EPA fracking forum moved, then cancelled - to be moved again

I registered for the upcoming August 12 EPA frack gas drilling forum in Binghamton N.Y.  It was a little over an hour away and I really did want to go.  A few days ago the forum was moved to Syracuse.  Today it is canceled altogether.  Tentatively rescheduled for September, it is to be held in upstate N.Y. 

This foils a lot of plans of course.  Environmental groups have rented buses.  People put in for personal time.  Arrangements for babysitters have been made.  The EPA changes were all last minute.  People put a lot of effort into scheduling.   Having to do it all over again can be exhausting.

Binghamton was convenient for me.  Syracuse, which would involve an overnight stay was unlikely.  Upstate N.Y. will be impossible.  And I'm not the only one.  If you look at any PA. / N.Y. map, you will see that that virtually all of the region's high density areas are finding themselves further and further away from the EPA forum.

Remember the July Public Utility Committee hearing?  To attend, I drove about as far north as you can go and still be in Pennsylvania. On the long empty road outside of Dimock, I stopped my car to get directions from an old man with a Amish style beard.  He was riding a bicycle that was too old for gears and it was getting dark underneath the trees.

He didn't know how many miles there were between us and the PUC.  "I'm trying to get there too," he said.  Later that night, moved by his tenacity, I got up in front of an overflow crowd and spoke in public for the first time ever.

We won't all make it to upstate N.Y., but we can demonstrate bravery and determination - whatever our limitations. 

NEPA is NOT Texas

Response to comments on Corbett's blog:

There will be a lot more debt if Huntsville Dam is contaminated.  Residents of Dimock can't give their land away and this is a direct quote from a Susquehanna land owner about her property (testimony at a recent almost unpublicized PUC meeting). Another resident speaking at that hearing compared his region to a old west ghost town.  It can happen in Kingston or Pittson as well.

The aquifers that transport our water cross state lines.  Don't be fooled.  Wells sunk 5 miles away or 50 will effect us in the event of an explosion and ultimately even without one!  It is all the same water. There are many more Frack Gas well accidents than made public and millions of gallons of contaminated Frack water leeches into our drinking water even when corporations do business as usual.  These chemicals are carcinogenic and just plain poison.  Long-term health problems and birth defects result. Our lives are their cost of doing business.  Law suits even when successful will put a small dent in their profits - and don't think you will win against corporate attorney's.

If you don't have the time or inclination to do your homework before forming an opinion, please seek out someone who has.  A lot of good info in the public interest is given out on WILK and there is a wealth of info available at local GDAC meetings in Dallas.

Public meeting times will be posted in the Citizen's voice in the near future and will hopefully be broadcast here.  Ask yourself, who is motivated and what are they motivated by?  Encana and the other out of state corporations are motivated by money. PA residents who have profited from land leases are motivated by money.  Concerned citizen's are motivated by love for our state!  I live in Kingston and I am concerned for my family.

Maybe TX is better off because it is the Frack Gas Corporations base of operations (and home to most of stockholders) but there are towns without water there as well.  These guys will pull up stakes and leave once they get what they want and - long or short term - cost to the state of PA will be substantial.

I'll check back and post more info on GDAC.  Their only agenda is the safety of our water supply!  As an aside - in Dimock Cabot employees flew a Texas flag from THEIR gas rig.

Corbett on Dimock

This is the comment I left on Steve Corbett's recent article about drilling in Dimock.  I encourage everyone who can to listen to his 3 to 7 pm local talk show on WILK.  Call in with your Anti Frack Gas comments.  Everyone has something to say.

People are coming together in what are still relatively small numbers against the drilling. It concerns me however that so many people are focusing on rural areas and the suburban back mountain. People in Wyoming Valley must learn that what threatens outlying areas threatens us. Huntsville and Ceasville dams are surrounded by leases and very much at risk.

What will be left of Wyoming Valley when our water is toxic? Does anyone believe our elected officials will save us? Water is not a municipal commodity. Dig deep enough and it is all the same water. Some people say that no one in the valley cares. It's my opinion they don't know, that we are poised to be caught unaware. Like Dimock.