Gas Drilling: A Community Forum Apr. 28th Homer

April 18, 2012

Gas Drilling: A Community Forum

 

Questions about gas drilling and its impacts on the local community?

Feel like you don’t know enough about this much-talked-about industry?

Would you like to learn more about gas drilling’s effect on other communities?

Join us for a community forum featuring:

  •  Mary Jane Uttech—Deputy Director of the Cortland County Health Department  who will speak about the potential impacts to drinking water, air quality, and public health.
  •  Joe Heath—General Counsel for the Onondaga Nation who will speak about the environmental impact of gas drilling as well as gas leases.
  •  Craig Stevens—a citizen of Silver Lake Township, PA who holds a gas lease on his land and will speak about his first-hand experience of the gas industry

 Saturday, April 28, 7 – 9 p.m.

Free and Open to the Public

St. Margaret’s Church Parish Hall, 14 Copeland Avenue, Homer

  SPONSORED BY:

Moving In Congregations Acting in Hope (MICAH)

Organizing People to Have a Voice in Their Community

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Rally for a Statewide Ban on Fracking – Albany NY – May 2 on Vimeo

May 5, 2011

Rally for a Statewide Ban on Fracking – Albany NY – May 2 on Vimeo on Vimeo

via Rally for a Statewide Ban on Fracking – Albany NY – May 2 on Vimeo.

Rally for a Statewide Ban on Fracking – Albany NY – May 2
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95. Rally for a Statewide Ban on Fracking – Albany NY – May 2
This is a report of the Rally for a Statewide Ban on Fracking. There are excerpts from many speakers including Josh Fox, Senator Avella and many more. Also, there are personal appeals to Governor Cuomo to pass the Ban bill now.
Kudos to Frack Action and all the 60 sponsors for a great event. Let’s have many more!
22 hours ago

69. The Snow Chute

4 months ago

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Cornell Energy Conference March 31-April 2 – mary.beilby@gmail.com

February 2, 2011

Cornell Energy Conference March 31-April 2 .

Cornell Environmental Law Society 2011 Energy Conference

Gas Drilling, Sustainability & Energy Policy: Searching for Common Ground


Location: Cornell Law School, Myron Taylor & Anabel Taylor Hall, Ithaca, New York
Here are the video streams for all but the opening keynote and first panel in Anabel Taylor Hall.  We hope to have those available in the future.  Note that the below links are unedited.  For example, “Saturday Panels” includes all events for Saturday in one continuous stream.  But you can forward to any portion of the day.
Thursday Evening Community Discussion
Friday Afternoon G90 Panel
Saturday Panels
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Description: The conference will explore the legal, scientific, and business perspectives on Shale Gas Development and hydraulic fracturing (“hydrofracking“).  This issue has ignited a fierce battle over energy and the environment in New York State.  Eight fast-paced and interactive panels will use natural gas drilling as a lens to explore national energy policy, the global energy market, and the integral role the law must play in creating energy security and ensuring a sustainable future.  The conference brings together over 45 distinguished speakers from Cornell University and around the country working in law, science, business, and government from all sides of the energy debate.

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Tompkins Co. Road Protection Ordinance Public Hearing Jan. 31, 2011

January 24, 2011

Public Information Meeting January 31 on Proposed Road Preservation Law
 
Residents will have the opportunity to learn more about the County’s proposed road preservation law at an information meeting on Monday, January 31, beginning at 7:00 p.m., at the first-floor conference room of the County’s Old Jail office building, 125 E. Court Street, Ithaca.
 
The meeting, sponsored by the Legislature’s Government Operations and Facilities and Infrastructure Committees, will provide information about the proposed local law that would amend the County Code to regulate certain heavy commercial or industrial uses of County roads with the potential to cause road damage.  At its February 1 meeting, the Legislature will conduct a public hearing on the proposed road preservation law.
 
The proposed amendment focuses on any temporary commercial or industrial activity that generates “high frequency, high impact truck traffic”—traffic to or from a single project site generating more than ten truck trips per day for more than three days in a week, involving trucks with a gross weight that exceeds 20 tons, as could occur in activities such as timber harvesting, mining, and natural gas drilling.  The law would establish procedures of posting notice on county highways that could be affected by such temporary projects, a permitting system for those seeking exemption for vehicles that provide essential local pick-up or delivery, and bonding to ensure that the condition of County roads, shoulders, and related highway structures is not adversely affected by such truck traffic.
 
The Legislature delayed scheduling of the public hearing to allow additional time to inform commercial entities and other users about the proposed local law before the hearing is held.  Anyone who wishes to learn more about the proposed law is invited to attend the information meeting January 31.
 
The draft local law is available for review at the County Legislature’s web site at
http://meetings.tompkins-co.org/Citizens/Detail_LegiFile.aspx?ID=2308 (Under “Attachments,” click on “Lla-11.”)
 
Media Contact:  Michael Lane, Chair, Government Operations Committee, 844-8313 or 844-8440.
 
– END -propos
 
——
Marcia E. Lynch
Public Information Officer
Tompkins County
125 E. Court Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
Tel: 607-274-5555/Fax: 607-274-5558

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Watkins Glen LPG Storage Jan 27, Ithaca

January 20, 2011

ANNOUNCING:  Informational Meeting on

 

Storing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

near Watkins Glen:  Questions and Answers

Presentations by

  • Thomas Shelly, Chemical safety and hazardous materials specialist
  • Peter Mantius, Journalist on business and finance, now with DCBureau.com

 

Human Services Building, 320 W. State Street, Ithaca, NY

Thursday, January 27, 2011,  7:00 – 9:00 pm

 

A company is proposing to store Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in salt caverns in the town of Reading, 2 miles from Watkins Glen.  How does this process work and what are the environmental and safety concerns?  Learn more at this informational meeting.

 

Finger Lakes LPG Storage is seeking approval from NY DEC to store up to 88 million gallons of LPG (propane and butane) in salt caverns near the western shore of Seneca Lake.  The facility, straddling Route 14 south of the 14A junction, would include

  • Connection to an existing interstate pipeline
  • Constructing a 14-acre lined surface pond on the hillside above Seneca Lake, with a capacity to hold 2 million barrels of displaced brine
  • Storm water control structures
  • Compressors
  • Construction of a new rail and truck transfer facility
  • LPG storage tanks
  • Office and distribution buildings

 

The salt caverns, currently brine-filled, were created by U.S. Salt and Cargill’s mining operations.  To make space for the LPG, some of the brine would be pumped out and placed in the surface pond.  As the LPG was needed on a seasonal basis, it would be shipped out by truck and rail.  The brine would be moved between the surface pond and the cavern as needed.

 

There are many questions about safety of this operation, including protection of Seneca Lake as a source of drinking water, possible migration of gases during storage and/or transport, and impact of trucking and rail cars carrying LPG.

 

The DEC determined that the project could result in enough adverse impacts to require an environmental impact review.  The review process grants the public the right to raise questions and make comments.  Those comments must be received by the DEC by January 31. Comments can be sent by e-mail to the NY DEC to: David Bimber, Deputy Regional Permit Administrator, at dlbimber@gw.dec.state.ny.us.

 

This event is sponsored by Social Ventures and Shaleshock Action Alliance.  Contact Sara Hess for questions.  Sarahess63@yahoo.com

 

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Cornell Planning Students research on impacts of drilling in PA Dec. 12, 7pm

December 4, 2010 1 Comment

On Sunday evening December 12th graduate and undergraduate students from the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University will host a public meeting at 7:00 PM in the Town of Ithaca Town Hall, 215 North Tioga Street, Ithaca.  The students will present their findings on some of the impacts and issues associated with Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania to members of the public.
For the past three months the students in the field workshop have been studying several aspects of the industry and its impacts in Bradford County, PA and elsewhere in that state.  The four issue areas that the workshop participants have focused on are:  impacts on housing, visual impacts, water quality, and land use and zoning.
The workshop participants have travelled to Bradford County to speak with residents and public officials, and to observe drilling operations, impacts on roads and short- and long-term impacts of drilling operations on the land.  In addition they have heard from a number of guest speakers actively involved in the issue in Bradford County.
The ability of local municipalities to control the industry is a key issue that the workshop participants have been investigating.  Although state laws may pre-empt local governments from regulating actual drilling operations, many other activities in support of drilling may be subject to local zoning regulations, and local governments can have a major role in deciding where such activities will occur and ensuring that their adverse impacts are mitigated.  A number of recent court decisions in Pennsylvania have also opened the door for local governments to exert more control over where natural gas drilling may occur within their boundaries.
For more information on the workshop and presentations contact George Frantz at grf4@cornell.edu.

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Trumansburg Forum Dec. 8

November 27, 2010

December 8 (6:30 pm) at the Trumansburg High School
Public Education Forum Exploring Impacts of Gas Drilling with High Volume Hydrofracturing

In a continuing effort to assess presumed consequences of “fracking,” local residents, politicians and environmental groups will stage a free Public Educational Forum entitled, “Impacts of Gas Drilling with High Volume Hydrofracturing” on Dec. 8, 6:30 p.m. at Trumansburg High School (off route 96).

    The Forum will feature a faculty addressing diverse aspects of this complex problem:

  • Louis Allstadt—Former Executive Vice President at Mobil Oil Corp.
  • Don Barber—Caroline Town Supervisor, Chairman of the Tompkins County Council of Governments, local businessman and owner of a dairy farm.
  • Julie & Craig Sautner—Dimock, PA, residents who have experienced first-hand water well contamination secondary to the industrialized hydrofracking process.
  • Helen Slottje, Esq.—Senior Attorney, Community Environmental Defense Council (CEDC) Ithaca, NY.
  • Sandra Steingraber, PhD —A local resident and internationally renowned biologist and prize-winning author whose major interest is the effects of environmental toxins on human health.

The forum will be moderated by Mary June King, a Trumansburg native and community pillar long involved in secondary school education. A Q&A session will follow the panelists’ presentations.

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