Sunday, May 6, 2012
A trip to Mordor PA, Hydrofracking Hell
Just spent another week cruising around the surrealistic, beautiful countryside of North Central, and Southwest Pennsylvania. For anyone unfamiliar with fracking, Rural PA is being slowly converted into part industrial zone, part Blade Runner landscape. Gas flares, drilling rigs, tens of thousands of trucks carrying chemicals,
miles of pipeline, looking from the air like thousands of tunneling moles, cutting across forests and farms. Dead animals, sick people, bad water, bad air, lawsuits, anger and exasperation are only the beginning.
Pennsylvania is so beautiful, sometimes it defies explanation. What a tragic loss. Coming soon to New York?.....TBA
I won't try and be more pedantic here. Please just take a look at the photographs, judge for yourself.
***Sorry, I thought the pictures had captions, but not to be. So I will give some important ones:
*Like, Terry Greenwood from Washington County, with his dead calf, he lost 10 stillborn calves in a row because his cows had been drinking from his pond that the gas company was dumping waste into. He kept one of them frozen in his freezer as proof.
*The Horn Family, second to last, living in the carter trailer on Carter rd in Dimock, the are suing Cabot for poisoning the water, the younger boy breaks out in rashes if he comes in contact with the water. They live on bottled water.
*Maryellen McConnell lives with a gas mask in her house in Bedford County PA. Her farm is in an area where they are pumping and storing waste underground. Several times a week gas invades her house, she has passed out and gone to the hospital several times.
*Sharon Vargson in Bradford County can light her kitchen sink on fire, the gas company well is 50 feet behind her house, the water is filled with methane gas.
*Craig Sautner in Dimock (the blue flame) fills an empty gallon jug from his well with only methane gas and can light it on fire.
*Ray Kemble in Dimock holds a jug of brown water from his well in his front yard, he is involved in delivering water to his neighbors that can't drink or wash in their water.
*And last picture, Scott Ely and his children in Dimock who had recently built his dream house when the water went bad.
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This is heartbreaking, Les. Thank you for documenting and sharing it.
ReplyDeleteMr. Stone, I want to applaud you for your work. I am a photographer as well and you have put together a wonderful editorial series on fracking. I too am a photographer, technically still a student, but I really appreciate your work. It would be nice to get this into the local papers and/or a public photo installment. I have some ideas that I think would be really effective. Hopefully we can talk soon. Thanks you again for your time & dedication.
ReplyDeleteMy photography teacher once told me he wouldn't call himself a photographer for many years until he had a gazillion assignments under his belt in order to avoid the embarrassing question, "oh who do you work for?" And I followed that strictly after falling into that very trap.
DeleteIn any event, let me know where you are and what your suggestions you might have. Thanx for your compliments. Les
I really feel its wrong, bcoz though companies look to harness all the resources available in a country they shouldn't exploit nature and its beauty. We should see the bigger picture here, not short term profits but have our eyes on a longer term scenario. We should avoid anything which creates a problem for nature and the most valuable resource- Human Resource. Its real people for god's sake, with real emotions and relationships and family. And how their place should be used, I think their decisions is what should be counted. And there so much more..What am I trying to speak here is just a smaller part of it.
ReplyDeleteWe tell everyone in our area here in TX to take pictures. But capturing the story with the images...so much more easily said than done. Thank you for your superb photojournalism, Mr. Stone.
ReplyDeleteWe are deeply saddened to see this happening to your beautiful countryside in Pennsylvania. It's a tragedy for America.
This is scary, permission has recently been granted for hydrofracking around Blackpool which is one of the most popular holiday resorts in the UK. I live around 30 miles away so I'm guessing that I am out of harms way?
ReplyDeleteIt surprised me that this permission was granted despite earth tremors having been reported around the area; I don't suppose we are as aware of this issue as people in the USA.
The biggest issue is caused by deep, horizontal drilling. The term fracking (and the industry's published 'safety' record) is based on older technology.
DeleteHydrofracturing is an affordable way to increase well production. It involves injecting high pressure and high volumes of water into the formation of bedrock to increase the size of existing fractures and to create new ones.
ReplyDeleteHydrofracturing NH
Oh, so it is, but have you noticed what it does to the land, the water, the animals and the people who live on that land? I would say in those terms it is TOO DAMNED EXPENSIVE for a fuel source that is dirty and diminishing. Do you want your children and grandchildren to grow up in that poisonous mess? You are DAMAGING OUR EARTH, which is ALL WE HAVE TO LIVE ON. OPEN YOUR EYES.
DeleteYou and yours will sicken and die with the rest of us if you don't.
Ban it nationally. Ban water withdrawals in CO. Please sign these petitions. Fracking is the worst thing EVER!
ReplyDelete1. http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6125&track=hp-051811-actioncenter 2.http://www.thepetitionsite.com/5/mothers-against-fracking/
3. http://www.change.org/petitions/govenor-hickenlooper-co-ban-water-withdrawals-for-fracking#share