Dear Grange officials:
When I joined the Big Creek Grange in Carbon County some years ago, I assumed that it was an organization that would aid small farmers. Today I read in the Lancaster Farming that the Grange is supporting legislation by the state House to “rein in” the Delaware River Basin Commission . The Grange thinks Pennsylvania should decide what is best for the Commonwealth, according to the article, and the DRBC has no right to ban fracking.
First of all, the DRBC is only banning fracking in the Delaware River Basin. It’s a funny thing about river basins and watersheds. What happens in New York can affect Pennsylvania. What happens in Pennsylvania can affect New Jersey and Delaware. I would think an organization of farmers would recognize that.
We own a small farm about to be bisected by the PennEast fracking gas pipeline. We are in the blast zone. The pipeline company has the rights of eminent domain, not for the benefit of the general public, but for stockholders and private profit.
My hat is off to the DRBC, which evidently has my interests at heart far more than the Pennsylvania Grange. In case you wonder why so few farmers are joining the Grange, and why so many members are in their sixties and seventies, I think I have found your answer. If you purport to help farmers, you could start by opposing an industry that pollutes our water, fouls our air, and pays no severance tax while doing it.
Sincerely,
Roy Christman
Nice letter.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I was pretty disappointed in the Grange's actions, as you can no doubt tell.
ReplyDelete