Evan M. Lopez
A journalist-turned-activist, Bloom started the grassroots group Protecting Our Waters to fight shale gas drilling in the region. We checked in with her after the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) canceled a vital Nov. 21 vote that would have cleared the way for fracking upriver.
City Paper: How did you become a fracking activist?
Iris Marie Bloom: I first learned about these issues in May of 2009, and I became so alarmed so quickly that I wrote about 40 or 50 articles in a row for University City Review. But it became clear that writing was not enough, so I began to blog about it, to be an educator and founded Protecting Our Waters in fall 2009. So it's been two years of overt activism.
CP: What's your take on the DRBC vote postponement?
IMB: It's a really huge victory. It was very much against the odds. Everyone, including at some points ourselves, believed the vote would happen and that it would go against us, but the fact that we kept pushing on five to 10 different fronts at all times, that's what I credit our victory to. It's the use of multiple tactics, the cultivating of a really broad base, getting unions, faith-based communities, physicians, scientists, students, businesses all involved, so it's not just the usual suspects. ... But all victories are temporary. This will come back. DRBC will try to have another vote at some point. And if it took 75,000 people to turn it around this time, it's going to take 145,000 people next time. And the shale gas lobby has almost infinite resources at its command, so we have to be ready.
CP: So it could just be delaying the inevitable?
IMB: What we're hoping is that Gov. Markell of Delaware will stay true to his word. What he said was what we've been saying all along, which is that we need to have a cumulative impact study before we even start making the rules. No study, no rules, no frack. And if he stays true to that, then the delay will be at least a year. And what we're finding is with every delay, more scientific evidence emerges of just how serious the public health implications of fracking really are.
CP: What about the fracking laws within Pennsylvania?
IMB: On the same day we found out about the DRBC victory, we had a major defeat statewide, by way of a bill called SB1100/HB1950, which takes away the right of municipalities throughout Pennsylvania to limit gas drilling by using zoning. It's a terrible slap in the face for democracy and a terrible insult to the environment. Those bills aren't law yet, so we have a little window of time. What we would really like to see is a statewide moratorium. ... But in a state dominated by Gov. Corbett and the deep pockets of the drilling industry, it's very hard to get a moratorium passed.
CP: Are you hopeful it can be done?
IMB: I'm very determined. And I would say I'm about as optimistic as I was before the DRBC victory. Because before the DRBC victory, people kept saying, "You don't have a chance, do you?" And I said, "Well, we have a sliver of a whisper of a ghost of a chance." So I think now we have a whisper of a chance. And because it's so important, because animals are going to die, people are going to die and our climate is going to move faster and faster toward real global scorching, I can't stop.
