Dr. Michael Blatt, Blanche Rybeck, Bill Hughes and others say air pollution from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling is an issue environmental regulators need to take seriously.

"Because we cannot absolutely prove that this is going to kill us does not mean we should allow it to go on," said Blatt, a physician specializing in lung and breathing problems who has practiced in the Wheeling area for 30 years, while speaking during the Tuesday West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Air Quality public hearing at West Liberty University's Highlands Center.

Although the hearing officially only addressed Chesapeake Energy's air quality permit application to emit certain pollutants - methane, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde - from the Dytko well pad along Stone Church Road, those in attendance took the opportunity to let the Division of Air Quality workers know they feel there are problems throughout West Virginia's Northern Panhandle.

"The concept of aggregation is what the state of West Virginia needs to come to grips with," said Wetzel County Action Group member Bill Hughes, whose organization has been speaking out about air pollution from gas drilling for a few years now.

Peering through a tube from a roll of paper towels, Hughes said this demonstrates how state officials evaluate the environmental impact of drilling sites. Instead, he said, regulators should consider pollution from drilling sites, compressor stations, processing plants and diesel motors in the large trucks used to move equipment as a cumulative environmental impact of gas drilling.

In addition to the pollution from the Dytko pad and all of the other well sites, Chesapeake - the only active Marcellus driller in Ohio, Brooke or Hancock counties - also will release similar emissions from its local compressor stations.