Keep Tap Water Safe

Citizens Call for Water Sovereignty

Last week, it came to light that Aqua PVR LLC is displacing 32 families in Piatt Township, Lycoming County, so they may syphon off hundreds of millions of gallons of Susquehanna River Basin water for gas drillers. News of this outrage traveled quickly through blogs and on Facebook pages like StopFrackingPA! There was talk of how best to get information about Aqua PA’s heartless corporate behavior out to Rachel Maddow.

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.

How far 82-year old widow Doris Fravel’s story ultimately travels depends on empathy as much as it does media attention. Public consensus is no longer shaped by a single source. The online chatter may be a brain-draining distraction, but it’s also where connections are forming and new ideas are taking shape. Communities of like-minded individuals are engaging in free and open discourse, actively attempting to sort out Pennsylvania’s Great Fracking Mess. The grassroots are spreading.

The Rising Tide of Water Consciousness
The real story, of course, is about Aqua America, the corporate parent of Aqua PVR LLC, and just how far we are willing to allow public water supplies to be privatized, or “pirated” as some may say. The issue at hand is nothing less than Fresh Water Sovereignty, and it’s the current corporate monopolization of our drinking water that has Fractivists in a lather.

“God gives us the water for free, it’s our job to deliver it,” Aqua CEO, Nicholas DiBenedictis is fond of saying. Blogger Dory Hippauf suggests Googling him. God or Mother Nature, I’m not one to say, but it seems whoever delivers the water controls who gets to have the water. And it’s anything but free. In fact, the Southeastern PA regional area rates have just gone up.

You can read more about Aqua America’s busy year in Aqua America Reports Increase in Fourth Quarter and Year-End Earnings on Yahoo! Finance

Last week, we also had Global Water Day. As far as I’m concerned, every day should be local water day. Try going 24 hours without it!

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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

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To get the very latest on this evolving issue in Piatt Township, visit StopFrackingPA! on Facebook.

Tags: Aqua America, Aqua PA, Aqua PVR, Rachel Maddow

This entry was posted on March 27, 2012 at 5:22 am and is filed under PA Drinking Water, Pennsylvania Watersheds, Stop Fracking PA!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.