May 31, RAMPS announced its Mountain Mobilization for later this month. For the past week I've been reporting how some activists opposing Mountaintop Removal have stayed close to home here in Southern Appalachia to aid WV Derecho victims. And that they've been joined by ohio mtr and fracking opponent Elisa Young. Meanwhile others have traveled to Pennsylvania to to help protests against fracking, a practice which also takes place here. Updates will be here and at twitter at @BethWellington #Hashtags: #ClimateSOS #Fracking
Marcellus Shale Earth First!'s tree sit starts in Pennsylvania's Moshannon State Forest
Since July 1, Marcellus Shale Earth First! has hosted a "rondy" for rendezvous, which sent word to me via a press release that Earth First! has established two tree sits, blocking an access road to a EQT hydro-fracking site in Pennsylvania's Moshannon State Forest where drilling operations were set to begin this week.
According to a RAMPS activist on the scene, EarthFirst! has erected a "slash pile blockade and
two
tree sits" blocking an access road to EQT Clearfield County location, halting drilling
operations set to begin this week. The tree sitters'
anchor lines are blocking the roadand if an anchor line is cut a sitter will fall. Forty supporters and concerned citizens succeeded in turning away a Halliburton
truck.
As of 7:00 pm the blockade was still up, according to EarthFirst! and dozens of supporters remain.
As of 7:00 pm the blockade was still up, according to EarthFirst! and dozens of supporters remain.
The purpose of the protest
Protesters are trying to stop any further destruction of
Pennsylvania’s state forests—more than half of which have already
been leased for drilling—and call attention to the devastating
effects of hydrofracking on the state’s communities.
USA Today's Dan Vergano interviewed Lisak, who owns a blueberry and apple farm with her husband, Tom for what he termed "the other side of the boom." He describes the scene:
Amish buggies wait for tanker trucks filled with drilling fluid to rattle past on the country road in front of Lisak's farmhouse. Across the lane is a neighbor's alfalfa field, leased to a drilling company. About a mile away is a deep disposal well, one of only a handful in the state, where leftover fracking fluid goes to be deposited in deep underground rock formations. Lisak, who has no desire to see her farm become a fracking site, sees nothing but downside around her. She says the threat of spills keeps her up at night.She told him,
I never, ever, thought about leaving. It was my
lifelong dream to be a farmer...Now I
have to worry about air pollution and water pollution and life not being
normal around here anymore.
Marcellus Shale EarthFirst says Lisak, describes the devastation she has seen in the Moshannon this way:
Having grown up enjoying Moshannon State Forest in so many ways, I am absolutely appalled at the ongoing destruction. The once narrow and inviting oak-shaded lanes are now being replaced by dust and traffic choked roads for chemical laden trucks - there are no words to describe the injustice of taking public land, meant to provide a source of beauty and wilderness for all and turning it into an industrial zone.
Escalating resistance to destruction
Today’s blockade is the latest in a
series of escalating actions opposing hydrofracking in the Marcellus Shale. Last May, residents of
Butler County occupied
the
office of State Representative Brian Ellis, demanding
accountability for widespread contamination caused by horizontal
drilling.
In June, seven families, along with dozens of
supporters,
blocked the entrance to the
Riverdale Mobile Home Community to prevent their imminent
eviction
at the hands of Aqua America PVR. Aqua sought to destroy their
homes
and construct a water withdrawal facility permitted to extract up
to
three million gallons of water from the Susquehanna River daily
for
use in fracking. Residents were able to maintain the blockade for
12
days.
On June 17, 1,000
Ohioans stormed the statehouse in Columbus and passed a
“people’s
resolution” banning hydrofracking.
Most recently, a 31-year-old
landowner from Athens County, Ohio chained herself to concrete
barrels and shut down operations at one of Ohio’s 170
injection
wells, which contain about 95% of the toxic and radioactive
fracking
waste generated from Pennsylvania drilling. The Atens announced that prosecutors h
Momentum in the anti-fracking battle
will continue to build across the Marcellus and Utica shale
regions
throughout July. Here are some future actions:
Ohio to host anti-fracking action camp in Youngstown
Next weekend, residents from Ohio and beyond will
gather at an
anti-fracking action camp in Youngstown and prepare to
enforce
the “people's resolution” against fracking.
National Stop the Frack Attack in Washington DC, July 28
July 28, anti-frackers will gather in Washington D.C. for "Stop the Frack Attack,"
which they hope will be "the largest mobilization against fracking ever."
