Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America

In this chapter, Griswold describes the boom of fracking in Pennsylvania’s Washington County over the first decade of the 2000s. Beginning in 2004, Range Resources installed its first fracking well in Washington County. These wells target shale deposits underneath the ground, pouring fracking liquid to capture gas trapped inside the shale. News quickly spreads throughout Washington County’s residents that locals could become rich by signing leases that allow Range Resources to build fracking infrastructure on their farmland. Stacey is initially intrigued by such rumors, as she is desperately in need of money to renovate the barn for her animals. She is likewise spurred by a sense of “patriotic duty,” as she believes that fracking will help create American industry and provide enough energy to fuel the entire country (19). Rick Baker, Stacey’s neighbor, further encourages her to sign a lease with Range Resources, as he had already successfully done so.

Stacey approaches her neighbor Beth to discuss “signing a lease together” with Range Resources, which would offer them both “more money and greater influence than going it alone with a corporation” (22). As Stacey and Beth discuss the lease with the company, Stacey is insistent that the company add a clause promising to provide them with clean water in the event of contamination. At the final lease signing, however, Stacey and Beth are rushed by the company and can’t fully review the lease documents. Both women later realize that the final leases differed from what had been discussed, and suspect that they are dealing with “crooks” (25). As fracking begins in spring 2009, the company sends numerous trucks down Stacey’s dirt road, spreading dust over Stacey and Voyles’ homes. Stacey’s complaints are handled by Tony Berardi, the company’s spokesperson who deals with so-called “frontline communities” (27).

The main site of Range Resources’ activities are at the farm of Ron Yeager, which lies uphill from the Haney and Voyles residences. Underneath Yeager’s farm is the “Ten Mile Creek watershed,” which branches into a number of underground springs from which Stacey and the Voyles’ receive their water (29). Range installs its main fracking well at the top of Yeager’s hill, installing a large drill as well as two pools into the hilltop. The smaller pool is meant to collect drill shavings, while the larger one—the size of “thirty Olympic pools”—collects the “potentially toxic sludge” that is a byproduct of the fracking process (31).

After the first frack on the Yeager’s farm, the workers pour the sludge into the smaller pool, as the larger one is unfinished. As the smaller pool is not built to contain the sludge, it begins seeping into the surrounding ground. Stacey’s son Harley begins developing a serious illness, but the doctors can’t diagnose the cause. Stacey is likewise suffering from a wound on her foot that refuses to fully heal. Over the summer months, Stacey and Beth begin to notice a “rank stink drifting down the hill” from the Yeager residence (35). Beth calls the Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection and learns that the sludge on the hilltop had “gone septic” and was releasing potentially dangerous hydrogen sulfide gas (35).

After the Washington County Fair, Stacey’s boyfriend, Chris Rush, discovers that the home’s water filter had been “coated with sludge” from the fracking site (37). Stacey contacts Range Resources, who send a representative to visit the home and inspect the water. The representative tells Stacey that the water is safe to drink as long as she boils it first, and that there is no reason to worry. Though Stacey initially trusts the company, she begins to suspect that the water may indeed be toxic after she notices the health of her family goat, Boots, worsening. Stacey’s suspicions only grow after Beth calls and tells her that her prized horse has died, likely due to metal poisoning. Stacey calls the family doctor, Dr. Fox, and begins telling him about Harley’s symptoms and the dying animals. Dr. Fox screens Harley for metals, with the tests showing that Harley has elevated and toxic levels of arsenic in his system. Harley no longer trusts Range Resources, and loans a “water buffalo” from her father—a tank that can provide clean water (42). Stacey also begins to keep a notebook detailing how the fracking site is impacting the wellbeing of her family, recording Harley’s elevated arsenic levels in it.

Stacey continues to investigate the possibility that the fracking is causing an increase of arsenic in her home’s water. Though Range Resources pays for water tests that claim the water to be clean, Stacey is suspicious that the tests are truly “independent” and “objective” (47). Stacey contacts a hydrologist, Bob Fargo, who shows her how to conduct arsenic tests on her water by herself. Though the tests show no evidence of arsenic, Fargo informs Stacey that the tests are not conclusive, as they may have conducted the test after a “plume of arsenic had passed” through the underground river (47). Stacey begins questioning doctors for information on arsenic poisoning, and is eventually put in touch with Ron Gulla, who lives in Mount Pleasant Township, “the epicenter of Range’s leasing and drilling activity” (48). Gulla was suing Range Resources over problems stemming from the company’s fracking. Gulla afterwards introduces Stacey to Stephanie and Chris Hallowich, whose family had been similarly affected by Range’s fracking. Though the Hallowich’s had ultimately settled with Range Resources, they had been “ostracized” by their neighbors, who believed Range to be beneficial for the community (49).

After Beth’s dog breeds a litter with a deformed dog, Beth calls the company and accuses them of poisoning their water with “ethylene glycol” (51). As the company refuses to take responsibility, Beth begins lodging complaints with Pennsylvania’s ineffective Department of Environmental Protection. Stacey is initially hesitant to call in the government, but changes her mind after her goat, Boots, dies. Stephanie Hallowich brings a “criminal investigator” from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to Stacey’s home (53). Though the agent is sympathetic, he is doubtful that Stacey has enough evidence to prove Range Resources is causing her family and animals’ health issues. Stacey brings Boots’ corpse to Penn State for medical testing, which reveals that the goat had “an extreme number of parasites” in its blood—a condition often caused by metal poisoning (54).

In this chapter, Griswold discusses Stacey’s life in Amity before her struggle with Range Resources. Stacey’s family were part of a group known as “Hoopies”—poor rural farmers and workers who lived in Washington County and West Virginia (57). The Hoopies earned their nickname from their practice of weaving “hoops out of saplings” which they then sold (57). Stacey’s family grew up incredibly poor, and did not have access to running water in their home. In high school, Stacey is frequently teased for being a Hoopy by her wealthier classmates, who afforded status symbols like “Nintendo and Jordache jeans” (58). However, Stacey later comes to embrace her Hoopy roots, seeing it as a sign of what makes her unique. Stacey’s mother, Linda, had dissuaded her from college, so Stacey instead attended beauty school and married her high school boyfriend, Larry Haney. Stacey and Larry soon made enough money to start a family and purchase a nicer home, but the couple has frequent marriage troubles, and the two eventually split. Though Stacey is confident as a single mother, she begins casually dating Chris Rush, who she meets at a restaurant in Amity in 2009. Stacey and Rush bond over their shared “strong country identity,” and Stacey feels she has found a partner who can support her in ways that her ex-husband was unable (60).

In this brief chapter, Griswold discusses the history both of the town of Amity and of Pennsylvania. Griswold describes how Amity social life revolves around the Ten Mile Presbyterian Church, which was founded shortly after Amity’s settlement in 1773. Amity’s settlers founded the town on land belonging to Native Americans, and the settlement was immediately the site of warfare between the settlers and the Native Americans. The “Quaker elite” who governed Pennsylvania from Philadelphia looked down upon these settlers, as Pennsylvania’s policy was that “land had to be bought, rather than stolen, from Native Americans” (63). However, the Quaker’s attempts to stop the settlers’ violence were unsuccessful. Thaddeus Dod arrived in Amity in 1777, and founded the Ten Mile Presbyterian Church as a way of providing a spiritual haven for the frustrated and angry settlers. Many of the settlers leave their homes to earn money fighting in the Revolutionary War, and return to discover that “their homesteads had been burned by Native Americans” (65). As the settlers attempt to rebuild, they begin distilling whiskey as a means of earning money. When the U.S government levies a Whiskey Tax in 1791, these settlers rebel, spurring the US government to send troops to squash the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. In Amity, the rebellion is remembered and reenacted each year, capturing the “anti-federalist spirit” that remains in Amity (67).

As Stacey continues to investigate her son’s illness, news of her struggle with Range Resources spreads throughout the town. Many Amity residents, who had previously been friends with Stacey, begin to suspect that she “was acting out of hysteria” (68). For these residents, Range Resources was an unquestionable boon for the local community, providing money where the “coal and oil” industries had failed to (69). The growth of fracking had brought numerous jobs into Amity and other towns and reignited the economy. Businessowners, such as Stacey’s cousin Willard Mankey, made money by selling expensive products to the newly rich community. As the fracking continued, farmers who had first made money signing leases for fracking were now earning a second payday by “selling right-of-ways for an underground web of pipelines” (71). For farmers like Ray and John Day, Stacey’s accusations threatened to extinguish the town’s much-needed economic boom. These residents’ suspicions of Stacey only increased as they noticed that Stacey failed to attend community events, as she was too busy working a full-time job and caring for her sick son.