Dimock Again? Really? How Many Times Will the Same People Resurrect the Same Falsehoods? Until the Money Runs Out!

David Hess was appointed Pennsylvania Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) by Governor Tom Ridge in 2001, which will tell alert readers most of what they need to know about him. Ridge is the RINO who first turned DEP into the problem it is today (just as he did with the Delaware River Basin Commission) so that explains why Hess is propagandizing a return to Dimock to rehash the same old nonsense by the same old people yet again. He does so with an over-the-top post on his website promoting a “toxic tour” of the Dimock area. Here is the intro, which is followed by links galore intended to suggest things are a mess in Dimock and the natural gas history is in deep trouble:

Residents of Dimock, Susquehanna County and eight major environmental and advocacy organizations will hold a Stand With Dimock Day on August 16 to call attention to the fact that water supplies contaminated by shale gas development in 2009 have still not been replaced.

“This will be a celebratory time for environmentalists and scientists across the state to come together and call out elected leaders who have ignored the plight of the longsuffering residents of Dimock,” said Ray Kemble, a local resident and clean water activist who is credited with helping to mobilize bans on fracking in New York and Maryland. “There are 100 million gallons of brine water being stored above my property headed for the Susquehanna River. It's a fracking fountain.”

The day will include a Toxic Tour of the Dimock community and industry sites, a tour of a soon-to-open environmental center and a rally with speakers who will address the repeated and ongoing systemic violation of residents’ environmental rights. 

Stand With Dimock Day will be held at the Dimock Environmental Research Center, 11081 State Route 3023 in Montrose, Susquehanna County from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m.

Elected officials and media are invited and encouraged to attend.  Click Here to RSVP.

Questions should be directed to: Shannon Smith, smith@fractracker.org,  or call 814-449-0659.

So, who is this Dimock Environmental Research Center (DERC)? Well, it was incorporated in 2019 and has an amateurish website here which tells us this:

Dimock Environmental Research Center is the vision of a coalition of impacted residents who grew tired of non-disclosure agreements making further scientific research at residential properties impossible once a contamination event occurred. The Kemble property is in the heart of fracking country and  the center of one of the largest pollution events related to hydraulic fracturing AKA fracking known to the public. We allow scientists to continue their work, even after a pollution event occurs. We also offer an inside scoop to journalists and filmmakers.

It’s an anti-fracking propaganda manufacturing facility. And, amazingly enough, the address is Ray Kemble’s house! And, who are the eight major environmental and advocacy organizations involved in the event and the leaders of the organization? Well, we know from David Hess that FracTracker.org is involved because they serve as the contact. We also see Environmental Health Project and Center for Coalfield Justice resource links are cited by Hess, so it’s a good bet they’re involved.

They are all shill organizations essentially created by and funded by the Heinz Endowments, one of Pennsylvania’s two gentry class NGOs who haven’t given up trying to kill all oil and gas development in the Commonwealth. So, undoubtedly, that’s where the money to fund all this crap arises.

The Usual Suspects Toasting the Formation of DERC (note presence of Ray Kemble and Craig Stevens

Then, there are the apparent leaders of DERC itself. They include Anthony Ingraffea, who has been funded by another anti-gas group NGO known as the Park Foundation who I wrote about here and whose work has already been rejected by the courts. Then, there is Jan Hope ForPeace Lemas and Leatra Lea Harper. If you read my Editor’s Note on the latter you’ll find the latter’s group, the FreshWater Accountability Project simply does some of the dirty work for Food and Water Watch, which paid for Dimock loudmouth Craig Stevens’ activities.

So, there you have it. The Heinz Endowments and Food and Water Watch (funded by Heinz and the Park Foundation) still have money to spend to perpetuate the Dimock myth and so it continues. Shame on David Hess for participating in this vile charade. What a complete joke; funded by NGOs and trust-funders with money to waste on attacking an industry that has revitalized Susquehanna County.

#Dimock #Ingraffea #DERC #DavidHess #Heinz #ParkFoundation