PENNSYLVANIA   FARMERS  SPEAK  ABOUT

The Capitol Pressroom for January 9, 2012

Carol French is a dairy farmer in Bradford County Pennsylvania. She leased her mineral rights to East Resources in 2006 for a 5 year term. East sold her lease to Chesapeake, which, though the term of the lease has expired, is still on the deed. While neither gas company ever fracked her land, she lives within a couple miles of 9 active wells. She claims her water has been ruined, and her property value has plummeted. But more urgently, she claims her daughter’s endocrine system has been so battered by processing contaminated water that the chemicals caused her spleen to rupture; the daughter ultimately had to move away from the family farm. Today, two days before the end of the DEC’s fracking public comment period, we will hear excerpts from an interview with Carol who spoke with us on her farm on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the DOH hasn’t responded to anti-fracking activist Doug Wood’s foil requests for correspondence between that Agency and the DEC regarding the health impacts of hydrofracking. He joins us to tell his story.

Then Seneca National President Robert Odawi Porter has some thoughts on the Governor’s commitment to expand gambling in New York.

And Brian Sampson, of the pro business group, Unshackle Upstate weighs in on hydrofracking and the Governor’s SOS.