At a news conference Thursday in Harrisburg, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro holds a jar of discolored tap water he said was from a home's well tainted by nearby natural gas drilling. Shapiro released results of a two-year grand jury report Thursday.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro revealed Thursday the failures of the natural gas industry and the state's ability to regulate it.

“We are all guaranteed the right to clear air and clean water,” Shapiro said in his opening remarks during a livestreamed news conference on the findings of a two-year investigation.

Shapiro unveiled the 243-page report that involved a grand jury's listening to more than 287 hours of testimony. “This report isn't about whether we should have fracking in Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “It's about preventing our failures of the past to continue in the future.”

According to the report, Butler County has 576 unconventional oil and gas wells. Since 2011, the county's wells were the target of just a handful of complaints — three dealt with water pollution, two were about air pollution, one about noise pollution, one about truck traffic concerns and one about “other” concerns. The report said “other” concerns could include issues with light, drilling mud or solid waste, vibrations or seismic testing, among others.During the same time frame, the report acknowledged health complaints from five individuals who claimed medical issues stemming from fracking operations, including exhibiting symptoms of the following conditions: two reports of gastrointestinal issues, two general systemic, three neurological, two psychological, two respiratory and one urogenital.Diane Sipe, co-founder of Marcellus Outreach Butler, said she was excited to see the acknowledgment by a government entity about the risks fracking poses to the environment.“For 10 years, we've been trying to educate and raise alarm in this county about what the drilling industry was exposing our residents to,” Sipe said.Sipe said there are heavily affected areas such as the The Woodlands in Connoquenessing Township, whose residents have been “demonized” for their complaints.“We've been vindicated,” said Sipe, who acknowledged knowing people who live in The Woodlands. “It had to be done. You had to keep telling people that something is very wrong here.”Butler's complaint numbers were low compared to other counties with higher numbers of wells. For example, counties showing double-digit complaints included Washington, with 66 complaints overall; Susquehanna, 59; Bradford, 34; and Greene, 20.Butler County also had the least number of wells of all of those listed in the report.

“Environmental safety and public health is a priority for the industry,” said David Spigelmyer, president of Marcellus Shale Coalition, headquartered in Cranberry Township.Spigelmyer said the industry employs tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who have every reason to place value in compliance and transparency.“Our industry's long and clear proactive and collaborative approach to ensuring Pennsylvania's regulations encourage safety is, unfortunately, not reflected in this report, which we are closely reviewing,” he said.Included in the report were eight recommendations by the grand jury on “logical” moves state legislators can make to improve the industry's impact on the public.The first recommendation was that drilling should not occur within 2,500 feet of someone's home and be conducted an even further distance from schools and hospitals. Currently, wells can be drilled as close as 500 feet from an occupied building.The second recommendation would be to require drillers to reveal the chemical makeup of the fluid they pump into the ground.Spigelmyer said some of the recommendations have already been addressed in legislation. He said one example is Act 13, which requires the disclosure of chemicals, including proprietary information. The public can access this information by visiting the website fracfocus.org.“For anyone to suggest that we are not protecting our environment and public health while responsibly and safely producing clean and abundant American natural gas should better understand the facts and science behind natural gas energy development,” Spigelmyer said.However, also as part of Act 13, another subsection allows that “the operator may designate specific portions of the stimulation record as containing a trade secret or confidential proprietary information.”

In addition to the release of the report, Shapiro also attacked the state Department of Environmental Protection.Shapiro asked representatives from the DEP and the Department of Health to testify before the grand jury.According to Shapiro, Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine appeared before the grand jury in person and admitted the department had not done enough to investigate health claims and concerns stemming from the natural gas industry.Meanwhile, Shapiro said DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell did not appear before the grand jury. He said the DEP also consistently neglected to send reports and cases to his office, which would prosecute gas companies that violate the law.“The bottom line is, this was a failure,” Shapiro said. “During the fracking boom, the DEP and the DOH and our laws fell short of protecting us.”Shapiro said he wants to circumvent the need for the DEP to submit cases to his office, even announcing a new hot line where residents can directly report industry violations to the state attorney general by calling 507-904-2643 or emailing fracking@attorneygeneral.gov.Sipe also shared Shapiro's belief that the DEP failed to do enough to protect people. She remembers a protest years ago at the regional office in Meadville during which protesters waved banners renaming the department using its own acronyms.“Don't Expect Protection,” Sipe said the signs read. “(And) Department of Petroleum.”

Responding on behalf of his administration, including the DEP and the Department of Health, Gov. Tom Wolf said his administration inherited a flawed approach to regulating the industry.Wolf largely blamed the inadequacies on former Gov. Tom Corbett's administration, and said his administration made the commitment to do better from his first days in office.“This administration has acted aggressively to address the previous administration's regulatory failures,” Wolf said.According to data released by Wolf's administration, the DEP increased inspections of unconventional wells to 16,396 per year, compared to the average under Corbett's administration of just 11,821 inspections per year.Wolf also released data arguing the DEP has, under his administration this year alone, issued more than $67.5 million in penalties to oil and gas companies for polluting the state's land, water and air.Wolf said he stood by the work of his secretaries and the staffs of their departments.“Many of the recommendations in the report either mirror activities that the administration already has in place or supports as additional actions by the Legislature,” he said. “We stand ready to assist helping the Legislature in developing language to address the concerns raised by the report.”

While the report unveils new recommendations for legislators to consider, legal action is already underway stemming from the investigation.“They act as if they are unaccountable,” Shapiro said. “That's what the powerful do when left unchecked.”Earlier this month, Shapiro announced a deal with Range Resources Corp., Pennsylvania's most active shale gas driller, to plead no contest to environmental crimes over its handling of contamination at a pair of well sites in the southwestern part of the state.Last week, Shapiro's office filed felony charges against Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and accused it of polluting residential water wells in northern Pennsylvania communities. “This isn't a small task. It's David and Goliath,” Shapiro said. “I can assure you there will be more to come.”Sipe said her organization will continue educating the public with the goal of seeing fracking removed completely from the state, as New York and Maryland have done.“Developing more fossil fuels is just not what we need to be doing right now,” she said. “Stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and start subsidizing the alternatives.”Spigelmyer said the industry is helping to make Pennsylvania better, including attention to the environment.“We're proud of our industry's shared commitments to keeping Pennsylvanians safe while enhancing our environment — especially air quality — and helping to create good-paying jobs across the commonwealth,” he said.

In Thursday's report on the natural gas industry, a state grand jury issued eight recommendations to lawmakers regarding the oil and natural gas industry.Expanding no-drill zones in Pennsylvania from the required 500 feet to 2,500 feet;Requiring fracking companies to publicly disclose all chemicals used in drilling and hydraulic fracturing before they are used on-site;Requiring the regulation of gathering lines, used to transport unconventional gas hundreds of miles;Adding up all sources of air pollution in a given area to accurately assess air quality;Requiring safer transport of the contaminated waste created from fracking sites;Conducting a comprehensive health response to the effects of living near unconventional drilling sites;Limiting the ability of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection employees to be employed in the private sector immediately after leaving the Department;Allowing the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General original criminal jurisdiction over unconventional oil and gas companies.