Last night, Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, Kari Pohl, and a number of other regional environmental organizations hosted “Preparing for Petrochemicals,” a Virtual Community Meeting. In case you missed the event, we encourage you to watch the recorded version, provided here.

The coming chapter in Beaver County’s future will undoubtedly elevate significant differences of opinion and reopen hard discussions. As we move toward navigating this season together, we must uphold the freedom to ask hard and uncomfortable questions. We must elevate and celebrate the right of residents to become as informed as possible. And we must remember that our residents deserve to have agency over their future.

RiverWise is grateful for the kind of work highlighted last night. The health of our region will emerge only against the backdrop of more conversation, more information, more advocacy, and more transparency. For those who are truly operating with the best interest of residents in mind, these should never be contested nor threatening matters.