We in Syracuse, apparently, are First Class Citizens, along with those living in New York City.  The rest of you living in . . . → Read More: An issue of justice]]> I don’t understand how our governor can push for marriage equality while determining that otherwise there are two classes of citizens in New York: those who get to drink safe water and those who don’t.

We in Syracuse, apparently, are First Class Citizens, along with those living in New York City.  The rest of you living in the Marcellus Shale area, too bad!  You’re Second Class and therefore not worthy of protection.

Cartoon from Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County

Hmm… if protection is needed for two aquifers, then that’s admitting that all the other aquifers in the Marcellus Shale area are potentially unsafe. And therefore that the practice of hydrofracking is unsafe.

So who is benefiting from hydrofracking?  Must be the ones who are going to make the money who don’t live within the Marcellus Shale area. Looks like folks in Albany. Of course. And a few out-of-towners who brought this nightmare to us.

Take action! (Scroll down to the bottom.)

Here’s an update from Walter Hang of toxicstargeting.com:

Greetings,

It was revealed today that Governor Cuomo proposes to allow Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing to proceed in New York with the exception of the New York City and Syracuse watersheds, State lands and primary aquifers.  See: http://www.dec.ny.gov/press/75403.html

His proposal is clearly an admission that Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing is inherently unsafe no matter what safeguards DEC might adopt in its revised draft SGEIS.  Otherwise, the Governor would not propose to ban the practice in selected areas.

The Governor’s proposal would break his campaign promise that “existing watersheds are sacrosanct and Andrew Cuomo would not support any drilling that would threaten the State’s major sources of drinking water.”

As you will see from the map below, major sources of drinking water comprise 75% of the Marcellus Shale formation.  Tens of thousands of New Yorkers drink unfiltered water from private and public wells as well as surface waters throughout that area.  Those residents deserve the same protection proposed for residents of New York City and Syracuse.

See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/map/watershed

and http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/cuomo-statement-marcellus-shale

Any DEC regulatory plan that fails to provide equal protection for all New Yorkers must be rejected as totally unacceptable.  We have at least three months to try to kill the Governor’s fundamentally unfair plan.

The revised draft SGEIS will not be posted for public review until 7/8/11.  The public comment period will reportedly begin sometime in August and will last 60 days.

Please note that Governor Cuomo’s proposal cannot be implemented until a FINAL SGEIS is adopted. That should still be a long time in coming. With luck, at least a year from now.

Finally, the Governor’s proposal calls into question the integrity of his efforts to revise the draft SGEIS pursuant to Executive Order No. 41 since he has already decided to allow Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracturing to proceed no matter how inadequate the revised draft SGEIS might be.

Take action:

Call Governor Cuomo ASAP at 518-474-8390.

Email the Governor at http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php

A. Demand Equal Environmental Protection for All New Yorkers From Marcellus Shale Horizontal Hydrofracturing.

B. If Marcellus Shale Hydrofracturing cannot be done safely in New York City and Syracuse watersheds, state lands and over primary aquifers, it obviously cannot be done safely anywhere in New York.

C. Send the draft SGEIS back to the drawing board for yet another do-over.

The chips are down.  We have at least three months to thwart Governor Cuomo’s inadequate and unfair proposal.

Best,
Walter

Facebook: http://toxicstargeting.com/facebook

Twitter: http://toxicstargeting.com/twitter

Tuesday, March 22, 5:30 – 6:15 pm Thornden Park Water Tower (all the way up to the top . . . → Read More: If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it]]> One of the most riveting speeches I have ever heard, and only 6 minutes long. Given by a 12-year-old at the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Brazil. Please watch this:

Now please put a 1-hour break from life on your calendar:

Tuesday, March 22, 5:30 – 6:15 pm
Thornden Park Water Tower (all the way up to the top of the hill) MAP
Rally to Protect New York State From Frack Waste

Dave and I will be there. Will you?

Lifton Calls For Public . . . → Read More: Lifton Calls For Public Hearing on Hydrofracking]]> Radioactivity in the air or in the water is something neither we nor the Japanese ever thought we’d have to face. Nuclear reactors in earthquake zones suddenly don’t make sense. Did hydro-fracking ever make sense? Your presence at Tuesday’s rally will make a difference (see below). Please read the following (bolding mine):

Lifton Calls For Public Hearing on Hydrofracking
and Release of DEC Documents

For Immediate Release
Date: March 2, 2011
Contact: Barbara Lifton (518) 455-5444

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D/WF- 125th AD) today has called for a public hearing and for the release of all documents exchanged between NYS DEC and the federal EPA on High-volume Hydrofracking (HVHF) from 2007, when concerns were first raised about HVHF in New York, through the current SGEIS process. Lifton said these actions are warranted based on new reporting by The New York Times on the issue of HVHF, its impact on drinking water in Pennsylvania, especially, and the disposal of flowback water in New York.

“The investigation done by New York Times raises fresh alarm about the issues I and many others have raised regarding the nature of the flowback wastewater from hydrofracking, its treatment and disposal, and the potential danger to public health,” said Lifton.

“We need to stop and ask questions about the EPA and industry research that highlights the inability of wastewater treatment plants to adequately process flowback from hydrofracking, and about whether the EPA adequately shared the results of their 2009 investigation of the Monongahela River disaster which resulted in Pittsburgh’s 850,000 residents having to drink bottled water, described by the EPA as ‘one of the largest failures in U.S. history to supply clean drinking water to the public,’” Lifton continued. Lifton said the issue of elevated levels of radioactivity of the flowback wastewater is one of many critical areas that needs immediate attention, as the EPA found that, even after treatment, discharged wastewater with dangerous levels of radiation contamination posed a great risk to drinking water.

“We must not allow for the contamination of NY’s critical fresh water resources. Gathering information to fully understand the risks of hydrofracking is critical in crafting the best public policy in New York, if, indeed, drilling is allowed to occur. We simply cannot allow the kind of disasters that have happened in Pennsylvania and elsewhere to happen here in New York State. The health of all New Yorkers hangs in the balance,” Lifton emphasized.

The Syracuse March 22, 2011 Rally to Protect NYS from Radioactive Fracking Waste is part of a statewide movement.

Rally to Protect NYS from Radioactive Fracking Waste

Tuesday, March 22nd
5:30 – 6:15 pm
Thornden Park Water Tower

Thornden Park, off of Beech St. and Ostrom, near SU
Call 470-0778

Call for clean, safe water, air and food

No to Hydro-Fracking
No to radioactive and hazardous waste which is freely released, untracked and unmonitored
Yes to conservation and truly sustainable energy policy and production

Yeah, right.

On Tuesday, March 22, at . . . → Read More: Is Horseheads too far away for us to care?]]> It’s happening to them, not me. They are far away. Not my concern. It’s too big an issue to wrap my mind around it. It’s so bad, it can’t actually be happening. It’s someone else’s job to make sure this doesn’t happen here. Our state government will protect us from it.

Yeah, right.

On Tuesday, March 22, at 5:30 pm, there will be an anti-fracking, pro-drinking-water rally at the water tower in Thornden Park. Will you be there?

There are already over 1,000 gas leases in Onondaga County (see map below). Syracuse is only 84 miles from Horseheads, NY.  How close does hydrofracking have to get to Syracuse before we do something to stop it?  Read a few details from this article dated February 25, 2011, and imagine it happening – as it well could – to you or your neighbors, your cousins in Cortland, your camp on the lake:

Upstate New York Community Launches Fracking Suit

New York, NY: Nine families from the town of Horseshead in Upstate New York have launched a massive class-action suit against the Anschutz Exploration Corporation and its subcontractors alleging that a hydraulic fracturing operation to extract natural gas destroyed their property values and contaminated their drinking water….

…”Some of the contaminants are known carcinogens and everyone there has a serious fear of cancer,” says Bern.

“The families in Horseshead may not be able to live in their homes for as long as they would have liked,” says Bern. “I don’t know who would buy those homes; maybe someone would want it for a natural gas lease or something of that nature.”

According to the 45-page statement of claim, representatives of the Anschutz Exploration Corporation went knocking on doors in Horseshead two years ago before the drilling began and told homeowners that they “would never know anything was happening and everything would be the same after the gas wells were drilled.”

Six months after Anschutz drilled two 10,000 foot deep wells in February 2010, families living in close proximity to the wells discovered their drinking water was contaminated with combustible gases like propane and dissolved methane, and other toxins.

The Horseshead families can no longer use their well water for drinking, cooking or bathing.

For many of us, the biggest investment we have is our home. Equally important, it is where we live, where we have roots in our community. If the water serving your home were to become carcinogenic, what would you drink?  And how would you ever get the value out of that home that you put into it?

~  ~  Please consider bringing your children to this rally
for a real-life lesson in civic involvement. ~  ~

Tuesday, March 22nd 5:30 – 6:15 pm Thornden Park Water Tower

Thornden Park, off of Beech St. and Ostrom, near SU Call 470-0778

Call for clean, safe water, air and food

No to Hydro-Fracking No to radioactive and . . . → Read More: Rally to Protect NYS from Radioactive Fracking Waste]]> Following is all the text from an email I got today. I have no need to add to it:

Rally to Protect NYS from Radioactive Fracking Waste

Tuesday, March 22nd
5:30 – 6:15 pm
Thornden Park Water Tower

Thornden Park, off of Beech St. and Ostrom, near SU
Call 470-0778

Call for clean, safe water, air and food

No to Hydro-Fracking
No to radioactive and hazardous waste which is freely released, untracked and unmonitored
Yes to conservation and truly sustainable energy policy and production

The NY Times recently ran three in-depth articles about the extremely harmful consequences of hydro-fracking across the US.
Please take the time to read the articles.
The details are very disturbing.  We can not allow this to happen.

• Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers
• Wastewater Recycling No Cure-All in Gas Process
• Politics Seen to Limit E.P.A. as It Sets Rules for Natural Gas

Please add your voice and body to the growing cry against irresponsible and immoral hydro-fracking.

Thank you.

Please forward this to as many people as possible.

Please let Stacey Smith <fishswimfreely@yahoo.com> know if you want your organization listed as a participant.

©2010 Kristin J Mosher

Do you see the numbers?

8,000 truck trips per well pad
1,000 gas leases on Onondaga County

How many potential truck trips on our county roads? 8,000,000

This must be stopped and you can do it.  Come to the rally.

“We’re burning the furniture to heat the house,” said John H. Quigley, who left last month as secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The NY Times has done . . . → Read More: Burning the furniture to heat the house]]> The environmental disaster created by hydrofracking has finally hit the front page of the New York Times. It’s a lot worse than we’ve been led to believe.

“We’re burning the furniture to heat the house,” said John H. Quigley, who left last month as secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The NY Times has done its homework. Now it’s time for us to do ours. Get informed. Read this article:

Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers

Play with the interactive map below. Along the left side, click on the four contaminants to see how they’re going into the rivers of our neighboring state, Pennsylvania: Radium, Uranium, Gross Alpha (a type of radiation) and Benzene.
In – the – drinking – water – of – their – children:

Toxic Contamination From Natural Gas Wells

Finally: Please sign the Cuomo Coaltion Letter if you have not already done so.  Find as many other signatories as feasible:

http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/cuomo/coalition_letter

Then call and email Governor Andrew Cuomo, EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck and DEC Commissioner Nominee Joseph Martens.  Ask them to support:

• Expanding the scope of the draft SGEIS to include additional concerns, notably how to manage gas drilling wastewater;
• Establishing Citizens and Technical Advisory Committees to help DEC revise the draft SGEIS;
• Providing at least 30 days public comment to identify additional issues to be included in the draft SGEIS scope;
• Requiring individual EIS reviews for horizontal hydrofracturing permits, “GA effluent limitations” for hydrofracturing, deep well injection and wastewater treatment as well as updating DEC’s 1992 GEIS.

Please bcc: info@toxicstargeting.com

• Governor Andrew Cuomo
  http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php
  518-474-8390 (o)
• Judith Enck
  enck.judith@epa.gov
  212-637-5000 (o)
• DEC Commissioner Nominee Joseph Martens
  518-402-8545 (o)

Thank you!

New York Times N.Y. Senate Approves Fracking Moratorium

Over two thirds of our Senators, including 28 Democrats and 20 Republicans, voted . . . → Read More: NYS Senate votes to ban fracking for 1 year]]> A huge step in the right direction was taken last night by the New York State Senate when they voted to put a moratorium on hydro-fracking for one year so that there might be time for further study.

New York Times
N.Y. Senate Approves Fracking Moratorium

Over two thirds of our Senators, including 28 Democrats and 20 Republicans, voted to pass a bill placing a one-year moratorium on “hydro-fracking” — banning this controversial method of gas drilling while experts study the risks it poses to the purity and safety of our drinking water. These leaders bravely defied the threats of the drilling lobby and stood up for the health of all New Yorkers. They genuinely deserve our thanks.  – Working Families Party

Syracuse Post-Standard
Report on Pennsylvania natural gas drilling tallies 1,400 violations

“The issue of hydrofracking has become one of the most talked about issues in Upstate New York. I believe we should take a cautious, deliberate approach as we decide how to proceed as a state,” State Senator David J. Valesky (D-Oneida) and vice president pro tempore of the Senate, said in a news release today. “I voted in favor of a moratorium on hydrofracking because it will provide us with the opportunity to carefully weigh the potential risks to the environment against the potential economic benefits, to learn from other states, and to make an informed decision on the issue.” – CNY Business Journal

Philadelphia Inquirer
Avoiding America’s next drilling disaster

Our work isn’t done yet!

The State Assembly still has to pass this, in September. We must not let up on the pressure, not one bit.  Toward that end, please join my never-joins-anything husband Dave at the rally tomorrow:

SAY NO TO HYDRO-FRACKING

Thursday  August 12, 2010

5:30-6:00 pm

Gather in front of Syracuse City Hall

Walk (scooter, bike, skateboard) around the State Office Building

Bring Signs

More information here

Why will I fail to act? Because disaster this preposterous just can’t happen in my back yard. I can’t believe it. I can’t wrap my mind around it.

Right. Tell that to . . . → Read More: Fracking in my back yard]]> NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard.  But fracking already is in the back yard: Pennsylvania. Soon to be in New York if we do not act.

Why will I fail to act? Because disaster this preposterous just can’t happen in my back yard. I can’t believe it. I can’t wrap my mind around it.

Right. Tell that to anyone living on the Gulf Coast.

I received this today and reproduce it here verbatim, bolding mine:

“Tap water set on fire… 50-foot-high flare expected to continue burning for three or four more days…Twenty-eight cattle quarantined…Drinking water turned brown.”

These are just a few of the news items hitting headlines in the last month, from Pennsylvania to Texas, and they’re all related to an increasingly-used destructive practice called hydraulic fracturing. Can you ask your representative to protect drinking water, communities and the environment by passing the FRAC Act?

We’ve seen scores of documented cases of drinking water contamination near natural gas drilling sites, likely from the toxic mixture they inject into the ground for hydraulic fracturing. Due to a legislative loophole, we can’t even hold these energy companies accountable under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and they don’t have to disclose the 596 chemicals that may be contaminating our water. Fortunately, there is a bill in congress that could close the loophole and require companies to disclose the chemicals they are using. Send your representatives an email asking them to support the FRAC Act today!

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a drilling technique used to extract natural gas from shales and tight rocks by shooting millions of gallons of a mixture of water, chemicals and sand into the ground. As the rock cracks and creates fissures, natural gas flows more freely out of the well. Unfortunately, some of the toxic fluids remain underground after extraction and can seep into groundwater. Contamination of groundwater can affect the quality of drinking water even hundreds of miles away. Ask your representatives to protect groundwater from dangerous toxins.

Send a message to your representative today.
http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4317

Thanks for taking action,

Meredith Begin
Education & Outreach Organizer
Food & Water Watch
mbegin(at)fwwatch(dot)org