Hydrofracking = dangerous jobs

Lonnie March 1st, 2010

There’s one way to get upstate New Yorkers to turn off all reasoning ability: just say the four-letter word: JOBS

There’s no doubt about our need for them, but we’ll believe even known liars if they just whisper “jobs!” in our hopeful ears.

Remember all the jobs that were supposed to be produced at the Mistake on the Lake?  Used to be called Destiny, then it was just a mall expansion, and then Mr. Congel’s bank figured out they were going to lose a lot of money. Banks are in the business of knowing what’s a good deal or not. But I’d bet there are still people out there who believe that “Destiny” is destined to rescue jobless Central New Yorkers.  Oh, please.

So here’s the siren song again: JOBS! …in one of the most dangerous businesses there is: gas and oil. Never mind the environmental catastrophe hydrofracking is, never mind the loss of our clean drinking water, our clean air, our natural resources that all enjoy and that attract tourism. Are these fracking jobs really a boon? Just ask the people who are defending those who have suffered unimaginable loss trying to earn a living in gas and oil:

Oil and Gas Accidents

People employed in the oil and gas industry are subject to some of the most hazardous industrial conditions in the US. Serious injuries occur to even the most experienced oil and gas workers and the severity and duration of injuries, with recovery times that are nearly twice as long, are far worse than in other industry sectors.

Nearly half of all fatal injuries were attributed to highway motor-vehicle crashes and workers being struck by machinery or equipment. Gas explosion injuries, fires, chemical burns and dangerous falls or falling objects or equipment– workers are often hit on the head or back by tools or equipment—are just a few of the dangers occurring on a regular basis in the oil and gas industry.

The oil and gas extraction industry employed about 380,000 workers in 2006 and employment is growing. However, increases in oil and gas activity correlate with an increase in the rate of fatal occupational injuries, particularly when inexperienced workers are not sufficiently trained in safety and precautionary measures.

Hydrofracking promises 20 years’ supply of natural gas.

What we’ll get is the destruction of our water supplies, the poisoning of our agricultural and recreational land and, as a result, a drop in the tourism dollars that come here because it’s clean and beautiful in upstate New York.

When that 20 years is up, WHAT WILL WE HAVE LEFT???

A writer in Cooperstown’s Freemason’s Journal has said it very well:

Ask the mayor of Dish, Texas, folks in Dimmock, Pa., or other places where gas drilling problems are documented. Discuss alternatives to fossil fuels and ban gas drilling. Gas companies are temporary, but cancer is permanent.

MAUREEN CULBERT
East Springfield

SIGN THE PETITION
BAN NATURAL GAS DRILLING IN NEW YORK STATE


Can you do this with your tap water?

Lonnie February 15th, 2010

Only you and your neighbors can stop hydrofracking in Onondaga County (our drinking water’s watershed). Your government (Albany) is dysfunctional and too busy figuring out the economic mess.

Think this (below) can’t happen to us?

If not, what are you thinking?

CAN YOU DO THIS WITH YOUR TAP WATER? from JOSHFOX on Vimeo.

Read and learn:

What’s our water worth?

Lonnie February 3rd, 2010

Hydrofracking:
lease income for land owners: $
jobs created: $
taxes to local/state govts.: $
contribution to energy independence: $
total costs of economic, health, environmental damage:
……………$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$,$$$

Our ground and surface water systems: Priceless

Upcoming events

How green was their valley…

Hydrofracking sites scattered around the Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming.      Onondaga County could look like this, too.

Natural gas: not clean, not the answer

Lonnie February 1st, 2010

When my son used to “clean” the kitchen, what was left behind gave me more work, not less. The dishes had to be re-washed. The sponge would be full of junk. The stove had cleanser spilled in unreachable spots. The floor was wet in spots and he would have tracked his dirty shoes through it.

He was eager to tell me, “Mom, I cleaned the kitchen, can I go now?” but I knew better. What he said was not true and I was going to be left with a real job.

This is what we have with the hydrofracking process that threatens to remove “clean” natural gas from the earth in a most unnatural way. It brings to our surface water and our air hundreds of chemicals to contaminate the only natural resources we have of value in upstate New York: clean water, clean countryside and clean air.

We’re going to have an unimaginably large job on our hands if we allow this to to happen to our land. Remember when our parents thought it was fine to dump waste into Onondaga Lake?  Do we want to leave this kind of mess to our kids?

We don’t have a seaside, we don’t have a big desirable city (check the real estate values if you disagree on that last part), we don’t have anything but the one thing New York State has been seriously developing lately: our beautiful and historic towns, parks and byways. Frack the land and frack the water and we have NOTHING LEFT. People, our other natural resource, will continue to leave. We already know what a problem that is.

Cornell may be full of those annoying academic types, but heck, there are a few really smart people who just may be good at research. They have put a moratorium on hydrofracking on their land. Would it not be a good idea to find out why before we allow it to start anywhere else in New York State?

Action step:

Attend the Citizen’s Community Forum on Hydrofracking.
Wednesday February 10, 2010 at 7pm
Nottingham High School, 3100 E Genesee St, Syracuse, NY