Celebs and Officials Collect Emergency Water for Hydro-Fracking Victims in Pennsylvania

Dec. 6, 2011 — -- Actor Mark Ruffalo and film director Josh Fox denounced a controversial form of gas drilling this morning at New York's City Hall, where they collected water to bring to 11 Pennsylvania families whose tap water is flammable.

Their well water has been contaminated since 2008, when the Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. leased their land to use for hydraulic fracturing, or hydro-fracking.

The process extracts natural gas by drilling more than a mile into the earth and pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals to open up fissures in the stone through which it can escape.

When one resident's well exploded several months ago, the state investigated and found that faulty casings in the drilling well had caused methane to seep into local drinking wells.

In addition to methane, the water contains unsafe quantities of heavy metals, radioactive material and toxic chemicals such as ethylene glycol, also known as antifreeze. Dimock Township residents complained of health problems after drinking and bathing in the water, and so the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PDEP) has forced Cabot to deliver clean water to the affected families for the past three years. The PDEP also planned the construction of a water pipe line that would deliver clean water to the region.

But when Thomas Corbett was sworn in as governor in January 2011, things changed. The pipeline construction was stopped, and the PDEP approved a decision to have Cabot stop delivering clean water to the 11 families in Dimock.

Corbett received $1.6 million in campaign funds from the oil and gas industry, according to Common Cause PA. The industry spent $747 million on Pennsylvania state and congressional elected officials.

"All I can say is corrupt politics, corrupt politicians," Ruffalo said. "It's pretty fishy. The DEP was building a pipeline that Cabot was going to have to pay for to the tune of $12 million. For $1.6 million, Cabot bought off Corbett, and as soon as he came into office, he killed the pipeline..."

"The state is now conferring with Dimock's political appointees. Their town board is now conferring with Cabot on what to do next. They've stopped us from bringing the water, from joining Binghamton Mayor Mark Ryan. It's disgusting, and I can't see anything other than corrupt politicians."

The governor's office was not immediately available to comment, but PDEP head Mike Krancer wrote in a letter to the editor of Public Opinion Online, "The real issue here is not safety; it's about a very vocal minority of Dimock residents who continue to demand that taxpayers should foot the bill for a nearly $12 million public water line along Route 29 to serve about a dozen homes. This issue has, and continues to, pit neighbor against neighbor in Dimock."

Ruffalo, who starred in "The Kids Are All Right," lives along the Delaware River with his wife and three children. His property lies atop one of the richest natural gas fields in the world, the Marcellus Shale.

"There's just an enormous amount of hubris around this issue," Ruffalo said. "We're dealing with an industry that has pretty much had its way for the last 70 years in our nation, and certainly since [former vice president] Dick Cheney came into office. I think he ushered in an era of lawlessness for this industry and because of that lawlessness there's just an incredible amount of hubris and arrogance that's been gathered around them."

"They're used to buying off politicians. They're used to having their way. I don't think they expected this to blow up in their face the way it has. But that's classic of any arrogant person. That's what hubris is; you bring the damning of the gods upon yourself."