Anti-Frackers Bring PA Lessons to Owego

8/8/2012 (Updated 8/9/2012 7:32:29 AM)

Scare tactics, or sound advice?
-Two distinct interpretations of what anti-fracking forces were offering in Owego Wednesday night:

Speaker Vera Scroggins:
"And you'll see this fire in the sky and it sounds like jet planes,
so this is right near homes."
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Residents Against Fracking Tioga turned out at Owego Free Academy Wednesday night --to hear Pennsylvanians talking about what they say are the dangers of fracking.
--Lessons which they say they learned the hard way--in Susquehanna County, PA -- water pollution;  heavy traffic; increases in crime; environmental damage and dangers to health.

Susquehanna County resident Vera Scroggins:
"Well, we're here to warn people in NY and so that they don't go through what we're going through.
It's in 34 states and I don't want to see another state have to deal with what we are dealing with.
And we also need a place for the gas refugees to run to because we will have to move as it gets even more industrialized."
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But among the few pro-frackers that were in the audience-- the arguments against the industry, and against the process amounted to what they describe as scare tactics--   
John Cuomo, of Endicott belongs to the Tioga Coalition --a landowners and citizens group which supports hydrofracking:
"It's been a scare tactic. It's been delay. Most people haven't dug up the facts. Most people would sit and listen to this kind of rhetoric without checking any of the facts for themselves.
And if they check the facts, they'd find out a whole different story."
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The Residents Against Fracking Tioga say  the warnings have shown to be right on target in Pennsylvaia, where industry promises and assurances  have already failed to protect residents, and their properties:
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Scroggins:
"So, it'll be for you to pay for, for me to pay for, for generations to come. and you think you're making money now, but you're going to have to pay for the cleanup for generations."