Award-winning documentary “Triple Divide [Redacted]” hand selected for 2019 Oil Valley Film Festival
Fracking documentary “Triple Divide [Redacted]” calls for criminal investigation of the Pennsylvania DEP. “For years, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has suppressed, withheld and covered up hundreds of water contamination cases [related to fracking] in Pennsylvania, cases that specific officials at DEP have knowingly kept hidden,” says co- director Melissa Troutman in the opening of the film (Troutman also heads up the investigative news nonprofit Public Herald). [IMAGINE SUCH AN INVESTIGATION OF AER AND ALBERTA ENVIRONMENT! WOULD THERE BE ANY “OFFICIALS” LEFT?]
Award-winning Actor Mark Ruffalo co-narrates and joins the call for a criminal investigation, “For too long the health and safety of families near fracking has been side- lined. TRIPLE DIVIDE [REDACTED] contains the evidence for Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro to act and stop the state from inflicting this harm on innocent victims.”
In 2015, Pennsylvania became the second-largest producing natural gas state in the U.S. behind Texas, and DEP’s job is to protect the state from pollution from fracking — the process used to remove natural gas from miles underground. The film is named after one of four “divides” in North America where water flows from one place into rivers that flow to three different parts of the continent.
“From the Triple Divide in Potter County, everything is downstream,” said co-director Joshua Pribanic. “As fracking has increased here, the number of contaminated water supplies is rising. Adding injury to insult, our recent reporting at Public Herald uncovered that the state created a regulatory loophole allowing radionuclides from fracking waste to be relabeled as landfill leachate that’s discharged into 13 waterways.”
State attorney general seeking investigative grand jurors from 7 counties including Washington, Fayette by Barbara Miller, Sept 7, 2019, Observer Reporter
The state Supreme Court granted Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s request to convene the 46th statewide investigative grand jury, selecting jurors who will hear evidence from seven Western Pennsylvania counties, including Washington, Fayette and Allegheny.
Justice Thomas G. Saylor named Judge Jeffrey A. Manning, president judge emeritus of Allegheny County, as supervising judge of the multicounty grand jury, which will be convened in Manning’s home county.
Randomly selected to summon prospective jurors, and the number they are to provide are: Allegheny, 102; Washington, 17; Fayette, 11; Westmoreland, 30; Erie, 23; Mercer, 10; and Somerset, 7.
Washington County sent out enough juror summonses to have 85 people arrive Tuesday morning at the courthouse for the selection process.
“I have no knowledge of the subject matter of the grand jury investigation,” said Washington County Court Administrator Patrick Grimm on Friday.
The supervising judge is to maintain secrecy surrounding grand jury proceedings, and Grimm said sheriff’s deputies will be assigned security duties for the selection process.
“All we’ve been asked to provide is jurors. We are not involved in the actual proceedings of what the grand jury is dealing with,” Grimm said.
The counties are to provide a total of 200 prospective jurors from which the names of 50 people who will serve will be chosen randomly by the Allegheny County court administrator.
“If it becomes necessary, additional prospective jurors shall be summoned by the supervising judge from among the remaining 150 prospective jurors,” according to Justice Saylor’s order.
Those who are chosen should be prepared for a long haul.
The length of service will be not more than 18 months, although the attorney general can apply for an extension, but the maximum time is not to exceed 24 months from the date the jurors are originally empaneled.
Refer also to:
Pennsylvania conducting criminal investigation into shale gas
2007: Full Criminal Investigation of Alberta’s EUB requested (Of course it didn’t happen)