OtegoNY.com

Frank Lumia and friends have created a fun and “magical” YouTube video about water pollution.

Worth checking out! (Great job, guys!)

HOW THE DANGERS OF NATURAL GAS PRODUCTION AFFECT YOU

Local citizens concerned about the consequences of proposed
widespread development of the natural gas industry in Otsego County will
present a series of forums open to the public in Cherry Valley, Cooperstown,
and Oneonta in mid-March entitled: “How the Dangers of Gas Drilling Affect
You.” The forums are sponsored by Sustainable Otsego.

Panelists will include Ron Bishop, Chemistry Lecturer at SUNY Oneonta, James
Herman, Hartwick property owner, and Colleen Blacklock, Oneonta resident who
has been researching gas drilling impacts on agriculture. They will address
concerns about water quality, public health, environmental degradation, and
damage to infrastructure raised by natural gas production and distribution,
including drilling, air pollution, pipelines, and toxic waste disposal.

The public will have three opportunities to attend:

Continue Reading »

You can trust the gas company and their flunkeys, and you can trust some little lawyer, or you can see what happens to community after community and trust the truth. 

Listen to the first words this landowner says, “This was very easy to figure out – it was a cover-up. And the DEP did nothing.”

Of course not. 

Do they say they can? 

Of course they do. 

The story is as old as mankind. It’s called “lying.” I have no idea why people would pretend that they can protect that which they are incapable of protecting. I guess they want to protect themselves from being called “inept.” 

Here’s a story from NPR’s “Living on Earth,” from today, Feb. 20, 2009:

“…recently two scientific studies concluded there were no adverse health effects from drinking Washington DC’s tap water, even though it contained the highest level of lead ever recorded in the U.S.”

Click here to read the or listen to the full story about Washington D.C.s water pollution and how the protectors flubbed it. 

How many times do people have to see or hear that same kind of story over and over to finally realize that there is no adequate protection from health hazards once you start polluting your water and pretending you “have it under control?”

Apparently some people never get it. 

Don’t let those people lead you into the false temptation of some material gain, just because they “say it’s safe.” 

To paraphrase Upton Sinclair:

“It’s amazing how difficult it is for a man to understand something if he is promised a small fortune not to understand it.”

This is a parody of the Scottish ballad, The Rolling Hills of the Border. I was inspired by a version called, The Rolling Mills of New Joisey.

Clarification: The second to last verse does not mean to imply that anyone who leases their land is going to hell, or anything silly like that. I just mean that the gas companies will turn this area into a kind of hell.

No moral judgements here. We are neighbors, and I respect everyone’s rights.

This graphic is from an Idea thought up by Megan Byrnes. I think it says it as well as anything else.
 

This is from the Scientific American website from November 17, 2008:

In July a hydrologist dropped a plastic sampling pipe 300 feet down a water well in rural Sublette County, Wy. and pulled up a load of brown oily water with a foul smell. Tests showed it contained benzene, a chemical believed to cause aplastic anemia and leukemia, in a concentration 1,500 times the level safe for people.

Read the article at the Scientific American .