The natural gas industry is certainly well-known in northeast Pennsylvania as many communities sit on top of the Marcellus Shale.
Now the hot button issue of “fracking” is premiering on the big screen, in a new movie called Promised Land.
It was a busy night here at the Dietrich Theater in Tunkhannock with the crowds flocking in for the premier of Promised Land.
The movie stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski and features something many know far too well: the growing presence of the natural gas industry in rural communities sitting on top of the Marcellus Shale.
Many said they do have concerns about the controversial drilling process the industry uses, called “fracking”.
“The ground water is the big problem where people didn’t have trouble with ground water for 30, 40, 50 years and now they have trouble,” said Gary King of Eatonville.
The movie was co-written by Damon and Krasinski.
Damon plays a salesman for a fracking company, looking to buy leases of land from homeowners in order to drill.
Jim Brooks from Mehoopany said he has a deal with Cabot Gas.
“We have gas leases so we have an interest in it, but hoping it’s entertaining,” said Brooks.
Krasinski plays an environmentalist, who challenges the fracking process.
Gerry Kane brought a jar of water from her house in Susquehanna County, which she says is full of heavy metal deposits.
“We’re still bathing in it though we were told not to,” said Kane. “We don’t have a choice, I mean this has been since 2008.”
The Kyzers just moved to Meshoppen from New Jersey and came to learn more about the gas industry.
“Just to understand it a little bit better, the pros and the cons,” said Nancy Kyzer.
The Marcellus Shale Coalition released a statement Friday afternoon, calling Promised Land “a complete work of fiction.”
It has made a 15-second ad that it said will run before the movie at theaters across the state.