of often impassioned debate, the adoption of Cecils ordinance has added fuel to a fight at the state level, where climate justice organizations are urging environmental regulators to increase the statewide oil and setback of 500 feet. In October, the Protective Buffers Pennsylvania campaign filed a petition with the states Environmental Quality Board, pushing for the adoption of an executive rule that would require a 3,281-foot buffer between fracking wells and buildings and water wellsa setback nearly 1,000 feet wider than in Cecils ordinance. There should be a baseline floor of protection for everybody in the commonwealth, said Lisa Hallowell, senior attorney at the Environmental Integrity Project, an environmental nonprofit that helped author the petition. More than 10% of Pennsylvanians lived within a half mile of an active oil and gas well as of 2022, the petition notes. Many share medical symptomsrashes, cancers, sleep disordersand have seen their water supplies affected by fracking, the petition states. Protective Buffers Pennsylvania has been involved in previous attempts to pass tougher statewide setback rules, including the 2023 bill that died in committee, Hallowell said. These efforts never got far. The Legislature has not had an appetite for that, she noted. Indeed, around the time that the 2023 setback bill was circulating through the Legislature, state Senator Gene Yaw of Williamsport, Republican chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, questioned the need for the measure at all, saying in a public hearing that he had not heard of any links between fracking and cardiovascular, reproductive, or nervous system damage. Yaw has, separately, disclosed personal income from oil and gas companies EQT and Equinor, and won his reelection to the senate in November after accepting thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the oil and gas industry. A group of Democratic senators has announced that they soon plan to reintroduce the 2,500-foot setback proposal. But that bill will face an uphill battle in a divided Legislature. Janice Blanock at home [Photo: Audrey Carleton] After helping cement the setback proposal as law in Cecil, Blanock now wants to see other communities protected. Were hoping this movement goes far and wide, Blanock said the day after the ordinance passed. I think, just the fact that that happened last night, people will learn about it [and think], If they can do it, why cant we? Several months later, as legal challenges threaten Cecils hard-won victory, Blanock remains resolute. She still chokes back tears when she talks about Luke, and still resents having had her concerns about health risks associated with fracking exposure denied by the industry. Its not just about Luke, she said. This is about my other children, my grandchildren, my community, my family, friends, neighbors. Blanock shares photos and mementos of her son Luke. [Photo: Audrey Carleton] They can appeal it, she said of the natural gas companies challenging the ordinance. And then we can appeal it. Were as strong in our resolve to win this as they are. This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California o economic, political, and social issues.
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