Thanks, to all who helped with time and donations the families in Franklin Forks with contaminated water since gas drilling nearby in Franklin Township since 2011.  

The Hadlicks and Mannings and Henrys have had contaminated water with super high methane, up to 81 mg/l and high metals over the allowable limits since gas drilling on the Hollenbeck and Depue lands in 2011.  

They have been supplied with replacement water and set up with water buffaloes, (white, plastic containers) up to 1100 gallon sizes and water delivered to them by the gas company, WPX, till Sept. 2013 and then private deliveries from our  local truck and citizen group, Citizens for Clean Water till now. 

After the DEP did an investigation and did not determine, in April 2013,  that gas drilling was at  fault and does not know what was at fault for changing the water for several  families on route 29 in Franklin Forks, WPX stopped delivering water in Sept. 2013, and got a court order to remove the water buffaloes and water equipment as of 12/16/13.

Then the two families, Hadlicks and Mannings sought help. Neighbors, friends, concerned citizens rallied around them to stop this removal of their water equipment. WPX stockholders also protested and John Hanger, former DEP Secretary, protested the water buffaloes removal. WPX relented and decided to leave the equipment for the families. Now they can continue to get private deliveries of water from our local truck and DEP has agreed to reopen the case with new evidence concerning the source of the methane migration which also brings up metals, radioactivity and other contaminants. 

Thanks, again to all who rallied to help these families in a time of need, especially during the cold, winter weather and during the Holiday Season.

Any donations of bottled water can be left at their homes and  any monetary donations for water deliveries are appreciated.

Sincerely,

Vera Scroggins

Citizens for Clean Water

Brackney, PA

It happened only once before. Around the world people everywhere were glued to their TVs and radios to see the real man in the moon, Neil Armstrong, walk on the lunar surface. The second time the world held its breath was to watch the minute hand close-in on what was widely believed to be the Mayan hour of doom: midnight, December 21, 2012.

But December 22nd dawned and nothing happened. They were wrong. No. Not the Mayans. It was the doomsayers who expected the world to end who were wrong.

To learn why the Mayans may have been right we need to understand the contemporary view of history and how it differs from the Mayans' perspective.

The modern panorama of history is linear; events proceed from left to right, from the past to the future. Some believe it is a march toward a utopian future while others see our world edging closer to an end-time disaster. But whatever the historical prognosis, it is a linear, straight-line progression.

On the other hand, the Mayans looked at history as cyclical, a wheel endlessly turning and returning, centuries or even millenniums later to a similar period.

According to their calendar, the wheel of time was about to complete a historic rotation. Once every 26,000 years history was due to reset itself to make an epic transformation, this time in the year 2012.

Did this momentous event presage a worldwide, earth-changing event? It appears so. An ancient Mayan pictograph shows a watery Armageddon preceding a new age. A watery Armageddon? Yes, but in a way that no one foresaw.

The Ring of Fire: It's a 10,000-mile long horseshoe-shaped ring studded with 450 volcanoes circling the southern Pacific Ocean. Usually only two or three of these volcanoes are active. But there is evidence that the ring is exploding to life. Ten major eruptions were recorded in 2013, some awakening after being dormant for decades.

Approximately 80 percent of volcanic eruptions occur along this infamous horseshoe and 90 percent of all major earthquakes, including the 9.0 that rocked Japan in 2011. The mega-quake was followed by a monstrous tsunami that caused a triple melt-down in three nuclear power plants in Fukushima.

Right now Japan is racing against the clock to decommission the three crippled plants before another major quake creates an inextinguishable radioactive firestorm in Fukushima. It is a race they are not guaranteed to win; seismic and volcanic activity are heating up in the island nation.

Last November a powerful volcanic eruption created a new island about 600 miles south of Tokyo.

About the same time, Mt. Sakurajima at the southern tip of Japan erupted after being dormant for almost a century.

Even the iconic two-mile high Mount Fuji shows signs of instability. Volcanologists warn that since it last erupted 300 years ago magma has accumulated inside the volcano creating pressure that could be violently released.

North America is in the danger zone as much as Japan.

The U.S. has two nuclear power facilities on the coast of California that are at risk from tsunamis. And if Mount Rainier in Washington state were to erupt or the “Big One” was to rumble through Los Angeles, our loses would be greater than Japan's.

Yet the gravest threat to Japan or the U.S. is not to be found in the Pacific Ocean but in the Atlantic Ocean.

Some 60 miles off the western coast of northern Africa lies a volcanic archipelago known as the Canary Islands. One of these idyllic islands, La Palma, has scientists worried.

Sixty years ago a volcanic eruption opened a fissure on La Palma causing its western flank to drop 20 feet. Scientist believe that this huge chunk of land is slipping slowly into the ocean. Another eruption could cause a landslide and a tsunami of gigantic proportions.

A computer model created by Dr. Steven Ward of the University of California predicts that a La Palma landslide would create a tsunami smashing into the east coast of the United States with a succession of waves 150-feet high---that's twice as high as Japan's 2011 record tsunami.

Such an event would have global consequences that are so all-encompassing and far-reaching as to be fundamentally earth changing.

Could the Mayans have been right after all?

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins

New Milford, PA