The following article was written by Concerned Citizens of Ulysses, a citizen group forming in order to deal with the prospect of natural gas drilling in our town:
“Dear Friends and Neighbors:
You may have heard about the prospect of drilling for natural gas in Tompkins County. In fact, you have a very good chance of living on or near land that has already been leased to gas companies since close to half of the County has already signed up.
Many of us heat our homes with natural gas because it is generally considered to be the “cleanest” fossil fuel available and will doubtlessly be a mainstay of the American energy generation system for the next several decades as we make the slow shift to more renewable and sensible sources. Is it ethically and morally defensible to heat your house with natural gas and fight to prevent companies from drilling in your neighbor’s adjacent fields?
You bet it is. It’s okay to be a NIMBY on this issue. There are trillions of cubic feet of natural gas beneath American soil. Currently natural gas prices are at multi-year lows because supply is so plentiful. We are NOT in a natural gas crisis in this country. There is no earthly reason to drill for natural gas in Tompkins County except greed. But we are inviting a health crisis in Tompkins county and other residential and agricultural areas where natural gas companies are gobbling up land leases if we don’t attempt to regulate natural gas drilling now!
WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM?
Halliburton and other energy companies have developed a means of siphoning natural gas from the Marcellus shale which lies under much of New York State and northeastern Pennsylvania with a technique called hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking). This involves drilling wells into the shale (six to eight thousand feet below the surface of the earth) and forcing a poisonous mixture of water and unknown chemicals under pressure into the holes to force out the gas. The wells are drilled vertically but can run horizontally for miles beneath our homes, our wells, our water supplies, our children…well you get the picture. What is so bad about fracking fluid? Nobody knows except Halliburton and other gas drillers because they claim the fluid they use is proprietary and patent protected. More than a 1000 documented incidents of water contamination have occurred in New Mexico, Ohio, Alabama and other places where fracking fluid has been inserted into the water supplies of local communities. Recent information from Texas which is riddled with hydrofracked wells suggests that the technique may precipitate earthquakes. People and animals have died as a result of exposure to hydrofracking fluid but the extent of the danger is unknown at the moment. And even when a drilling process is proceeding as it should, the activity involved in working each well involves delivery of millions of gallons of water weekly and constant and deafening drilling and pumping of fracking fluid as long as the well is active. Would you want one in your backyard or across the street? And where would natural gas companies get these untold millions of gallons of water? From OUR water supplies and Lake Cayuga itself.
AREN’T THERE FEDERAL AND LOCAL LAWS PROTECTING OUR WATER SUPPLIES?
Yes, the Safe Drinking Water Act is a Federal mandate designed to do just what its name implies, namely insure safe drinking water for Americans. But in 2005 working with a Bush administration friendly to their goals the natural gas industry succeeded in exempting hydrofracking operations from governance by the Safe Drinking Water Act. But wait! Just because the Federal government has abdicated its responsibility to protect our water supplies, what about our State and Local governments and agencies? Unfortunately after defanging the Federal mandate incredibly the gas industry was also successful in pushing through NY State Environmental Conservation Law Article 23 which in effect prevents local town and county governments from regulating gas drilling activity within their jurisdictions. And as for the DEC that presumably protects New York State citizens from activities hazardous to health and/or the environment…well, the DEC is the agency that hands out gas drilling permits to gas companies and in fact has opened up some State forests to this activity…so far.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Look into the mirror! It is up to each of us to get concerned, involved and active NOW if there is any hope at all of stemming this developing environmental tragedy. At this writing, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce is considering a bill that would repeal the exemption that gas drilling currently enjoys from the Safe Drinking Water Act. If you care about this problem, please write to the officials on this Committee and urge them to recommend the legislation for Congressional deliberation. And towards that end, please write to your New York State Congressional representations and our Senators and to the State DEC. Some sample letters and relevant addresses follow. Please help us win this battle for our families and the lifestyle we enjoy in what is currently a fairly placid rural environment. If hydrofracking is allowed in Tompkins County that will certainly change!
Thank you,
Ken Zeserson and Judy Abrams on behalf of
Concerned Citizens of Ulysses (CCU)
On Sunday, I wrote about the astounding lack of sense in the justifications by our U.S. Representative, Michael Arcuri, for his vote on Friday against the American Clean Energy and Security Act. Arcuri had attempted to cast his vote as a defense of the Upstate New York economy, though the average American household expense resulting from the legislation would be just 48 cents per day, according to the Congressional Budget office.
Upon reading an analysis of the cost of the legislation by political site FiveThirtyEight, I find out this morning that Arcuri’s statements were even more off base. It seems that the average household expense from the legislation in New York State would be much lower than the national average: 19 cents a day – an amount easily offset by replacing an inefficient lightbulb. New York’s expense would be the second lowest in the United States, behind only Florida.
If New York’s energy expenses would be increased at a lower rate than any other state than Florida, wouldn’t that make our state more attractive to businesses and individuals looking to relocate? Once again, Mike Arcuri doesn’t seem to have been able to think things through. He’s thrown away for both environmental and economic improvement for our region.
When Trumansburg Democrats voted for Congressman Mike Arcuri in 2006 and 2008, did they think they were voting for someone who would help Republican politicians block action on climate change? That’s just what happened yesterday, as Representative Arcuri voted with the Republicans yet again. This time, Arcuri was trying to prevent H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which would establish a cap-and-trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next generation.
Congressman Arcuri made the following argument in defense of his opposition to the Obama-backed climate legislation: “We all know that New York state already has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, and if those rates were to dramatically increase as a result of this legislation, it would almost certainly cost jobs in Upstate New York and discourage new businesses from locating here.”
To anyone with a scrap of critical thinking skills, this argument is plain nonsense. A national bill that creates a national cap-and-trade system won’t discriminate against Upstate New York unless industries here decide to continue to pollute the atmosphere. That’s not a regime under which new businesses would be discouraged from locating in our region.
Besides that, our expenses won’t be significantly affected by the American Clean Energy and Security Act, if it passes the Senate. That’s not my opinion. It’s the judgment of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which has calculated that the American American will only have an increase in expenses of 48 cents per day resulting from the legislation. Furthermore, that judgment does not take into account the increasing economic burden created by climate change.
Michael Arcuri’s claims just don’t match the facts. Either Arcuri isn’t aware of the facts, or he doesn’t care about them, and doesn’t think that we’ll be able to tell the difference. Whichever is the case, Arcuri’s actions in opposition of the American Clean Energy and Security Act demonstrate that he is unsuited to the responsibilities of representing our district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He has repeatedly voted against the progressive values of our community, and merits a progressive challenge for the 2010 election, either from within the Democratic Party, or from without.
The news comes from Chowhound, who recently came to Trumansburg to have a bite at the Hazelnut Kitchen, which seems to be getting a good reputation far outside of Tompkins County. Still, Chowhound would have liked more beets and less trout with the trout and beets, and reports that the bun on the burger was too big. Oh, the hurdles we all must face in life…
Anyway, Chowhound reports hopping over to the Rongovian Embassy for a drink after dinner, and says that someone there said that the bar would soon be getting new management, and that they’d be serving food once more, in the on-again-off-again Rongo kitchen. Is it true? I’ll admit that I’m not among those who frequents the Rongo, so I don’t know, and I can’t find confirmation of a sale by the current owner, Mike Barry.
Village Trustee Chris Thomas has announced his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for the position of Supervisor of the Town of Ulysses. If Doug Austic decides to run for re-election this year, there could be an actual choice when residents of Ulysses go to the polls. The last time there was an election for the position of Town of Ulysses Supervisor, there was no election. The Republican Committee nominated Austic, the Democratic Committee nominated Austic, and that was that.
- The dropout rate at Trumansburg High School has risen over the last three years. Note to Trumansburg teenagers: There’s a recession on with crippling unemployment. Now is not the best time to go looking for a job that’s going to bring you anything more than a minimum wage lifestyle. School can feel like a drag. Flipping burgers is worse.
A measure of small loss was seen, walking along Prospect Street last night. In a small stretch of land along the street that had not been drained and cleared in order to build houses, fireflies were blinking thickly from the ground up 30 feet to the tops of the trees.
Along the rest of the street, there wasn’t a blinking thing – only porch lights turned on, for security.
There’s good news and bad news for those residents of Ulysses who want to know how natural gas drilling could affect the quality of their drinking water.
Part of the process of natural gas drilling is something called fracking (hydraulic fracturing). Fracking forces a fluid into bedrock at high pressure, opening up cracks in the rock and allowing natural gas to escape. What that fluid is, however, no one really knows – except for the people at Halliburton who make the fluid. Independent analysis of areas where fracking fluid is believed to have spilled have found some very toxic chemicals, but currently, Halliburton enjoys a special legislative loophole that allows it to ignore environmental laws, and keep the contents of fracking fluid a secret.
The good news is that Michael Arcuri, who represents Trumansburg in the U.S. House of Representatives, has cosponsored the legislation, giving it his public support. The bad news is that appointed U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has declined to do so. That’s particularly disappointing, given that one of Kirsten Gillibrand’s political strengths was supposed to have been that she is able to represent the interests of people living in Upstate New York.
If Gillibrand continues to ignore the growing concerns of people living atop the Marcellus Shale, she may find herself surprised in 2010 by some upstate resistance to her effort to gain the Democratic Party nomination for New York’s junior U.S. Senate seat.
The shallow waters of Trumansburg Creek may not be deep enough to hold fish to interest human anglers, but it adds a great deal of depth to our village nonetheless.
You can experience Trumansburg’s own chocolates on most days right here on Main Street, and that’s all well and good, but in a couple of days you’ll have the opportunity to experience Life’s So Sweet chocolates both out of place and back in time. On Saturday, June 20, from 6:00 to 9:00 in the evening, you’ll be able to find the store’s chocolates at the Genessee Country Museum, a place up near Rochester that’s kind of like Colonial Williamsburg, but a bit more low key.
It’s part of a “midsummer” event – a celebration of the summer solstice in historical style. You pay 30 dollars for admission, and get to taste all sorts of goodies as you move around a setting designed to make you feel as if you’re living in the 1800s. We here in Trumansburg like to think of ourselves as very progressive, but I think it’s okay to go backwards, every once in a while – especially when candy is involved.
In this video of Trumansburg high school students on their last day of classes, everyone seems happy that it’s all over. Of course, it isn’t really all over for these graduating students. I’d love to see another video put together by these same people this time next year, and five years from now, as a point of comparison.
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