UPDATE On The Residents of the Riverdale Mobile Home Village from Judy Morrash Muskauski: “A Bryn Mawr-based Aqua PVR LLC has decided it will give most residents of Riverdale Mobile Home Village until June 1 to move.The company received permission from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water per day from the site. The company plans to build a pump station on the site. The water will be transported via pipeline to gas drilling sites. The residents’ leases have been terminated.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZL9wgGqJk1s
ORIGINAL POST: Displacing a community of 32 families from the Riverdale Mobile Home Village in Piatt Township, PA is just another day on the job for Aqua PVR LLC. For 38-year resident, Doris M. Fravel, however, the news is devastating. The company, owned by Bryn Mawr-based Aqua America, plans to eliminate her neighborhood and build a water withdrawal facility for the Natural Gas Industry.
“I could sit down and cry my eyes out,” the 82 year old widow told David Thompson of The Williamsport SunGazette in his article, 32-Unit Village No More.
Loretta J. Gary, POWer extraordinaire, called attention to the story which has quickly become emblematic of the way pro-gas interests are cramming drilling-related activities down Pennsylvania’s collective sore throat. It’s on anti-fracking organizer Alexander Lotoro’s considerable Facebook radar, too. In her March 20, 2012 post, 32 Families Evicted from Homes Due to SRBC Approval of Water Use for Drilling, Gary points out that “Thompson’s article provides a troubling glimpse into how gas drilling is not just fracturing the earth beneath our feet but also the communities and lives that sit on top of it.”
Residents have been given until May 1st to vacate the property, and have been offered a paltry sum to get out before April 1st. It’s no sweetheart deal. For their troubles, Aqua PVR LLC will give each family a $1,500 eviction bonus, bumping it up to $2,500 if they get out even faster. Too bad the cost of moving a trailer home is between $10,000 – $15,000.
“I can’t predict the future,” said Donna P. Alston, director of communication for Aqua America. “At this point we hope everyone will be able to make the move.” She declined to say whether eviction proceedings would begin against residents who do not meet that deadline.
That’s cold. Maybe it’s true that “God gives us the water for free,” as Aqua Chairman Nick DiBenedictus is fond of saying, but apparently the land must be ripped out from under our feet.
Watch a brief, moving video about the difficulties facing Riverdale residents, Marcellus Shale Reality Tour Part 6 Eviction Notice, by Scott Cannon of Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition on You Tube.
Tags: Aqua PA, David Thompson, Donna Alston, Doris Fravel, Loretta Gary
Keep Tap Water Safe 
March 23, 2012 at 5:29 pm |
Here is what the residents have to say: http://youtu.be/21-s2cNF14I
April 10, 2012 at 1:36 pm |
[…] Aqua America subsidiary is the same entity who evicted Riverdale residents. They control the utility pipeline rights of way, and use them for water, […]