Susquehanna County residents still dealing with pollution from natural gas fracking confronted Gov. Josh Shapiro face to face Wednsday in Scranton.
Shapiro visited a South Scranton union hall to explain his energy plan, but Dimock residents wanted him to talk about their plight, too.
Leaning on his cane, disabled veteran Ray Kemble said he still deals daily with fracking-polluted drinking water.
“When you going to come to back to Dimock?” Kemble asked. “I got no water at the house. You threw us under the bus.”
Aides and security with Shapiro ushered Kemble out of the room, and another resident left right behind him. Both left willingly.
As attorney general, Shapiro charged Cabot Oil & Gas with polluting Dimock residents’ water, but more than a year ago negotiated a plea bargain with the company’s successor, Coterra Energy.
Under the deal, Coterra pleaded no contest to polluting, the legal equivalent of a guilty plea. Coterra also has to pay Pennsylvania-American Water Company with $16.3 million to extend underground pipes to serve residents will polluted water.
The residents think Shapiro went too easy on Coterra. They’re also upset the new water line is taking so long to install.
As Shapiro prepared to take questions from reporters, another clean-water activist, Craig Stevens, demanded the governor answer Kemble’s question. Again, aides tried to remove Stevens.
“We're not going anywhere. Governor come to Dimock, you’re right here. Come up and meet the people, Stevens said.
He held up pictures of children with rashes and a bottle of brown fracking-polluted tap water.
“These are the children that have been poisoned. That’s their water,” Stevens said.
After some back and forth with Shapiro aides, Stevens left.
Shapiro told reporters he was grateful “the folks of Dimock care so deeply about their community.”
“I care deeply about them. And I appreciate the fact that they're frustrated and they wanted to come and voice themselves here and I respect their right to do that,” Shapiro said.
It was unclear if Shapiro plans to visit Dimock. A statement issued by his office later didn't say.
Shapiro spokesman Manuel Bonder noted the settlement and said the governor and his staff are "working aggressively to make good on these commitments and continue delivering for the people of Dimock."
"Gov. Shapiro will never forget the people of Dimock – and he has been working diligently alongside the Public Utilities Commission to ensure the public water line he secured gets built as quickly as possible," Bonder said. "The governor is committed to making sure Pennsylvanians’ Constitutional right to clean air and pure water is protected – and to continue holding companies accountable when they pollute our communities."
