Derry Environmental Advisory Committee to Screen
‘GROUNDSWELL RISING’
Sunday, May 22, 2:00 pm
Hershey Public Library, 701 Cocoa Avenue, Hershey, PA
Admission is FREE !!!
New York State has banned fracking completely and Maryland has a moratorium on it until October 2017, but Texas has banned towns from banning it. This is the varied political landscape on this method of drilling for natural gas called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in the United States. Pennsylvania is in the thick of it, with thousands of wells already drilled. In March, two families in Dimock, PA, received a $4.24 million judgment of negligence on the part of the gas company they say contaminated their wells, and some are hoping this will increase the groundswell of activity against fracking.
Fracking isn’t just about chemicals being injected underground and accidentally being released into wells along with methane gas, it’s also about what’s happening above ground. In a short documentary film to be shown by the Derry Environmental Action Committee, Groundswell Rising: Protecting Our Children’s Air and Water, residents of Pennsylvania and other states with heavy fracking talk about their experiences having their wells contaminated, but also about things like having high-volume truck traffic going past their homes (50 to 60 miles per hour) and having wells drilled just outside their yards and lowering their property values dramatically.
Some argue that natural gas is a bridge to tide people over from coal to renewable energy sources in the future, but studies are finding that fracking is causing more damage than expected, for example, by releasing much more methane into the air than was originally thought and by causing earthquakes. In the 50-minute film, people from both ends of the political spectrum come together to try to keep fracking from coming to their towns, disturbing their peace, and marring their environment.
One of the film’s executive producers, Mark Lichty, will answer questions afterward. For more information, contact DEAC at DerryEAC@gmail.com.
