PA Faith Community Steps Up, Seeks to Raise $5,000 for 5 Months of Clean Water for Families With Fracking-Polluted Water
Call on Governor Wolf to Step In and Protect Area
Woodlands, PA – Over 50 faith leaders and faith communities launched the Clean Water for the Woodlands fundraiser this week, with a goal of raising $5,000 to provide five months of clean water for the residents of the Woodlands.
Several dozen families in the Woodlands community of Butler County, Pennsylvania have lived without clean water for nearly six years as the result of nearby oil and gas fracking. Families in the Woodlands continue to rely on a weekly donation of 20 gallons of clean water for drinking, cooking, and brushing their teeth, which they receive from volunteers operating a water bank at the nearby White Oak Springs Presbyterian Church. This falls far short of what the American Red Cross considers the minimum requirement for an emergency – two gallons per person per day.
“The Woodlands community has gone far too long without the help they need from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the fundraiser letter reads. “Pennsylvania’s faith community is stepping in where Governor Tom Wolf has not.”
To date, Governor Wolf has refused to recognize that the oil and gas industry is responsible for the extreme water contamination, despite the gas wells that appeared shortly before reports of contaminated water began to pour in. In Pennsylvania, the Department of Environmental Protection has confirmed 284 cases of contamination that in some cases affect multiple families sharing a water supply. In December, the Environmental Protection Agency released a long-awaited study confirming the negative impacts fracking has on water at every stage of the drilling process.
“It has been nearly six years, and the Woodlands community has not received the support they need from our elected officials. People deserve access to clean water. These tax-paying residents have been unjustly harmed at the expense of the oil and gas industry, so the faith community is taking matters into our own hands,” said Rev. Sandra L. Strauss, Director of Advocacy and Ecumenical Outreach for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches.
“Governor Wolf, Pennsylvanians are suffering as a result of your outdated energy policies. We must follow the overwhelming science and research, not the deep-pocketed energy corporations that don’t have our best interests at heart,” said Anita Mentzer, Director of UUPLAN (Unitarian Universalist Pennsylvania Legislative Advocacy Network). “Fracking contaminates drinking water, and our state’s energy policies must reflect this reality. We are calling on you visit impacted families in the Woodlands, and to use your upcoming budget address to announce a plan to provide help to this community, and the communities around Pennsylvania facing similar difficulties stemming from fracking,”
The Clean Water for the Woodlands campaign, which was built using the crowdfunding website Faithify, hopes to meet its goal in 45 days.
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