Hundreds March Against Fracking in Philly

Philadelphia – "We have a crisis on our hands," warned Dr. Poune Saberi, a Philadelphia family physician, speaking at Love Park during a rally Saturday, part of the "River to River" march against fracking.

She continued, "Three days ago a fracking well in Canton, Pennsylvania [Bradford County] blew out, spilling thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals over farms, fields, the private property of local families, and into a creek that flows into the Susquehanna River..." She listed some of the chemicals and flowback contaminants involved in fracking, and their impact on human health. Saberi asked, "shouldn't the EPA study of fracking impacts on drinking water -- to be released in 2014 -- precede [the onset of] this cancerous industry?"

She concluded, "We must demand the government... enforce a moratorium on all Marcellus Shale hydrofracking in Pennsylvania. Otherwise the tide of gas drilling will wash us all into a river of chemical waste like an invisible tsunami."

"People down here aren't aware that blowouts are happening all the time up in northeastern Pennsylvania," said marcher Jim Kosa, holding up a picture of a newspaper with a huge banner headline, "BLOWOUT," describing last week's blowout from a Chesapeake Energy well. Bradford residents protested angrily last Friday, at Chesapeake Energy headquarters, that many of their private water sources were already contaminated by Chesapeake Energy's operations prior to the blowout. They said that after Chesapeake started drilling nearby, some residents have experienced severe medical symptoms including numbness and heart problems, and that blood tests of sick residents show high levels of barium, strontium, radium and other drilling-related contaminants.

On Friday, the protesters in Bradford County demanded that Governor Corbett put a moratorium on fracking statewide, and on Saturday community groups in Philadelphia marched 300 strong with the same demand. Starting at the Schuykill River and marching to the Delaware River at Penn Treaty Park, concerned residents called for an end to high-volume horizontal hydrofracking, the controversial gas extraction method commonly called fracking. Protecting Our Waters Director Iris Marie Bloom said fracking “damages air, water, earth, climate, and human health.”

The bottom line issue for many Philadelphians is drinking water, a theme reinforced by rally speakers and signs, but marchers also expressed strong concern about Pennsylvania's health, and are also angry at industry attempts to make it seem "as if" gas drilling is good for climate when new science shows gas drilling to be as bad as coal, and perhaps twice as bad, for climate.

At Love Park, Cheri Honkala of Kensington Welfare Rights Union gave a fiery speech about “corporate greed,” saying that for low-income people water is a bottom line issue even more important than housing. “What good is an apartment if you can’t drink the water?” she asked. State Representative Kenyatta Johnson brought the crowd alive with chants of “no fracking way” and “protect our waters” in call and response. Reverend Jesse Brown called for green jobs and renewable energy. Artist Peter Handler pointed out that in the big picture, “natural gas extraction is worse than coal for climate.” Alex Kaplan of Common Cause said the results of political contributions and lobbying from the gas drilling industry are "tragic," leaving the general public at risk because they don't have deep pockets to protect them from deep drilling.

Drummers from a high school marching band energized the crowd. Some marching drummers wore Tyvek suits; while some marchers wore large fish puppets, one woman carried a 13 foot tall drilling rig for the entire march route, over four miles. Colorful flags, signs, and banners reinforced both the local message, specific to the Delaware River Basin – “Don’t Frack with Our Water!” and the statewide message, “Don’t Frack Up PA!”

On April 14th, several of the groups involved with the march (Protecting Our Waters, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, Food and Water Watch, PennEnvironment) delivered over 35,000 comments to the Delaware River Basin Commission demanding a complete moratorium on horizontal hydrofracking in the Delaware River watershed, which supplies 100% of Philadelphia's drinking water (the Schuyllkill River is also part of the Delaware River Basin).

Corina Delman, an organizer and artist with “River to River,” summed it all up, “We want to protect our water and air from fracking – not just the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, but Pennsylvania and our region.”


Provided by ProtecingOurWaters.com.