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Author and poet Eliza Griswold.
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'Amity and Prosperity': The drilling and the damage done

Kathy Ryan

'Amity and Prosperity': The drilling and the damage done

Few readers outside of the greater Pittsburgh area will catch the reference of the title of Eliza Griswold’s stunning new book, “Amity and Prosperity,” the names of two neighboring towns near Washington, Pa.

Locals know that these small towns are classic examples of the postindustrial geography of Western Pennsylvania.


"AMITY AND PROSPERITY: ONE FAMILY AND THE FRACTURING OF AMERICA"
By Eliza Griswold
MacMillan ($27).

If J.D. Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” famously portrayed the Rust Belt ethos of Appalachian transplants into southern Ohio, “Amity and Prosperity” tells with vivid detail the contours of daily life in Washington and Greene counties, the northern edge of Appalachia that is no longer sustained by coal fields or steel mills and that less than a decade ago faced an “energy gold rush” with an influx of workers, money, drugs and drilling for natural gas.

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The book’s subtitle, “One Family and the Fracturing of America,” is a significant play on words as well as this riveting book is very much about the contested practice of industrial fracking and how its deadly side effects — poisoned air and water — disrupted these congenial small towns and the larger social fabric around Washington.

From Canonsburg to Eighty Four to Cecil, from Lower Ten Mile Presbyterian Church to the Subway restaurant at the Lone Pine truck stop, to Southpointe, the Range Resources headquarters near the corporate hub of the oil and gas boom, the specificity of Ms. Griswold’s descriptions are spot on and clearly recognizable for anyone who lives near or has visited south-central Washington County.

Although the story is a page-turner exposing corporate injustices, dishonesty and public malfeasance — one can hardly believe how bad it gets as one family fights back against the cover-ups of the poisoning of their water — it is still appealing to read about places one knows. (How I smiled when the author describes the strikingly odd anti-environmentalist billboards on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.) This book about yinzer territory is being talked about throughout the county.

Ms. Griswold is a talented and award-winning nonfiction writer, a reporter known for “The Tenth Parallel,” a book about inter-religious conflict mostly in the Middle East. In “Amity and Prosperity,” she embeds herself with several families and walks with them through their years of illness, losing their home, and their desperate sleuthing, investigating the poisons in their air and water. (Their own testing done with the help of local doctors proved that Range Resources was fudging the data and not being forthcoming about the chemical spills and toxic leaks from several of its fracking wells and storage ponds.)

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The book opens at the beloved Washington County Fair with the young people who show pigs and goats, their friendships nurtured through years in 4-H. As one teen’s animals get sick and mysteriously die, as does her neighbor’s prize-winning horse, the reader is drawn in, knowing this portends great trouble that may not end well.

Ms. Griswold is an energetic writer, and the characters she writes about are themselves colorful, raw and dogged. Their suffering seems relentless, their fears and foibles understandable. We learn about all sorts of chronic illness, family struggles and the consequences that bad environmental health has on their lives and community.

The social stress of speaking out among neighbors who might disapprove of their anti-fracking concerns and the differences of opinion about the vast amount of money the frackers offer are portrayed realistically. Some scenes are painfully awkward as longtime friends try not to fall out over their differences about selling out to Range Resources.

The plot unfolds as we see the impact this has on the teenage children, their extended families, their church friends and the local fire hall. Their hopes for vindication and money for safe water service are dashed over and over as the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the national Environmental Protection Agency drop the ball, even on fairly obvious matters.

The complicity of the DEP with the fracking industries and its refusal to press charges when environmental safeguards are disregarded is breathtaking.

Eventually a heroic lawyer couple, John and Kendra Smith, take on lawsuits against Range Resources, starting in the Washington Court of Common Pleas and eventually suing the State of Pennsylvania contesting pro-fracking policies of the Corbett administration in a case that went to the State Supreme Court.

With simultaneous legal battles from Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, “Amity and Prosperity” becomes not only a glimpse into postindustrial small towns and the environmental consequences of fracking but also a legal thriller worthy of any novel by John Grisham.

One observer called the lawyers “Mr. and Mrs. Atticus Finch.” This story makes the film “Erin Brockovich” look like kid’s stuff.

“Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America” tells of small town life with richly textured tales of the Izaak Walton League, the county fair and the local Bible study. It also tells about earthy folk who try to stick together, sharing a community fabric that unravels when outsiders bring about huge upheavals and bring in loads of money, all in the name of progress.

It also expertly shows the big picture of state and national policy, of how laws and various administrative agencies enhance or diminish the social architecture of small towns and rural areas, and of the human consequences of the red and blue ideologies vying for influence.

Mostly it tells the stories of some Western Pennsylvania families, some sick kids, some corrupt businesses, and the drama of speaking truth to power. It is about learning to be a whistleblower and finding the faith and courage to move on, despite all.

Byron Borger runs Hearts & Minds, an independent bookstore in Dallastown, Pa., and the online review blog “BookNotes.”

First Published: August 10, 2018, 4:00 p.m.

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Author and poet Eliza Griswold.  (Kathy Ryan)
"Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America, " by Eliza Griswold.
Kathy Ryan
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