Amity and Prosperity
Subtitle: one family and the fracturing of America
By: Eliza Griswold
Edition: First edition.
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 318
ISBN-13: 9780374103118
Subjects: Social conditions; Environmental aspects; Gas wells; Hydraulic fracturing
Description: "Tells the story of the energy boom's impact on a small town at the edge of Appalachia--and one woman's transformation from a struggling single parent to an unlikely activist. Stacey Haney is a local nurse working hard to raise two kids and keep up her small farm when the fracking industry comes to her hometown of Amity, Pennsylvania. Intrigued by reports of lucrative natural gas leases in her neighbors' mailboxes, she strikes a deal with a Texas-based energy company. Soon trucks begin rumbling past her farm, a fenced-off drill site rises on an adjacent hilltop, and domestic animals and pets start to die. When mysterious sicknesses begin to afflict her children, she appeals to the company for help. Its representatives insist that nothing is wrong. Alarmed by her children's illnesses, Haney joins with neighbors and a committed husband-and-wife legal team to investigate what's really in the water and air. Against local opposition, Haney and her allies doggedly pursue their case in court and begin to expose the damage that's being done to the land her family has lived on for centuries. Soon a community that has long been suspicious of outsiders faces wrenching new questions about who is responsible for redressing their ills. The faceless corporations that are poisoning the land? The environmentalists who fail to see their economic distress? A federal government that is mandated to protect but fails on the job? Drawing on seven years of immersive reporting, Griswold reveals what happens when an imperiled town faces a crisis of values--and a family wagers everything on an improbable quest for justice."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Part I: Hoopies. Fair 2010 ; When the boom began ; The mess next door ; Arsenip  ; Airborne ; Hoopies ; "One head & one heart, & live in true friendship & amity as one people" ; Doubters ; Hang 'em high ; Blood and urine ; Airport; title: Part II: Burden of proof. "Mr. and Mrs. Atticus Finch" ; Mutual distrust ; Buzz ; Missing pages ; Rainbow water ; "Dear Mr. President" ; Insurgents ; Burden of proof ; Policing the state ; What money does ; Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush ; Remote people ; Ignorant motherfuckers ; A special agent ; Full metal jacket; title: Part III: The right to clean air and pure water. The right to clean air and pure water ; Dreams ; Closing down the ponds ; Chasing ghosts ; "The junkyard plaintiff" ; Diva ; Fair 2016; title: Epilogue: White hats; title: Postscript.