I couldn’t imagine a circumstance where environmentalists were advocating for the purchase of bottled water. But when residents lose access to clean, safe drinking water due to fracking, bottled water is their only option.
September’s Shale Gas Outrage events in Philadelphia will include a Water Drive from noon Sept. 24 through 9:30 a.m. Sept. 26, collecting water to help our neighbors replace the clean water fracking took away. The gas industry is holding their annual conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center again this year (“Marcellus Shale Insight”) and organizations like The Delaware Riverkeeper Network are holding a Water Drive across the street at the Arch St. Church to make it very clear that while shale industry insiders and public officials meet and celebrate inside they’ll be outside collecting jugs of water and cash contributions to purchase water for Pennsylvanians who have lost their water to drilling operations. Please make a donation that will buy water for those in need through the collection site or join at the Water Drive by dropping off a jug or two of water between noon on Tuesday and 9:30 am on Thursday at the Arch St. United Methodist Church.
At 9:30 am, Thursday Sept. 26, a press conference will give a rousing sendoff to trucks carrying the water collected to places in Pennsylvania that are suffering the loss of their clean water due to pollution by gas and oil operations. Then at 1 p.m. Thursday, participants will gather at American Friends Center for the Freedom from Fracking III Conference teach-in event with guest speaker John Fenton, Wyoming rancher, featured in Gasland films for the suffering his family faces at the hands of gas drilling. The conference theme is the True Cost of Fracking. Please attend for speakers, panels, and breakout sessions aimed at equipping all of us with tools to face the terrible challenges shale gas presents and how we can work together. To register visit http://fffconference.eventbrite.com. For more info: http://shalegasoutrage.wordpress.com.