Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America

“Yet signing a lease wasn’t just about money. Stacey also saw it as her patriotic duty. She, like many Americans, was tired of the United States sending troops to fight wars for oil.”

Griswold argues that people’s willingness to lease away their land to Range Resources went beyond simple financial motivations. Many Americans, like Stacey, see domestic fracking as a possible solution for the nation’s ongoing energy crisis. Fracking on American land could give the country enough natural resources so that it no longer must rely on foreign oil imports.

“And [Tony] Berardi believed he was helping people like Stacey who lived ‘on the front lines’ of the gas rush. That was the term for such places, ‘frontline communities,’ as if they were at war with extractive industries.”

Tony Berardi is Range Resources’ community liaison, tasked with managing the relationship between Range and the residents whose land they wish to drill on. Though Berardi’s purpose is to make sure that Washington County residents are happy with Range’s presence, Griswold emphasizes that he uses military language in describing those very residents. Griswold suggests that there are more nefarious motivations underneath Berardi’s cheery surface image.

“Once the pressure and fluid splintered the rock, the clay pellets propped open the new fissures so that gas could flow up to the surface. But gas wasn’t the only thing that rose: 10 to 40 percent of the water and chemicals used in the frack returned too, as did radioactive materials, both natural and synthetic, and bacteria that hadn’t seen daylight since the giant dragonflies roamed the earth.”

This passage describes the fracking process, by which companies like Range inject a fluid mixture into buried rock to release natural gas trapped within it. Griswold emphasizes how a byproduct of the process is that toxic waste also rises to the surface—which can cause chemical contamination and exposure when not handled properly.

“It wasn’t like Harley was mean; he was hollowed out, absent. He’d always been shy, preferring the company of animals. But now he was drawing inside himself to a place she often couldn’t reach.”

Soon after Range begins fracking at the Yeager site, Harley falls ill with an undiagnosed and chronic illness, causing him to miss most of his school days. Griswold describes how this illness affects Harley’s mental health and physical health. Harley’s character changes, causing him to emotionally shut down and completely isolate from socializing with others.

“Stacey feared it was going to be her job to expose what was happening in Amity. Maybe she could do so quietly; attention brought nothing but trouble. That she could see from the lives of the Hallowiches. She dreaded the idea of going public, of waging a fight.”

As Stacey begins discovering evidence of chemical exposure, she is put in touch with the Hallowiches, a family that similarly fought the fracking companies. Though the Hallowiches earned a large settlement, they were also ostracized from their community, who saw the Hallowiches as a greedy couple faking their symptoms. Stacey fears that her own fight will similarly result in alienation and hopes that she can privately convince Range to take responsibility for their actions.

“[The Whiskey Rebellion] was the only time in U.S. history that a sitting president led troops against his own citizens. Each spring, this anti-federalist spirit flourishes in downtown Washington, where Whiskey Rebellion reenactors march beneath the uneasy gaze of George Washington, whose statue still perches atop the county courthouse.”

Soon after the Revolutionary War, settlers in Washington County wage a rebellion against the federal government in protest of a proposed whiskey tax—their primary means of moneymaking. Griswold describes how, 250 years later, Washington County residents still participate in a reenactment of the Whiskey Rebellion, evincing that locals continue to feel a sense of pride about the rebellion. Griswold suggests that such anti-government attitudes remain an integral part of Washington County’s identity.

“Harley’s illness was also morally threatening. If he was in fact a guinea pig for industry while they were cashing life-changing checks, then it followed that the landowners were making that money at the cost of someone’s health.”

As news spreads throughout Amity of Harley’s plight, many residents—who also have signed leases with Range Resources—doubt Stacey’s claims that fracking has caused his illness. Griswold suggests that such individuals are resistant to Stacey’s claims, as believing that they could be plausible would mean that their money was earned in unethical ways, harming a member of their own community.

“Like other farmers’, Day’s distrust of the federal government and of regulations was embodied in a dislike of the Environmental Protection Agency. As people in Amity saw it, the EPA didn’t fix problems. They created them, by pointing out issues that required residents to pay for expensive alterations or face government fines.”

Many of Amity’s residents hold an innate sense of distrust toward any governmental regulations—in particular, the EPA. These residents doubt that the EPA is helping to protect the environment. Instead, they believe the agency to be proscribing needless changes to uphold regulations made by faraway bureaucrats with no relation to their land.

“[Hang ‘Em High’s] members saw themselves not as environmentalists—a term for political liberals advancing all kinds of agendas—but as conservationists who believed in the prudent use of resources.”

In Amity, a group of farmers and other residents concerned about fracking regularly meet to discuss the drilling practice. As conservationists, these individuals see themselves as separate from more liberal environmental activists, who argue that the environment must be preserved from any form of extraction. Conservationists support taking natural resources from the land but argue that it must be done carefully to prevent harm and pollution of the landscape.

“The pollution from fracking was harder to see and harder to clean up [than that of coal]. What if some of the chemicals used in fracking—the antifreeze and fuels, the ancient radioactive materials, synthetics and astronomic levels of salt­—combined to be more dangerous than people knew?”

Unlike the former coal industries whose pollution was clearly visible by dirtied rivers, fracking’s pollution is harder to track due to the use of invisible chemicals that are sometimes undetectable in the water. This inability to trace fracking’s pollution means that many will flat out deny that any chemical exposure has occurred.

“What if [Stacey’s] children couldn’t have their own? What if they got cancer twenty years from now? Who would be around to pay for the health costs in two decades? She decided that night that she had no other choice than to speak out.”

Stacey is initially hesitant to bring her story to the public, as she fears that Range will retaliate and become even less likely to take responsibility for Harley’s illness. However, as Stacey continues to research the effects of chemical exposure, she becomes convinced that she has a duty to fight against fracking­—both for her own children and others’. 

“Unlike oil, which is what operators call a ‘Eureka!’ business, natural gas is a widget business, meaning profit doesn’t come from a sudden geyser. Profit comes instead from slow and steady work at the margins, and involves keeping costs as low as possible.”

An inherent characteristic of the natural gas industry is that its profit margins are small, meaning that money is made slowly and over a longer period. Such a type of business incentivizes owners to constantly seek out ways to increase their profits. This cost-cutting attitude leads Range Resources to spend less money on protecting against leaks and other safety measures, earning Range higher profits in the short-term but leading to costly pollution over time.

“People ask me why I don’t just move out, but where would I go?”

Here, Stacey is speaking to Griswold. The general reaction to Stacey’s story of struggle and health problems is to ask why she doesn’t move to a different property. However, Stacey is already in debt, and such a move would cost more than Stacey can afford. Likewise, the fracking has made it near impossible for Stacey to sell her farmhouse.

“The DEP and the oil and gas industry seemed to be on the same side, and, sitting at one table on the far end of the courtroom, they weren’t even trying to hide it. The Smiths had heard the disparaging nicknames for the state’s collusion with industry, ‘Department of Energy Production,’ and ‘Don’t Expect Protection.’”

When Beth and the Smiths sue the DEP for a failure to clean her water, Range Resources voluntarily joins as a dependent. The Smiths realize that, though the DEP is tasked with regulating and reining in the excesses of companies like Range, the two are closely acquainted and on friendly terms with each other. Such familiarity suggests that DEP cares more about Range than it does about ordinary citizens like Beth.

“Kendra discovered that the lab had doubled the reporting limit from 10mg/L to 20 mg/L. Since the amount now fell beneath the new reporting limit, it wasn’t listed. What a clever trick this seemed to be. To Kendra, it implied that the lab could be at fault too in changing protocols to hide contamination in the water.”

As Kendra investigates the independent water tests provided to Stacey, she finds several copies of results of the same tests: Some list the presence of ethylene glycol, while others did not. Kendra realizes that Range had instructed the lab to alter the reporting limit, thus allowing Range to provide Stacey with tests that did not list the chemical. Such cooperation between the lab and Range suggests that the tests were far less independent than suggested to Stacey.

“Yet theirs would be the first case in Pennsylvania history to contest that the DEP’s findings were wrong and that oil and gas had contaminated someone’s water. Bringing such a case against the DEP, let alone winning it, was going to kick off a shitstorm, [Kendra] told John.”

After the DEP concludes that Range did not contaminate Buzz’s water, Kendra decides to file a lawsuit contesting their results. Such a lawsuit is without precedent, as it directly challenges the DEP’s authority over its own testing. Kendra realizes that the court may be biased to rule against them, as a successful trial will pave the way for numerous more lawsuits against the DEP.

“Though they didn’t initially know it, Ron and Sharon Yeager had one essential element of evidence that neither Stacey nor Beth did: a pre-drill test that established the baseline quality of their water.”

Stacey and Beth have difficulty proving chemical contamination, as they did not test their water from before the fracking began. If they had, they would compare water tests and definitively conclude which metals or chemicals had entered the water after the fracking. Unbeknownst to Stacey and Beth, the Yeagers have such a test, as Range was required to perform a pre-drill test because they were fracking directly on the Yeager’s land.

“[EPA agent] Troy Jordan went to work with Chesapeake [Energy], Stacey wrote in her journal that night. Will be moving to Ohio. I’m shocked, but just one more example of what money does to people.”

Though Stacey is initially hopeful that the EPA will bring charges against Range, she learns that many EPA agents move back and forth between industry and government jobs. Stacey sees the loss of her “favorite” agent Jordan as proof of the corrupting influence of greed (177). In Stacey’s eyes, the desire for wealth leads Range Resources and the government alike to neglect Stacey’s family’s well-being.

“TO THE IGNORANT MOTHERFUCKERS who keep breaking into my house: it’s bad enough that my children and I have been homeless for 2 and a half years but now I have to deal with this. Your greediness has cost me over $35,000 in damages […] I hope you rott [sic] with cancer!!!”

When Stacey checks on the abandoned farmhouse, she realizes that individuals have repeatedly broken into it, causing her insurance payments costs to soar. Stacey is already struggling with medical debt and paying for a camper, and as such, the break-ins push Stacey to the edge of her patience. She leaves the above note cursing the individuals who robbed her house, which Griswold uses to show how exasperated and stressed Stacey has become.

“But in Stacey’s eyes, Obama was sacrificing her family in favor of some fucked-up version of the utilitarian principle. The greatest good for the greatest number of people made Harley a justifiable casualty in the struggle against melting ice caps and rising sea levels wrought by climate change […]”

Though initially a skeptic, Obama pivots to support fracking, as he believes it will help wean Americans off oil and transition to clean energy. Stacey believes that such reasoning sees people such as herself or Harley as expendable, as it prioritizes the health of the planet over their own well-being.

“Chuck wanted [Stacey] to start taking the Zoloft he’d prescribed. But Stacey continued to refuse. ‘If I have to take that, Range wins,’ she told him again.”

As the lawsuit drags on for years with no trial date, Stacey’s mental health keeps worsening, and she eventually is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. However, Stacey refuses to take antidepressants, believing that doing so will symbolize her defeat to Range Resources. For Stacey, it’s important to keep living her life as normally as possible, even as she suffers internally. 

“We are not here to argue that Loren [Buzz] Kiskadden has great water quality, he doesn’t. What we are here to say is even if all the coincidences [advanced] by the appellant are true, it does not follow that gas well activities polluted appellant’s well. Coincidences of that are just coincidences.”

This quote comes from a statement by the DEP’s attorney, Michael Heilman, during Buzz’s trial against the DEP. While Heilman acknowledges that leaks occurred at the Yeager site, and that Buzz’s water is contaminated by chemicals, he maintains that these are just coincidences, and that one cannot prove that Range contaminated Buzz’s water. Heilman’s argument persuade the judges, who rule that Kendra has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Range is the culprit for the polluted water.

“To Harley, all of the above was blood money. ‘I hate [Range] for what they did,’ he said. Range’s seeming support for farming and agriculture was nothing but hypocrisy.”

Range Resources maintains its public image by donating money to Amity and other Washington County towns, and actively participating in the Washington County Fair each year. However, Harley believes that such money is unethical, as it only exists as a result of harming the health of individuals like him. Harley believes that Range is actively trying to cover up the harmful and exploitative nature of the company by presenting a charitable façade.