In the face of a frightful dearth of genuine environmental stewardship at top Pennsylvania state levels, New Yorkers living in Marcellus towns have been scrambling to proactively manage the imminent shale gas issues confronting them – from water management to truck traffic and emergency preparedness, to the negative impact on their taxbase. The Marcellus Effect chronicles the town of Caroline’s struggle to protect its water supply near Ithaca New York in How Far Is “Safe” When Protecting Aquifers?
Simultaneously, one of New York’s most picturesque finger lakes strives to maintain hard-won environmental gains as residents and fans organize to fight off an ill-advised gas storage facility planned for the abandoned salt mines located beneath it. You can learn about the citizen-led struggle to Save Seneca Lake in writer Elaine Mansfield’s moving video, Angry Faces, Placid Water: Fracking, LPG Gas Storage, and Seneca Lake produced by Owl Gorge Productions.
“The oil and gas industry plans to build an enormous liquid petroleum gas storage and distribution depot in abandoned salt mines under Seneca Lake near Watkins Glen, one of New York’s most popular scenic tourist attractions. Part of the Marcellus Shale hydrofracking nightmare, this huge facility threatens the pure water of Seneca Lake with petroleum gas and salt pollution, would burn off excess gas with a towering flare stack, produce air pollution, and be a visual and noisy blight along this gorgeous lake. Worst of all would be the constant risk of gas explosions. Local resident, writer, and activist Elaine Mansfield eloquently presents this issue in Smith Park along the shore of Seneca Lake.”
More: gasfreeseneca.com.
UPDATE [August 17, 2012]:
News coverage of the Watkins Glen Protest in The Times Leader: Watkins Glen March To Protest LPG Facility
Fraccidents happen, and happen, also from The Times Leader: Tanker Leaks Propane In Gang Mills
UPDATE [August 19, 2012]:
EPA Refuses to Release Seismic Data on Proposed Inergy Finger Lakes Liquid Gas Cavern with a History of Earthquakes by Peter Mantius, dcbureau.org, June 15th, 2012.
Cuomo’s Fracking Pan: Politics Trumps Science by Peter Mantius, dcbureau.org, August 17, 2012.
UPDATE [August 23, 2012]
http://ithacafingerlakes.com/2012/08/23/200-march-in-watkins-glen/
Keep Tap Water Safe 