Otsego 2000, a non-for-profit environmental organization in operation in Otsego County for nearly three decades, recenlty issued a statement arguing strongly against the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement issued in late September by the DEC for horizontal natural gas extraction horizontal fracturing, or “fracking,’’ in the Marcellus Shale.
via Cooperstown Crier – Otsego 2000 strongly opposes DEC’s design for natural gas extraction.
Posted in Community, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation
When energy companies began preparations to drill for natural gas in upstate New York last year, the local Sierra Club quickly organized against them.
The group’s New York chapter demanded studies on the environmental risks, pushed for stricter regulations and called for a statewide ban on most gas drilling. The drilling hasn’t begun as the state works to develop regulations.
It would have been a typical story of environmentalists battling industry, except for one thing: The national Sierra Club is one of natural gas’s biggest boosters.
When the town of Ithaca, New York gets fracked by natural gas drilling, the water goes sour and the citizens start craving human flesh. Anna and other survivors band together to save their community. Come one, come all, to the World Premiere of the environmental zombie short Frac Attack: Dawn of the Watershed at Cinemapolis!
7:00 Family Screening
7:30 Q&A with Filmmakers
8:00 R-Rated
After Party TBA
$5-10 suggested donation
Tickets at the door – come early!
Cinemapolis, 120 E. Green St, Ithaca, NY
via Shaleshock.org » Blog Archive » 12/10: Frac Attack World Premiere at Cinemapolis.
Tom Wilber, who has been reporting on the Marcellus Shale drilling and environmental matters for the past 18 months, will host a live chat at noon Wednesday. Come join the discussion, and ask Tom about pressing Marcellus Shale issues.
via Chat with Tom Wilber about the Marcellus Shale at noon Wednesday | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette.
Interfaith Power and Light is a ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith. Our goal is to help people of faith recognize and fulfill their responsibility for the stewardship of creation. Specifically, the IPL campaign is mobilizing a national religious response to global warming while promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. People of faith have an opportunity to put their faith into action and help reduce the devastating effects of global warming. http://www.theregenerationproject.org/
via About Texas Interfaith Power & Light | Texas Interfaith Power and Light.
I was getting a headache. We’d only been there for ten minutes, but the periodic strong whiffs of propane gas were already getting to me. “It was worse two days ago,” Yvonne Shafer explained to me, “the whole outside and inside of the house would smell like that, about every half hour. At its worst, I spent two hours in the basement because it was the only place I could breathe.”
Such was our introduction to the domestic nightmare that the residents of Hedgehog Lane in Bradford, PA have to live through daily. This residential road winds up a valley outside of town, surrounded by forested hillsides. “We moved here because it was perfect,” Yvonne explained. “You couldn’t see the neighbors, there was lots of wildlife, clean air to breathe and clean water in the wells.” This all changed about a year ago, when a company called Aiello began hydrofracking on the hillside above them.
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Posted in Community, Events, More Resources, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation
Tagged Cooperative Ext.
With just a few weeks left for public comment on the NYS environmental impact statement for “horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing,” some farmers are speaking out against the method. The public comment period ends December 31.
via Ithaca’s Food Web: Farmers speak out about natural gas drilling via hydrofracking.
Posted in Community, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged agriculture, DEC, NY, SGEIS, Tompkins
…it’s mostly typical environmentalist scare tactics.You can tell it’s a bunch of propaganda because when ever they talk of environmental damage they show pictures of the Adirondacks which this is no where near where any this drilling will be. Much of Western New York is pretty flat and ugly, so it won’t have the emotional appeal they are trying for so they have try and mislead viewers by showing the Adirondacks. They aren’t drilling at Marcy Dam or Whiteface. That’s not exactly the tactics someone with facts on their side resorts to.
via Marcellus Shale: An Environmental Disaster In The Making – Adirondack Forum.
Posted in Community, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged Adirondaks, DEC, hiking, NY, public land, recreation
Residents of Preston, Smithville and Smyrna may experience cloudy water coming from their faucets as a result of seismic testing set to resume at the end of the month.
Norse Energy, Inc., the Norwegian-based company currently drilling into the Herkimer formation in Chenango County, has garnered work permits from the county highway department to haul in and lay seismic testing cables across the following roads: County Routes 10, 10A, 14, 21, 20, 3 and 3A.
Individual town boards have also granted seismic testing and permits for town road crossings, such as on the Bliven-Sherman and McDonough roads in Preston.
via The Evening Sun | Seismic testing planned this month could stir up water wells.
Posted in Community, Events, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged Chenango, NY, private wells, seismic tests, water
Event Date: Thursday, December 3, 7 PM
“Marcellus Gas Drilling–What it means to Tioga County”The Carantouan Greenway is sponsoring this program in the Hubbard Auditorium, 56 Main St., Owego, NY on Thursday December 3rd at 7 pm. Chris Burger will present a slide show and talk about what changes we may see in Tioga County when gas drilling begins in the Marcellus Shale. It is especially timely in view of the DEC public hearings on the supplemental DEIS. As president of the Carantouan Greenway I have seen presentations in schools, businesses and churches. Chris’s presentation highlights how the impacts of gas spacing, road and pipeline construction affects you – me – us, and is a presentation you do not want to miss.Chris Burger is chair of the Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition, served on Cornell University’s Eco-Justice Project, a former Broome County Legislator and chaired the Soil and Conservation District and the Southern Tier East Regional Planning and Development Board. Please save the date.
Posted in Community, Events, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation
Tagged local control, NY, Tioga
In my opinion, the risks far outweigh the benefit. We can always look to some different, emerging technology for our energy needs, but as far as I know, there is no alternative for our water.
Right now, we have hundred years worth of natural gas supply. Water will be the next big commodity. I can’t wait until the Arabs need 40,000,000 barrels of it a month.
There’s probably hundreds of directions you could go in to seek out alternative energy sources, but only a few places to get potable water.
all of that has to be done and we have to drill.let’s see what you guys say when you can’t drive or afford to heat your homes.other technologies are years away.we must drill without pollution of the water.that should be possible.
in many oil and gas producing states, you have what are called pooling orders. What’s a pooling order? It’s a state order that forces you, the mineral owner, to submit to drilling on your land at the best offered rate on the market for a given market area, whether you like it or not. If you hold out on some economic, environmental or constitutional principle, guess what, forget it, your land is getting drilled at what the state tells you you will get for it.
Now assume that there is a significant risk of ruining drinking water, and the only thing you have to rely on to the contrary is the drilling company’s promise that they will “responsibly” drill. Oh, and the government’s promise that they will “responsibly” monitor. I have a really great bridge for sale too, over in Brooklyn.
Drilling for gas / Marcellus Shale – Page 3 – The New York Bass Forums.
Posted in Community, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged fishing
“It’s absolutely huge in terms of the number of jobs and economic impact,” said Larry L. Michael, Pennsylvania College of Technology’s workforce and economic development director.
That said, a “rational analysis” needs to be done to gauge the effect of natural gas drilling on farming, tourism, recreation and other industries in the Southern Tier, an official with the Sierra Club opined.
The question that needs to be answered is, “will the cost be worth the benefit?” said Kate Bartholomew, chairwoman of the Finger Lakes Group of the Sierra Club, Atlantic Chapter.
Michael and Bartholomew were two experts who spoke Monday at a day-long summit at the Owego Treadway Inn on the development of the Marcellus, whose area includes the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York and northern and western Pennsylvania. Organized by Cornell Cooperative Extension, the summit drew about 325 municipal officials, landowners, economic developers and other stakeholders who sat through a series of workshops on a range of topics.
via Summit of local leaders discusses pros, cons of gas drilling | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette.
Why did we sign? Partly because natural gas is a relatively “clean” fuel, so obtaining it locally seemed reasonable. Partly because the way it was presented to us made it sound inevitable and benign. Partly because the money was appealing. The Music Man came to town, and I am astonished and ashamed that we succumbed to his tune.
We never would have signed if we had known then what we now know about the pollution potential and the possible transformation of peaceful residential and agricultural areas into industrial zones. I am sure that there are many other landowners who feel the same way. We have decided to use the money we received from the lease to try to stave off this potential disaster. A new organization called “(F)leased” is forming to represent people who signed leases and wish they hadn't.
via Put hold on drilling in state | theithacajournal.com | The Ithaca Journal.
Posted in Community, Legal Matters, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged DEC, EPA, landowners, leases, NY, opinion, SGEIS, Tompkins, water
“There are 15,000 existing wells (in New York state),” he said. “We have had these wells for decades and decades. There only about seven wells that go into the Marcellus formation. The state of New York has said literally for years that they have never even had a problem, but that turns out not to be true.”
He went on to cite examples of drinking water polluted beyond acceptable drinking standards, though the private and public wells it came from were placed farther than the required distance from natural gas wells.
“The bottom line is the government is not safeguarding your health and your safe environment, and this is the proof,” he said.
via Ithaca firm petitions to extend moratorium | theithacajournal.com | The Ithaca Journal.
Families in Susquehanna County are suing a natural gas drilling company.
Fifteen families initially signed on to gas drilling plans with hopes for a bright financial future but now they say they are fed up with one drilling company.
About 50 people came together in Susquehanna County, only a few hundred feet from a drilling platform, to announce their lawsuit against Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation.
“There are elderly people involved, children involved. These are people of modest, modest means who have been snookered by Cabot,” said Leslie Lewis, a lawyer for the group.
Posted in Community, Health, Legal Matters, News, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged Cabot, contamination, Dimock, PA, Susquehanna, video, water
Moral and religious beliefs about human life in the creation under God are fundamental to faith communities’ engagement with environmental concerns. But as faith communities engage the public realm where solutions to hunger, health problems and environmental degradation are debated, general principles need to be applied to specific issues and circumstances.
While there are some issues that have commanded the attention of every member of the Partnership, the fact that each group has its own distinctive emphases, agenda, and approach reflects the Partnership’s diversity. No one speaks for everyone, but together their distinct and independent voices powerfully express the religious imperative to seek justice and healing for the whole community of life.
… I strongly urge DEC to define what funding resources and measures local health departments can be assured will be in place to undertake the roles as outlined in Table 8.1.; prior to any horizontal hydrofrac drilling is to commence…
Another financial concern I have is where will funding come from to adequately staff DEC offices across the state for the expanded duties it must undertake with this new drilling activity?
Section 8.1.1.6 relative to Local Planning Documents troubles me, particularly the DSGEIS statement of “The Department’s exclusive authority to issue well permits supersedes local government authority relative to well sitting.”
Also, I am against the introduction of ANY drill site wastewater into a public wastewater treatment facility or plant.
DEP offices in Meadville, Wilkes-Barre, Williamsport and Pittsburgh have received “many dozens” of applications for National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits to build plants to treat waste water produced in the Marcellus Shale to “clean it” before it is returned to the environment.
One of those applications belongs to Somerset Regional Water Resources, based in Tunkhannock, which has proposed a plant along the Chemung River in Athens Township. Somerset plans to build a treatment plant on a lot in the Valley Industrial Park.
Posted in Community, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged Athens, Chemung, contamination, fracing fluids, NPDES, PA, Susquehanna, water
In New York City, natural gas exploration is largely seen as a threat to the drinking water the city gets from watersheds to the north in the Catskills. But in the rural communities above the shale, the reaction has been far more mixed — and far more contentious.
Some residents welcome the drilling as a modern-day gold rush and salvation from the economic doldrums that they say have chased jobs and young people away from their area. Others express concerns about the environment and quality-of-life issues like noise and heavy-truck traffic.
In some cases, the issue has pitted neighbor against neighbor or spouse against spouse.
via Upstate New Yorkers Split by Leasing of Land for Natural Gas Wells – NYTimes.com.
We are fortunate to have a seemingly limitless supply of fresh water here in New York, but what if one day you couldn't trust the glass of water from your kitchen faucet? With the impending gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, the unknown effects of climate change and chemical inputs, such as pharmaceuticals and pesticides, reliably clean water is not a given. That is why watershed management is so critical.
via Healthy watershed takes teamwork | theithacajournal.com | The Ithaca Journal.
Posted in Community, Geology, Health, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged Cayuga, fracing fluids, Ithaca, NY, water
Posted in Community, Events, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged DEC, local control, NY, SGEIS, testimony, Tompkins, video
The free panel presentation, “Gas Drilling: Legal Issues For Land
Owners” held on Thursday, Oct. 29, 7:00-9:30 pm at the Cornell Vet
School is now available on the ccetompkins.org website in 2 installments:
<http://ccetompkins.org/legalissues1.wmv>http://ccetompkins.org/legalissues1.wmv
(167MB) 1 hour 43 minutes – Panel Presentation
<http://ccetompkins.org/legalissues2.wmv>http://ccetompkins.org/legalissues2.wmv
(146MB) 1 hour 16 minutes – Questions & Answers
The event included presentations by legal experts on the terminology
and issues surrounding natural gas leases, and was followed by an
opportunity to ask questions. Topics included general lease
terminology, “force majeure” lease extensions, compulsory integration
(the legal extraction of gas from under unleased land), liability
issues, and the protection of rights and property. it was sponsored
by Cornell Cooperative Extension South Central NY Agriculture Team,
with Shaleshock Citizens Action Coalition, the Community Science
Institute, Finger Lakes Bioneers, Interfaith Action for Healing
Earth, NYS Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, Sustainable Tompkins, and
the Tompkins County Farm Bureau.
Syracuse, NY — Judging by the 100-plus people who showed up Thursday at a public forum to learn about the shale gas drilling process known as fracking, there’s a thirst for knowledge about the topic.
The information session at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society in Syracuse was sponsored by environmental groups, so the speakers were uniformly against the practice. (Read my story about the event.)
Among the speakers Thursday was Ron Bishop, a chemistry professor at the State University College at Oneonta, who said he was there to impart information, not take a position. Nevertheless, he identified a bunch of environmental hazards associated with fracking. Here’s a version of the presentation he delivered earlier this year in Bath, N.Y.
Posted in Community, More Resources, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation
Tagged background
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that his office has reached an agreement with Fortuna Energy, Inc. (Fortuna) that will allow customers who were misled and ended up extending their natural gas leases with the company to renegotiate their terms.
Posted in Community, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation
Tagged Fortuna, landowners, leases
My name is Mary Jo Long. I am an attorney; have some experience with municipal law; and was recently re-elected to my town board, which is the town of Afton. I am very concerned about the health, environmental and social impacts of unconventional gas drilling in my town and in the entire area of the Marcellus Shale. I expect that others will be speaking to the public through this meeting and other means about the destructive nature of unconventional gas drilling. But I want to direct my comments to an area where I have some expertise, experience and advice.
Posted in Community, Legal Matters, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation
Tagged DEC, Law §23-0303, Legal Matters, local control
From the Shaleshock.org website:
Please print, email, and otherwise distribute these useful documents:
* [UPDATED] Natural Gas Drilling in the Finger Lakes Region – Pamphlet
* [NEW] How Can You Help – set up to print single-sided; you can staple it once in the corner
* [NEW] How Can You Help – for double-sided printing so it can be folded together like a booklet and saddle-stitched or stapled along its spine
* [NEW] How Can You Help – optimized for printing at Gnomon Copy; they can fold, collate, and staple them for you
For even more resources including posters and maps and things you can pick up for free from our office, check out our Resources page.
via Shaleshock.org » Blog Archive » New & updated resources.
The civil case, filed Thursday in U.S District Court in Scranton, Pa., seeks to stop future drilling in the Marcellus Shale by Cabot Oil and Gas near the town of Dimock. It also seeks to set up a trust fund to cover medical treatment for residents who say they have been sickened by pollutants. Health problems listed in the complaint include neurological and gastrointestinal illnesses; the complaint also alleges that at least one person's blood tests show toxic levels of the same metals found in the contaminated water.
via Pa. Residents Sue Gas Driller for Contamination, Health Concerns – ProPublica.
Posted in Community, Health, Legal Matters, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged Cabot, contamination, Dimock, PA, water
For decades, developers of natural gas bought mineral rights in northern Pennsylvania for a few bucks an acre, and that was the end of the story – no drilling ever took place. So Ronald B. Stamets balked when a land man showed up two years ago and offered him $500 an acre for a gas lease.
” ‘Whoa, this guy must know something I don’t know,’ ” Stamets, 63, a Web developer who lives near Lake Como in Wayne County, in the state’s northeast corner, recalled thinking. “They were offering real money.”
Stamets and some of his neighbors began researching the emerging natural gas discoveries in the Marcellus Shale, a mile-deep rock formation that lies under much of Pennsylvania. He created a slapdash Web site, www.pagaslease.com, where property owners could swap their findings about leases and exploration activity.
The Web site soon got discovered, and it has developed into a library of information on the locations and terms of the latest gas leases, as well as news about potential environmental threats.
via Marcellus Shale landowners pool information on gas | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/01/2009.
Posted in Community, More Resources, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation
Tagged background, landowners, leases, PA
Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force issues statement against proposed new method of gas drilling
“People are woefully uninformed about this process,” stated Lyons. “We believe that all people should be educated about potential impacts, consulted, consider the seventh generation to come, and be of a good mind together before any decision of this magnitude is made.”
Additionally, two major concerns were raised which are unique to the Indian Nations: (a) horizontal drilling under Indian territories will be a violation of treaty protected mineral rights; and (b) the current structure will not have any mechanism for the protection of cultural resources of the Nations: sacred sites, unmarked burial sites and former village and other archeological sites. These issues were raised with the DEC officials as well.
Posted in Community, Health, Legal Matters, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged DEC, Haudenosaunee, NY, SGEIS, treaty
What kinda power we got?
Throughout history we can look to examples of how everyday people have used their community-based power to win a more just society in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. In fact, many of the rights and comforts we now take for granted resulted from people like us getting together and collectively taking action when injustice couldn’t be ignored anymore, like…
* The 40 hour work week (and weekends!)
* Voting rights for women, youth (over 18), African-Americans
* The end of formal slavery
* Maternity leave
* Ending child labor / The right to go to school
* Civil rights
* The rights of people with disabilities to reasonable accommodation to hold jobs and access businesses….
These social movements faced massive opposition in their time – the power holders put everything they had into maintaining the status quo, and making it seem like there was no alternative. But they were wrong. People used the power of their numbers and, at strategic moments, took bold actions to demand changes, which were eventually put into law by policy makers.
You *can* make a difference. But you can’t wait for someone else to do it for you. If you’re upset, scared, concerned–you need to pull yourself up by the bootstraps and do something.
via Protect the Endless Mountains of Northeastern PA: Think the problem is too big? Too overwhelming?.
He says the companies gave them a hard sell, saying everyone around them had signed up and that they had better do the same. Wheeler was offered $125 an acre.
Less than a year later Wheeler and his neighbors, who had agreed to sell for even less, were hearing of other landowners who had been offered up to $30,000 an acre. And the royalty payments have been more like a trickle than the torrent many were promised.
“If they had paid everyone a fair market value instead of taking advantage of us, we wouldn’t have had all this,” said Wheeler, who is among landowners suing the owner of the gas well in their neighborhood.
Some are also skeptical that the boom in leasing and drilling in shale plays will deliver as promised. Houston energy consultant Arthur Berman likened the shale rush to speculative bubbles seen in financial services, real estate and technology in the past.
And famed energy investment banker Matt Simmons — a proponent of the “peak oil” premise that says the world already has reached its maximum oil production levels — has doubts about predictions that wells will continue to produce for years after their initial burst.
via Louisiana shale could change fate of U.S. energy supply | Energy | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.
Come one, Come all: Toxics Targeting will propose a campaign to Stop Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling Hazards on:
Monday, 11/23/09
7:00 PM
The Women’s Community Building
100 West Seneca Street
Ithaca, NYKnown oil and gas drilling hazards in New York will be presented. A coalition letter campaign will be outlined to require Governor Paterson to withdraw the Department of Environmental Conservation’s fatally-flawed draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on Gas and Oil Mining.
For more information, call:
607 273 3388
800 286 9427
Posted in Community, Events, Oil & Gas Industry, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged DEC, drilling methods, fracing fluids, Ithaca, NY, SGEIS, Tompkins
A public hearing concerning regulatory measures for horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing for the local Marcellus Shale natural gas resource was held at the State Theater in Ithaca last night, the topic of discussion: the draft of the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS). While local Ithacans criticized both the proposed plan as well as the drilling in general, Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC), the government agency responsible for the draft, would only listen to critiques of the document itself.
Prior to the hearing, concerned citizens of the area held a rally in the commons petitioning Gov. Paterson (D-N.Y.) to prohibit horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing at least until the Environmental Protection Agency study on water contamination found both practices to be safe.
via Ithacans Voice Drilling Concerns | The Cornell Daily Sun.
December 1988 marked the beginning of an important time in Allegany County. New York State had chosen 3 sites within the county as potential locations for a low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) storage facility. Over the next two years, the citizens successfully rallied against the State to prevent this from happening. They developed a model of non-violent grassroots protesting involving civil disobedience that became well-known throughout the United States. The “bump the dump” fight, as it became known, affected numerous lives and came to closure in 1992 when a U.S. Supreme Court decision amended a federal law that had required states to keep the LLRW material within their own boundaries.
via Low-Level Radioactive Waste Protest Collections: Allegany County, NY.
Natural Gas Drilling & Fracking
The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.
- Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Article I, Section 27
Poisoning Pennsylvania
Posted in Community, State & Federal Regulation, Water, Soil, & Habitat
Tagged Green Party, PA
Some know that in a media driven world, the truth is secondary to a message successfully delivered through the press. When Mr. Knowles delivered the remark below in an emphatic, authoritarian voice at the meeting, the response from whom he considers enemies showed their insult and disagreement. Mr. Knowles must know that environmentalists don’t agree with him. To suggest otherwise would insult his intelligence.
Maybe he also knows if he can divert discussion at a DEC meeting about regulations and hydrofracking to a discussion of the supposed motives and personality flaws of those opposed to hydrofracturing, he is framing the conflict as a neighbor versus neighbor, land coalitions versus enviros quagmire. Then the discussion of how our government can protect all citizens rights from the actions of the gas companies is dead.
Not all spoke against Marcellus drilling.
Ken Knowles Sr., of Woodhull, president of the Steuben Landowners Coalition, said his group hads 1,200 members with 150,000 acres.
“Our position is, if you are opposed to drilling, you are in favor of foreign oil,” a phrase he repeated several times during his speech to a smattering of boos and applause.
While the divisive words and poor arguments of some pro-fracking folk came across very poorly at the meeting no one should underestimate the long term corrosive effect this has on civic, democratic debate.
via Gas drilling concerns aired at DEC hearing – Corning, NY – The Corning Leader.
The first is a rally, set for the Bernie Milton Pavilion on the Ithaca Commons from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Local and state legislators will take the microphone alongside several environmental experts and a few musical acts.
It will be followed at 7 p.m. by a public hearing at the State Theatre.
Doors will open at 6 p.m., and several ground rules have been set. Those wishing to speak will be expected to sign in, and will be called in the order registered. There will be a three-minute time limit on oral statements, which may be supplemented with written comments.
Hosted by the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG), the hearing is meant to be a forum in which to collect public comments on the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) — the state’s plan to regulate drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale underneath Tompkins County and surrounding regions.
via Events draw out gas-drilling views | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette.
The DEC has already held three other hearings — in Sullivan County, in New York City and in the Binghamton area.
At issue is the safety hydro-fracturing or fracking, a process that involves pumping millions of gallons of water and other fluid deep into rock formations to tap into massive natural gas deposits.
Many people who turned out for the meeting carried signs with slogans such as “Don’t frack with our water,” “Drilling and profits make bad company” and “You can’t drink natural gas.”
via DEC hearing on drilling draws passionate response from both sides | stargazette.com | Star-Gazette.
NY Well Watch Forum shaleshock.org Love Canal 2020 ShaleBlog.com The Marcellus Effect un-naturalgas.org Protect the Endless Mountains of Northern PA Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends WikiMarcellus Updates #hydrofracking on Twitter #marcellusshale on Twitter #marcellus shale on Twitter
