Trailer park residents battle eviction by fracking industry

The residents of the Riverdale Mobile Home Park in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania are fighting to prevent their eviction by a water withdrawal facility serving the “fracking” industry.

The conflict has been ongoing since last February, when the owner of the land on which the trailer park is situated sold it to Aqua America PVR, whose owner is a former head of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources, and the residents immediately received eviction notices. Even before the sale, the property had been rezoned as industrial and the Susquehanna River Basin Commission had given permission for Aqua America to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water from the river every day.

The residents, most of them middle-aged or elderly, were offered only token payments to help them relocate in an area where the influx of gas workers has already sent rents soaring. Although some did leave, others decided to fight back with the help of anti-fracking activists and Occupy Wall Street.