Working Watersheds: Water and Energy in the Lackawanna Valley [Paperback]

A personal narrative, an examination of literary texts, and a history of the Lackawanna Valley region, Bill Conlogue’sWorking Watershedsexplores how water has circulated in the former anthracite capital of the world. Conlogue not only recounts water’s use in anthracite mining and textile making, but also investigates its resulting pollution. He delves into the current natural gas boom, which threatens groundwater, and concludes with hopes of environmental renewal and restoration.

Offering a fresh way to think about the Anthropocene, this distinctive history of water and coal in the Lackawanna Valley discusses how both water abundance and scarcity might play out as global temperatures rise. Working Watersheds is designed to trigger debates about the nature of history, the significance of literature, and the importance of linking person, place, and planet in an era of climate change.“Focused on the unique water systems and human culture of the Lackawanna Valley,Working Watershedsis innovative and informative. Conlogue’s entirely unique perspective brings the reader insights to this place and its stories while also demonstrating a way of viewing—a template—that might be applied to any site that blends natural and human tales. In this merging of disciplinary approaches, we find an entirely unique portrait of how to understand our industrial heritage. Acknowledging the implications of mining and development allows readers to come full circle, and Conlogue is our best guide to understand eastern Pennsylvania—where it has been and where it will go in the future.”—Brian C. Black, Distinguished Professor of History and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona, and author ofPetrolia: The Landscape of America’s First Oil Boom“Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna Valley exemplifies what it means to be a working watershed with a fraught history of coal mining and fracl3*