Fracking protesters target conference
Activists march against planned Shell plant in Beaver County
Environmental and health activists protesting “fracking and cracking” marched Tuesday afternoon from the National Petrochemical Construction Conference at Station Square on the South Side to the Developing Unconventional Gas conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.
The “Stop the Madness” rally and march attracted about 100 protesters from 11 organizations seeking to bring attention to what they said was the potential for unhealthy air and water pollution from the Shell ethane-cracking plant that will be built in Beaver County. They also are against the ongoing development, drilling, hydraulic fracturing and piping of shale gas in south western Pennsylvania.
“The fracking industry misrepresents its impacts on the lives of its workers and our communities,” the Rev. Dai Morgan, coordinator for United Methodist Advocacy in Pennsylvania, said to the crowd gathered at Station Square. “It’s an unethical industry, so let’s stand firmly against the wrong.”
Dave Smith, an organizer with the Pennsylvania Clean Air Council, said the cracker plant being built by Shell will be the largest such plant in the U.S. and a major air pollution source for the region, adding 500 tons of volatile organic compounds ayear to the air.
“This is our Standing Rock,” said Briget Shields, a founding member of Marcellus Protest, an anti-fracking group. “Maryland, New York and Vermont banned fracking because they all saw what was happening in Pennsylvania. We need to dothat here.”
At 6 p.m., the rally morphed into a march, commandeering the inbound lane of the Smithfield Street Bridge.
The marchers waved signs proclaiming “Stop the Frack Attack,” ”Protect our Water: Don’t Drill Where We Drink,” and “Cats Against Fracking” while walking on Smithfield Street to Liberty Avenue and then on 10th Street to the convention center underpass. They were followed by two police vehicles with lights flashing, and two policemen on bicycles were at the front of the march, stopping rush hour traffic at intersections to allow the marchers to pass.
At the convention center, there were additional speakers, including Gabe McMoreland, executive director of the Thomas Merton Center, which he said opposes all fracking, an industrial process that pumps water, chemicals and sand deep underground to crack open the shale formation and release the natural gas it holds.
“Fracking is a war on our health and on our futures,” Mr. McMoreland said. “They want to harm us for profit, but we know the dangers. This is not a science problem, it’s a power struggle.”
The protestors didn’t shock Frank Mull, a salesman with Keystone Drill Services, who had attended the DUG conference at the convention center Tuesday and watched from the 10th Streetsidewalk.
“This kind of thing doesn’t surprise me,” said Mr. Mull, whose firm is headquartered in Somerset and operates in Pennsylvania and Ohio. “Just about anywhere we go, there’s opposition. It doesn’t seem to matter if it’s Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas or Oklahoma.”