May 28: Triple Divide (Redacted) screening

Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania (PSR) are hosting a virtual film-screening of Triple Divide [Redacted] on May 28th at 7:30 p.m. with directors Joshua Pribanic and Melissa Troutman.

Triple Divide [Redacted] is an award-winning documentary on fracking from the investigative news team at Public Herald. The film changed the narrative on fracking’s impact to drinking water by publishing 9,442 unreleased DEP complaint investigations that contained evidence of criminal misconduct from regulators and industry. Scientists and experts believed there were only a few thousand of these investigations prior to the film. 


Medical Advocacy Director Tammy Murphy of PSR says, "The content of this film affirms what we understood in Pennsylvania, which is that calling for stronger regulations when the current regulations are not even being followed is not going to protect human health or the environment on which we rely for our survival. The industry’s hold on the majority of bureaucratic agencies and policy makers is like a strangle hold. We do not really have a seat at the table; we get public hearings, and occasional meetings that temporarily make us feel heard while the industry controls the decisions. The corruption is rampant. I admire the intellect and tenacity of the investigative journalism guiding this narrative film. Triple Divide [Redacted] reveals the humanizing emotional and physical results of the collaboration of a heartless industry that controls the majority of the governmental agencies and policy makers who are supposed to be protecting the people and environment that they are sacrificing."

Director Melissa Troutman starts the film calling for a criminal investigation of regulatory misconduct in Pennsylvania. In 2017 the directors got their call answered by Attorney General Josh Shapiro who met with Pribanic and Troutman to discuss the now ongoing AG criminal investigation and grand jury of DEP. This film covers five years (2011 - 2016) of cradle-to-grave investigations revealing how regulators and industry mishandled water contamination investigations.

PSR's Laura Dagley after watching the film stated, "What is put into the water, is put into our bodies. Melissa and Josh understand the value of clean water, evidence based research, and holding accountable the agencies that were created to protect us."


Triple Divide documents a scientific reality. I am very appreciative when a film “gets it right”, actually reports a scientific process or situation as it is, rather than grabs attention with an over the wall presentation or something that is fabricated. Short of Nova, Nature and Cosmos, I don’t often see straight science. That’s what Triple Divide gave the audience and why it is so devastating, because it is real.” (Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice, PhD, CPG, CPSS. Bennett & Williams Environmental Consultants Inc., Adjunct Professor, Ohio State University, Food, Ag & Bio Eng.)
 

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