On prioritizing rural community, in the context of an extractive economy

Colin Jerolmack's book, Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town,” was published earlier this year by Princeton University Press, and this past weekend, Jerolmack published a related opinion essay in the New York Times.  The essay features some common themes in this era of fracking, especially in Pennsylvania, where it has drawn so much attention.  But some things set Jerolmack's essay about Mary and Tom Crawley apart, and I'll excerpt just a few of them below.  Bottom line:  the Crawley's prioritized their relations with their neighbors, some of whom were making money off licenses for fracking, over looking out for themselves and their own property values: 

I couldn’t understand why the Crawleys refused to go public with their story — which might pressure the petroleum company to remedy the situation, or speak with the Responsible Drilling Alliance — which vowed to help them secure a pro bono lawyer. They had nothing to lose, I thought. But as I sat and listened, I learned that the Crawleys’ decision to stay quiet wasn’t about what was in it for them. It was about defending their community.

“The couple that has the property the well is on now, they — I work with their daughter and she says that Mom and Dad really feel bad about this all happening,” Mr. Crawley explained. His wife chimed in, “They’re very upset. He’s afraid everybody would blame him.” Mr. Crawley emphasized that his “major concern with this whole deal is somebody harassing” his neighbors or “camping out” on their property.

* * *

“Do you have the right to come protesting in my area because of something that’s not going to affect you and you live 100, 200 miles away?,” Mr. Crawley asked of the so-called fractivists. He wondered how many of them “live in a high-rise building that’s heated by gas.”

* * *

Part of their reasoning was that fracking benefited others, like their neighbor whose family farm was no longer a millstone to unload now that it was bringing in gas royalties, or the friend who was laid off but found a better-paying job driving a water truck for the oil and gas industry. In other words, it mattered to the Crawleys that their neighbors supported fracking and benefited from it.

* * *

Of the six neighbors on Green Valley Road who settled with the petroleum company, only the Crawleys remain. Mr. Finkler died of cancer. But the rest abandoned their homes and moved far away.

* * *

Despite the Crawleys’ best efforts, they lost the one thing they cherished more than clean water: their community.

Eventually, the Crawleys also settled with the energy company responsible for polluting their water.