Gasland: Light my (water on) fire…

JF: They were paid for by the gas companies to come down by bus, and yes, they were outfitted, too, simply to disrupt the proceedings of that meeting. They have leases pending and they believe that they are going to make millions of dollars; they also believe the gas companies’ lie that this process is safe when it clearly isn’t.  I do believe it’s about money, that’s how it’s been working and also about their unwillingness to listen to the feedback that’s been coming from all over the country. The amount of regret on behalf of the people who have leased their land for drilling is overwhelming. I met hundreds of people who were told this process was safe, leased their land and saw their lives and their property literally ruined. It’s been more than a human disaster. It’s a disaster across the board, for ourselves, for our environment, for our country.

VP: Last week at Mercury Lounge, you hosted a benefit concert (featuring Run On Sentence, the awesomely Doors-y Chappo and Vanessa Bley) for the families suffering from the consequences of natural gas drilling. It was a blasting night, I must say. What organization currently supports those families as they deal with health issues, loss of farming income, or simply the cost of buying water to drink or shower with?

This is a huge problem. If you live on a water well and the water goes bad it’s going to make your life incredibly difficult. People are breaking out in hives and have all kinds of unknown skin diseases and other neurological ailments because buying this much water to clean and bathe in is simply not an option. Those citizens have very little recourse. None at the State or Federal level.  They do try sometimes suing the gas companies – which they very much struggle to do alone, not having extensive means to compete with the conglomerates’ legal teams – and if there has been several class-action lawsuits, those generally get settled out of court with inadequate terms and a non-disclosure agreement so the records get stricken out and the gas industry never has fess up to the fact that this is what they did. And those citizens are left to suffer in the dark. I believe that in America, in 2010, you shouldn’t have to trade your first amendment right for water. So we have been raising money directly for these citizens and one of the things we are looking into is the building of communal bathing stations in affected communities. Yes, like on a camping ground. Safe bathing water for every family who needs it to have access to.