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By shirari, on April 27th, 2009%
Shaleshock has been working with Steve Penningroth, Director of Community Science Institute here in Ithaca. Steve is developing baseline water testing for areas where gas drilling will take place.
CSI also monitors (through funding from municipalities and grants) Cayuga Lake and its tributaries, with the help of volunteers. Steve is beginning a Cayuga Inlet Monitoring Program, complete with training for new volunteers. If you, or anyone else you know might be interested, please contact Steve at spenningroth-at-communityscience-dot-org. You can find out more at www.communityscience.org.
Without volunteers, there can be no Inlet monitoring program. So if you care about Cayuga Lake and want to ensure that our children and our children’s children can enjoy it, please consider giving a few hours of your time to this project.
By shirari, on April 27th, 2009%
Read Officials in Three States Pin Water Woes on Gas Drilling by Abrahm Lustgarten for an eye-opening look into what natural gas drilling is doing to drinking water in the United States:
Norma Fiorentino’s drinking water well was a time bomb. For weeks, workers in her small northeastern Pennsylvania town had been plumbing natural gas deposits from a drilling rig a few hundred yards away. They cracked the earth and pumped in fluids to force the gas out. Somehow, stray gas worked into tiny crevasses in the rock, leaking upward into the aquifer and slipping quietly into Fiorentino’s well. Then, according to the state’s working theory, a motorized pump turned on in her well house, flicked a spark and caused a New Year’s morning blast that tossed aside a concrete slab weighing several thousand pounds.
Fiorentino wasn’t home at the time, so it’s difficult to know exactly what happened. But afterward, state officials found methane, the largest component of natural gas, in her drinking water. If the fumes that built up in her well house had collected in her basement, the explosion could have killed her. [READ MORE]
By shirari, on April 13th, 2009%
Women’s Community Building, 100 W. Seneca Street, Ithaca (map)
Presenters:
- Dr. William Pammer, Commissioner, Planning and Environmental Management for Sullivan County ( Monticello ), NY
- Dr. Stephen Penningroth, Executive Director, Community Science Institute, Ithaca, NY
Thousands of Tompkins County land owners, and thousands more in the surrounding Southern Tier, have signed leases to permit Marcellus Shale gas drilling on their property. Many expect to see drilling begin later this year, perhaps as early as summer.
While some welcome the drilling and others dread it, a common concern for all is the protection of our clean water and air, our land, and our quality of life. NY State law (Environmental Conservation Article 23) took the ability to regulate most aspects of gas drilling activity away from towns, and gave it to the New York State DEC instead. This leaves many local legislators and community members wondering just what they can do to protect our critical resources given these constraints. The Sullivan County, NY Drilling Task Force has been working for many months on answering just this question.
Dr. Pammer will describe the work of a Gas Drilling Task Force in Sullivan County and their research on possible impacts, the authority of local municipal governments, and 21 recommendations that will be presented to their County Legislature . You can find a newspaper story about the report at
www.sc-democrat.com/news/002February/20/news.htm and the full report on the Sullivan County Division of Planning website: www.scgnet.us/index.asp?orgid=610&storyTypeID=&sid=&
Dr. Penningroth, Biochemist and Toxicologist, directs the Community Science Institute’s state-certified water testing laboratory. The CSI lab monitors water quality in Cayuga Lake and its tributary streams in partnership with citizen volunteers. He believes a reasonable estimate of drinking water that will be contaminated near drilling sites is between 1% and 5%. He will describe why and how to test private water wells so that land owners discover problems and have solid scientific evidence of pre-drilling, baseline water data should contamination occur.
Co-sponsored by: Social Ventures; Ithaca Health Alliance ; Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton; Department of City & Regional Planning/ Cornell University ; Sustainable Tompkins; CRESP Center for Transformative Action; Shaleshock Citizens Action Coalition; Back to Democracy.
For copies of informational handouts from the recent forum, Gas Drilling: Health Effects, Economics and the Watershed:
www.shaleshock.org/open-educational-form-on-natural-gas-drilling-march-26th-in-ithaca/
Questions or comments? shaleshock08-at-yahoo-dot-com or 202-368-8753
By shirari, on April 13th, 2009%
Have you been wanting to meet folks from Shaleshock? Come talk to us and pick up some literature at the Ithaca’s Earth Day Farmer’s Market! We’ll be tabling there and we’d love to meet you.
By shirari, on April 13th, 2009%
Hosted by Penn State Cooperative Extension and the Bradford County Natural Gas Advisory Committee
at Towanda Junior/Senior High School, 1 High School Drive, Towanda, PA 18848
The speakers at the presentation will be from Penn State Extension, the natural gas industry, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Participants will gain a greater understanding of injection wells and the impacts they will have on the landowners and our communities. The speakers will discuss the issues, geology and regulations concerning Underground Injection Control (UIC). This program is intended to inform you of the issues you need to address as a landowner with property held within the Marcellus Shale when considering a lease for deep injection wells for disposal. Contact the Bradford County Extension Office to register to attend at (570) 265-2896.
By shirari, on April 1st, 2009%
Want a quick overview of the natural gas drilling situation in New York state? Read Shaleshock’s new pamphlet, “Natural Gas BOOM in New York State,” to learn about the deals and the dangers, where all the money is going, and who’s paying the hidden costs. Share this pamphlet with your friends and neighbors!
Natural Gas BOOM in New York State (PDF)
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About Us Shaleshock is an information hub connecting people to regional groups and projects working to stop exploitative drilling in the Marcellus Shale.(more)
2009 Signs of Sustainability
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