Little Town on the Shale
A Girl Fights Hydrofracking
by
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On Friday, the weather was warmer, and Rick let Rob leave work early so he and Maggie could hike. Maggie was becoming dismayed with Rob, who was sounding like he was beginning to side with the gas company, unlike his mother, Virginia. Maggie wasn’t sure where Rick stood. “Look at the economics, Maggie,” Rob told her as they walked along the edge of Bass Creek. “This area doesn’t have industry. We’ve got a handful of businesses in town, and they’re not doing very well. Some of them are just barely holding on. Drilling would bring in business and money. Mr. MacGregor got a bad deal when the chocolate plant closed. He’s barely got a pension, and Social Security isn’t going to pay for everything. The guy’s worried. What’s he supposed to do?” “But what about the environment?” Maggie asked. “If our groundwater’s contaminated, how’s that supposed to help Mr. MacGregor, or the rest of us? And the noise, and the dust, and the truck traffic. If the wellhead is on Mr. MacGregor’s property, he’s just going to be paying the price so other people can make money. Sure, the company will pay him a little more to site the wellhead there, but it won’t be that much more. Companies will make money off the land, off us, and then leave for unpolluted places while we’re left with the mess.” “It’s mainly when the well’s being drilled that there’s dust and noise,” argued Rob, who also had been reading up on the issue at the library. “And the companies have begun to encase the wells in concrete and steel -- steel, Maggie.” “Yeah, steel that can twist in an earthquake,” Maggie snapped. “Have you read about the increase in earthquakes in areas where fracking is allowed?” “They have been minor,” Rob countered. With that, they stopped arguing. Neither wanted to offend the other, but this issue, frankly, scared both of them. They were talking about the future of the place they loved, the place where they had grown up, the place that was their home. There were no easy answers, except Maggie knew they had to try to take a longterm view. She remembered her mother quoting from the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the Native Americans who still lived in the area. One should consider the effect of one’s actions on the next seven generations.
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About the Book
Maggie is an aspiring scientist who hopes to earn a full university scholarship. Her mother, who just applied for food stamps, and her father, who after months of unemployment took a job for half his previous pay, could never afford tuition. When she learns that her neighbor is considering leasing his land for gas drilling, Maggie studies the subject and finds herself becoming an activist. The dangers of hydrofracking are real, but in this small, rural, economically depressed town, will her neighbors believe the gas company’s promises of prosperity and safe drilling?
About the Author
Tracy Kinne is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She was a journalist for more than two decades. Her first book, On Sale: Employers Get Good Workers Dirt Cheap, a memoir about the four years she spent as a low-wage retail worker, took honorable mention in three international festivals: 2012 New York, Paris and New England. In Little Town, Kinne, who is a substitute teacher in a public school system, moves to young adult fiction, showing young people that they can make a difference for the better in their communities and in the world.