On April 22, Pennsylvania citizens suffering from gas production horrors won't be celebrating Earthday at fairs hawking plastic corporate crap. These politicized farmers, stay-at-home moms, and small business owners will be gathering outside of their regional Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) office demanding an end to the destruction caused by gas drilling. Their demands include:
* an immediate moratorium on all horizontal hydrofracturing in the Commonwealth, including in our state forests and on floodplains,
* an immediate freeze on all new Marcellus Shale drilling permits throughout Pennsylvania,
* the immediate suspension of the Delaware and Susquehanna River Basin Commissions’ authority to approve drilling-related water withdrawals anywhere in their respective watersheds, and, if necessary,
* the immediate resignation of DEP Secretary John Hanger.
These citizens will be upholding the Pennsylvania Constitution which states "All power is inherent in the people" and are acting now to protect the Commonwealth's public natural resources and to renew the promise of the first Earth day which was a non-corporate event.
The first Earth Day in 1970 gathered almost 20 million people from across the nation to celebrate, educate and demonstrate. The event was a nationwide grassroots teach-in that gave rise to the modern day environmental movement. Since the 1980's Earthday became dominated by corporations which limit the input and involvement of grassroots citizen groups, hence the fairs selling plastic crap and a lack of non-commercial educational forums at these fairs.
During the 1970s, the environmental movement involved citizens from all walk of life and class, and their collective strength gave our nation's citizens the protections of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Although these protections were watered down by industry lobbyists, these laws are still major tools for citizens to use to ensure that the rivers we swim and eat fish from are cleaned up by the polluter if our waters become drenched in toxins. These laws also attempt to ensure that the water we buy from our municipal water systems don't contain high levels of mercury or DDT.
For the 2010 Earth Day, the citizens gathering outside of the Pennsylvania DEP regional offices on Thursday April 22 at noon are demanding that our water, soil, air, and health be protected, not sold to gas and oil tycoons. Enough destruction has happened already: our children get rashes when they take a bath, our family members vomit when they drink their tap water, and most of us can't let our children play outside because of the gas production hazardous waste pits in our backyards, or the natural gas compressor stations pumping out toxins such as benzene and toluene into the air we breathe. Our ears drums burst from the grinding noises from those compressor stations and drills that are louder than standing next to a jackhammer ramming into asphalt, and we have to try to sleep next to that noise. Our lives and our health have been endangered. Citizens in Pennsylvania are calling for the destruction to stop, the royalty payments don't cover the damaging health effects and loss in property values.
In 1969 rivers in the U.S. were so polluted that some like the Cuyahoga River in Ohio erupted into flames, and Time Magazine's report said the river "oozes rather than flows" and is where a person "does not drown but decays." Officials noted that the river was a fire hazard.
Today people all over the state from Clearville to Dimock have tap water that burns with flames and oozes brown. The DEP officials shrug and say 'oh, that's normal' and tell the citizens to keep drinking and bathing in it. Sounds eriely similar to the movie "Erin Brockovich" which is based on a natural gas production pollution in Hinkley, California where citizens suffering rare diseases from contaminated drinking water. Those folks were told for decades by public officials and the gas industry that the water was safe to drink. Do we have to wait until cancer clusters wreak havoc for to take collective precautionary action?
The statewide events are being sponsored by the Green Party of Pennsylvania, the Citizens for Clean Water, and NoDrill NEPA.
Keynote speakers and scheduled activities will commence at noon on Thursday April 22 at the following DEP Regional Offices: Norristown / Wilkes-Barre / Pittsburgh / Williamsport / Meadville / Harrisburg.
DEP Regional Office locations can be found at:
http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/regional_resources/13769
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