Submitted by Diane MacInnes on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 14:42.
My family has been at Oquaga Lake, Deposit, New York for six generations. Each summer, I look so forward to the sweetness of the air, as if the fragrance of every forest berry had just been released. I have traveled on many continents and backpacked through wilderness, but there is no other place on earth that offers that delicate fragrance.
When I swim to the cove from our house, I think about where the water has come from and is going to. The lake is like a mother who holds and caresses me. I look at my hands as they rhythmically stroke through the deep green waters Shining bubbles of light appear to explode from my fingertips, as the morning sun filters through the water illuminating them. Often I walk the path from our road up to through the woods, or over to the blueberry patch.
Now I wonder if this was the last summer I'll ever be able to savor that blessing. Haliburton has developed a new horizontal drilling technology to drill for natural gas using 245 toxic chemicals and 3-6 million gallons of water per well. They plan to drill more than a mile deep in hundreds of locations into the Marcellus Shale, which is highly radioactive compared to other shale deposits. As of July of 2008, energy companies had leased 46,000 acres around my home, and they are continuing to lease. In addition, those landowners who refuse to lease are forced to participate under compulsory integration. When I found out, I simply cried through dinner at the thought of it. Drilling will occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the initial fracturing and subsequent re-fracturing of each well on a rotating, continuous basis. Diesel powered compressors will remain on each well pad running 24 hours a day for the life of the well, which could be decades. Oversized truck traffic will tear up our rural roads, thundering past our homes and spewing diesel fumes into the once pure air. Endocrinologists cite examples of toxicity in aquifers causing infertility and brain damage in areas where this type of drilling has occurred. If this disaster is allowed to go forward unabated, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the peace we feel in the silence of the early morning, the stillness of night would be no more. These intangible, yet very real resources – the right of human beings to breathe air that has life in it, to drink pure health giving water, to be surrounded by sacred silence help us to experience God’s grace.
Please help. This issue is being under-reported and it affects not only our home, but all of the area under the Marcellus Shale in 1/3 of New York State, 2/3 of Pennsylvania, 1/4 of Ohio, and a portion of West Virginia and Maryland. Read the NYSDEC Draft Scope and write your comments during the period for comment which ends Dec 15. Written comments will be accepted by mail or email until the close of business on December 15, 2008.
Mail comments to: Attn: Scope Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral
Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500.
Email comments to: dmnog@gw.dec.state.ny.us
with “Scope Comments” in the subject line. Include your name and return mail or email address to ensure receipt of
a copy of the Final Scope when it is available.
Natural Gas is not a "green alternative". This new extraction process is ten times more toxic than oil drilling.
Thank you for your protection of our sacred spaces.
Sweet Air, Pure water, Sacred Stillness...no more Please Help!
My family has been at Oquaga Lake, Deposit, New York for six generations. Each summer, I look so forward to the sweetness of the air, as if the fragrance of every forest berry had just been released. I have traveled on many continents and backpacked through wilderness, but there is no other place on earth that offers that delicate fragrance.
When I swim to the cove from our house, I think about where the water has come from and is going to. The lake is like a mother who holds and caresses me. I look at my hands as they rhythmically stroke through the deep green waters Shining bubbles of light appear to explode from my fingertips, as the morning sun filters through the water illuminating them. Often I walk the path from our road up to through the woods, or over to the blueberry patch.
Now I wonder if this was the last summer I'll ever be able to savor that blessing. Haliburton has developed a new horizontal drilling technology to drill for natural gas using 245 toxic chemicals and 3-6 million gallons of water per well. They plan to drill more than a mile deep in hundreds of locations into the Marcellus Shale, which is highly radioactive compared to other shale deposits. As of July of 2008, energy companies had leased 46,000 acres around my home, and they are continuing to lease. In addition, those landowners who refuse to lease are forced to participate under compulsory integration. When I found out, I simply cried through dinner at the thought of it. Drilling will occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during the initial fracturing and subsequent re-fracturing of each well on a rotating, continuous basis. Diesel powered compressors will remain on each well pad running 24 hours a day for the life of the well, which could be decades. Oversized truck traffic will tear up our rural roads, thundering past our homes and spewing diesel fumes into the once pure air. Endocrinologists cite examples of toxicity in aquifers causing infertility and brain damage in areas where this type of drilling has occurred. If this disaster is allowed to go forward unabated, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the peace we feel in the silence of the early morning, the stillness of night would be no more. These intangible, yet very real resources – the right of human beings to breathe air that has life in it, to drink pure health giving water, to be surrounded by sacred silence help us to experience God’s grace.
Please help. This issue is being under-reported and it affects not only our home, but all of the area under the Marcellus Shale in 1/3 of New York State, 2/3 of Pennsylvania, 1/4 of Ohio, and a portion of West Virginia and Maryland. Read the NYSDEC Draft Scope and write your comments during the period for comment which ends Dec 15. Written comments will be accepted by mail or email until the close of business on December 15, 2008.
Mail comments to: Attn: Scope Comments, Bureau of Oil & Gas Regulation, NYSDEC Division of Mineral
Resources, 625 Broadway, Third Floor, Albany, NY 12233-6500.
Email comments to: dmnog@gw.dec.state.ny.us
with “Scope Comments” in the subject line. Include your name and return mail or email address to ensure receipt of
a copy of the Final Scope when it is available.
Natural Gas is not a "green alternative". This new extraction process is ten times more toxic than oil drilling.
Thank you for your protection of our sacred spaces.