In stories that skirted the hysteria of hydrofracking and focused instead on the facts, Carol French and Carolyn Knapp spoke to its impact on their lives Wednesday before a crowd of more than 500 in the Cobleskill-Richmondville High School Auditorium.
A more passionate Vera Scroggins joined them at the mic for "Fracked for Real: Voices From Pennylsvania" and what they all had to say was sobering.
"Don't let them in," Ms. Scroggins, of Susquehanna County, said of the natural gas companies, "because once you do, you've got to get rid of them. And the rest of us need a place to run."
The second part of that remark drew laughter and applause, but she continued more somberly.
"I don't want to be a gas refugee. I want to stay. I love this state."
Both Ms. Knapp and Ms. French are dairy farmers from Bradford County; Ms. French said her family willingly leased their land, in part because neighbors had been leasing theirs for 40 years and there was no real drilling, just exploratory wells.
"Our biggest concerns were our fences," she said; they'd never heard of hydrofracking.
"And we thought that if they did drill, we'd be rich and that's a dream farmers are never allowed to dream."
The Frenches were "released" from their lease in April, but the damage is done; Ms. French said she began noticing changes in her water-water her cows drink-in March of 2011 and both Environmental Protection Agency and her milk cooperative have refused to test her milk.
"I won't drink it," she said.
Family and neighbors are sick with rashes, nosebleeds, and liver and spleen problems; the Frenches' cows won't breed back.
The kicker? Though gas companies will disclose to a doctor which chemicals they're using, "the doctor can't disclose them to me."
"Most of what they [natural gas companies] tell you is part-truths," Ms. Knapp said.
"We want to set the record straight," said Ms. French.
The Frenches first leased their land in 2006; in 2009 they so believed in their company-Chesapeake Oil & Gas-that they became stockholders.
But when she read the literature stockholders receive, warning them of the dangers and risks associated with fracking, Ms. French said, "I felt betrayed."
The deception continues when gas companies talk about the economic benefits of fracking, they said.
Production costs-everything from building roads to extracting the gas-can be and usually are deducted from landowners' royalties.
Companies can control the size of production units-what landowners are paid on-again impacting payments.
The jobs card is also a lie, both said.
Milk haulers who quit that business to truck water for hydrofracking are now squabbling amongst themselves because there's no work; people who spent their retirement on water trucks are in the same boat.
Sawdust is mixed with fracking "flowback"-water and chemicals--so it can be considered a solid for waste disposal.
Ms. French said one local mill spent $1 million on upgrades to take advantage of that need-and then Chesapeake gave the job to one of its own subcontractors.
"Six sawmills went out of business because of that," she said, adding, "If there are so many local jobs, why do I see so many trucks from Arkansas and Texas?"
Additionally, both women said, the gas companies set their own prices, paying only 40 percent of what they owe.
They also wait 180 days to pay even that, a wait local businesses can't afford.
Ms. Scoggins said Pennsylvania was hurt by the fact that it has little zoning-something already in New York's favor.
But, she also warned that there are hydrofracking wells within a mile of the New York border "and we heard yesterday that the water's already turning black there."
All three women said they've been followed and intimidated by gas company representatives.
Ms. French said she got an anonymous phone call warning her to "get a permit to carry" and not to drive alone at night anymore.
"I'm learning how to shoot," said Ms. Scoggins.
"This was all going on in Pittsburgh for three years...Why didn't I know about that?" added Ms. French. "I don't care if they threaten me. I'm going to keep on looking for answers and doing this."