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Post by B on Aug 17, 2012 3:03:01 GMT -5
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Post by B on Aug 19, 2012 11:26:03 GMT -5
Fouled Waters: Woodlands residents search for ways to survive without clean water www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/fouled-waters-woodlands-residents-search-for-answers-ways-to-survive-without-clean-water-649566/#ixzz240bLr0OEpicture:d4493f2df0d1b95cfc62-773cd17a86049dd672fafb96394debed.r5.cf2.rackcdn.com/2012/231/258/kim-mcevoy-and-her-daughter_420.jpgJulia Rendleman/Post-Gazette Kim McEvoy and her daughter, Skylar Sowatsky, 3, load empty jugs into the car so Ms. McEvoy can refill them with clean water at work. The family has been without running water since January. "This is America 2012. Look at what's happening. We have all this technology but no water," she said.[/i] By Erich Schwartzel / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "If Janet McIntyre needs to shower and can't drive the 11 miles to her son's house, she steps outside and undresses. Her husband puts on a rain poncho and pours three gallons of water over her as she hides behind a shower curtain hanging between two cars that sit in their yard. Before Kim McEvoy watched her home value plummet and moved to one with public water, she went behind rhododendron plants to urinate. Her fiance used bushes along the other side of the house -- the "men's room." And when the time comes to refill the tank that provides clean water to her home, Barb Romito waits to see if her anonymous donor has pulled through once again and paid the $125 fee needed twice a month to keep her faucets flowing. These and other lifestyle adjustments started in the Woodlands neighborhood about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh after January 2011, when residents started calling each other with the same story: Water from their wells was running brown or black with floating pieces of solid material in it, and it smelled awful. When they showered, they got rashes. When they drank, they threw up. The farm show rabbits Russ Kelly keeps behind his house even stopped drinking the water. It was a major disruption in a quiet neighborhood. The community of homes sits several miles off the main drag of Zelienople in Butler County, a grouping of trailers and ranch houses that share bumpy, dirt roads and large yards that sometimes look more like campsites. Gas drilling had begun near the Woodlands, though some originally thought the tall rigs built to access Marcellus Shale gas thousands of feet below the ground were cell phone towers. They called Rex Energy, the gas company that had drilled at least 15 new wells in the Zelienople area from July to December 2010, and they called the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. "Next thing you know, the water buffaloes are sprouting up like mushrooms" across the neighborhood, said Ms. McEvoy's fiance, Peter Sowatsky. If a resident contacts a gas company with suspicions of water contamination, it is typically company practice that an alternate source of water -- usually in the form of a large tank called a "buffalo" -- must be provided within 48 hours. Many residents used the water buffaloes provided by Rex, replacing the private wells they'd depended on for decades, while Rex and the DEP conducted tests. But when both test results came back, the Woodlands neighborhood residents who'd noticed unmistakable changes in the look and taste of their water were told nothing was wrong. "There are no noticeable differences in water chemistry in pre- and post-drill water quality of the water wells in question," stated a report by Rex Energy based on testing done by a third-party firm hired by the company. DEP test results in February 2011 couldn't link contaminants in the water to the Rex Energy drilling. The company declined comment for this story, referring questions to the report. "(more at link)
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Post by iameye on Aug 20, 2012 9:01:10 GMT -5
"When I think about the money I'm standing on, it would be like someone standing on the bank knowing they have million dollars in it and no access to it," Teresa Lyons said. I know how she feels. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmg14eLuMDwhey, Jude
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Post by B on Aug 28, 2012 19:49:17 GMT -5
www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/opinion/sean-lennon-destroying-precious-land-for-gas.html?_r=4Op-Ed Contributor Destroying Precious Land for GasBy SEAN LENNONPublished: August 27, 2012 "ON the northern tip of Delaware County, N.Y., where the Catskill Mountains curl up into little kitten hills, and Ouleout Creek slithers north into the Susquehanna River, there is a farm my parents bought before I was born. My earliest memories there are of skipping stones with my father and drinking unpasteurized milk. There are bald eagles and majestic pines, honeybees and raspberries. My mother even planted a ring of white birch trees around the property for protection. A few months ago I was asked by a neighbor near our farm to attend a town meeting at the local high school. Some gas companies at the meeting were trying very hard to sell us on a plan to tear through our wilderness and make room for a new pipeline: infrastructure for hydraulic fracturing. Most of the residents at the meeting, many of them organic farmers, were openly defiant. The gas companies didn’t seem to care. They gave us the feeling that whether we liked it or not, they were going to fracture our little town. In the late ’70s, when Manhattanites like Andy Warhol and Bianca Jagger were turning Montauk and East Hampton into an epicurean Shangri-La for the Studio 54 crowd, my parents, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, were looking to become amateur dairy farmers. My first introduction to a cow was being taught how to milk it by hand. I’ll never forget the realization that fresh milk could be so much sweeter than what we bought in grocery stores. Although I was rarely able to persuade my schoolmates to leave Long Island for what seemed to them an unreasonably rural escapade, I was lucky enough to experience trout fishing instead of tennis lessons, swimming holes instead of swimming pools and campfires instead of cable television. Though my father died when I was 5, I have always felt lucky to live on land he loved dearly; land in an area that is now on the verge of being destroyed. When the gas companies showed up in our backyard, I felt I needed to do some research. I looked into Pennsylvania, where hundreds of families have been left with ruined drinking water, toxic fumes in the air, industrialized landscapes, thousands of trucks and new roads crosshatching the wilderness, and a devastating and irreversible decline in property value. Natural gas has been sold as clean energy. But when the gas comes from fracturing bedrock with about five million gallons of toxic water per well, the word “clean” takes on a disturbingly Orwellian tone. Don’t be fooled. Fracking for shale gas is in truth dirty energy. It inevitably leaks toxic chemicals into the air and water. Industry studies show that 5 percent of wells can leak immediately, and 60 percent over 30 years. There is no such thing as pipes and concrete that won’t eventually break down. It releases a cocktail of chemicals from a menu of more than 600 toxic substances, climate-changing methane, radium and, of course, uranium. New York is lucky enough to have some of the best drinking water in the world. The well water on my family’s farm comes from the same watersheds that supply all the reservoirs in New York State. That means if our tap water gets dirty, so does New York City’s. Gas produced this way is not climate- friendly. Within the first 20 years, methane escaping from within and around the wells, pipelines and compressor stations is 105 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. With more than a tiny amount of methane leakage, this gas is as bad as coal is for the climate; and since over half the wells leak eventually, it is not a small amount. Even more important, shale gas contains one of the earth’s largest carbon reserves, many times more than our atmosphere can absorb. Burning more than a small fraction of it will render the climate unlivable, raise the price of food and make coastlines unstable for generations. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, when speaking for “the voices in the sensible center,” seems to think the New York State Association of County Health Officials, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the New York State Nurses Association and the Medical Society of the State of New York, not to mention Dr. Anthony R. Ingraffea’s studies at Cornell University, are “loud voices at the extremes.” The mayor’s plan to “make sure that the gas is extracted carefully and in the right places” is akin to a smoker telling you, “Smoking lighter cigarettes in the right place at the right time makes it safe to smoke.” Few people are aware that America’s Natural Gas Alliance has spent $80 million in a publicity campaign that includes the services of Hill and Knowlton — the public relations firm that through most of the ’50s and ’60s told America that tobacco had no verifiable links to cancer. Natural gas is clean, and cigarettes are healthy — talk about disinformation. To try to counteract this, my mother and I have started a group called Artists Against Fracking. My father could have chosen to live anywhere. I suspect he chose to live here because being a New Yorker is not about class, race or even nationality; it’s about loving New York. Even the United States Geological Survey has said New York’s draft plan fails to protect drinking water supplies, and has also acknowledged the likely link between hydraulic fracturing and recent earthquakes in the Midwest. Surely the voice of the “sensible center” would ask to stop all hydraulic fracturing so that our water, our lives and our planet could be protected and preserved for generations to come. Sean Lennon is a musician."
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Post by B on Sept 20, 2012 20:33:53 GMT -5
This took place about 2 in the afternoon in Philadelphia today. The gas industry leaders were meeting in the building behind the speakers. Many of them were looking out the window at us, and listening to the speakers.Delaware Riverkeeper Network video Shale Gas Outrage Families .m4v www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaJfH4OCXVwDelaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum speaking at Shale Gas Outrage rally in Philadelphiawww.youtube.com/watch?v=2dVHzy6uSS4more to come
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Post by B on Sept 21, 2012 14:50:39 GMT -5
1,000 Protesters Hit Streets of Philly to Express Shale Gas Outrage09-21-2012 Protecting Our Waters and Delaware Riverkeeper Networkecowatch.org/2012/shale-gas-outrage/"More than 1,000 people from Pennsylvania and the shale regions of neighboring New York, Ohio, West Virginia and beyond, along with downstreamers from Maryland and Delaware, joined together to protest the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s industry convention in downtown Philadelphia on Sept. 20, making a unified statement to “Stop Fracking Now.” Shale Gas Outrage rallied from Noon to 2 p.m. outside the Convention Center on Arch Street, led by Protecting Our Waters and endorsed by more than 45 organizations, all calling for a moratorium on shale gas development wherever it is occurring. A boisterous march through Philadelphia streets followed the high-energy rally. Marchers stopped at four locations to bring the message of Stop Fracking Now. At President Barack Obama’s election campaign headquarters, marchers demanded “Not One More Drop” be withdrawn from the Susquehanna River for fracking. President Obama votes through the Army Corps of Engineers on the Susquehanna and Delaware River Basin Commissions. Marchers also demanded sustainable, clean energy instead of shale gas and fossil fuels. Marchers confronted PNC Bank (heavily invested in shale gas development and mountaintop removal), Governor Tom Corbett’s office (for a statewide moratorium and to stop polluting our communities and environment) and the PA Chamber of Commerce (which has opposed regulating greenhouse gas emissions and aggressively promotes shale gas exports overseas). At 5 p.m., a Blessing of the Waters, an interfaith event, took place at Arch Street Methodist Church at Broad and Arch Streets in Philadelphia. “As the impacted people with fouled water, polluted air and threatened livelihoods have shown today, shale gas drilling is inherently contaminating. Families should not be forced to live with such dangers and health impacts. The best way to stem the tide of displacement, degraded ecosystems and climate catastrophe is to stop fracking now and divest our support from extreme fossil fuel extraction. We are taking the morally responsible position, out of necessity, for our government has turned a deaf ear to these vital concerns,” said ❤ Iris Marie Bloom ❤, executive director, Protecting Our Waters and lead organizer, Shale Gas Outrage. A broad spectrum of constituencies—including labor and faith-based speakers, biologists, climate and energy experts and concerned individuals—came together to make a clear, unified statement—Stop Fracking Now—to solve the horrific problems facing shale “sacrifice zone” communities. Speakers included Josh Fox, Bill McKibben, Maya van Rossum, Sandra Steingraber, Stephen Cleghorn, Stewart Acuff, Wes Gillingham, John Scorsone, Wenonah Hauter and Doug Shields. Members of Pennsylvania communities impacted by gas extraction and development also had the chance to speak at the rally, including Tammy Manning and her granddaughter Madison from Susquehanna County; farmers Carol French and Carolyn Knapp from Bradford County; Craig Stevens of Susquehanna County; Mary Rodriguez, a nurse from Luzerne County, and Kevin Heatley, an ecologist from Lycoming County also spoke at the rally. Musical talent contributed to the day, including Rhetta Morgan, singer from Philadelphia; Spiritchild from Brooklyn; singer song writer Zach Freidhof, and Pennsylvania guitarist Freebo. The Shale Gas Outrage rally program featured the hardships and suffering that people and communities are experiencing in shale country. Two of the speakers verged on tears as they described the hardships and losses their families have suffered due to the rush to drill. Bradford County dairy farmer Carol French explained in her talk about her daughter who experienced abdominal pain and an enlarged spleen and liver after their water was fouled by shale gas drilling. “The nearest wellpad was 4,000 feet from my house. After my family’s water became saturated with methane, officials told us not to use the kitchen stove because it could cause a flash fire… My granddaughter began vomiting, and only got better after they brought us a water buffalo [tank for clean water],” said Tammy Manning, one of many speakers whose lives have been turned upside down by gas drilling. On Friday, Sept. 21, participants will attend the Health Impacts Symposium at College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19. S. 22nd St., Philadelphia, PA. Shale Gas Outrage is screening Kirsi Jansa’s Gas Rush Films from 1 – 2 p.m. at Friends Center, followed by strategy sessions. A nonviolent direct action is also listed for early Friday morning. "
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Post by B on Sept 23, 2012 11:41:34 GMT -5
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Post by iameye on Sept 23, 2012 17:19:05 GMT -5
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Post by B on Sept 23, 2012 19:23:16 GMT -5
I'm all for that. (Ending the fracking.) Working on the trust part. 4000 holes NOT ![/color][/b] in Blackbyrne, Lancashire! Kudos to you guys/gals in the picture! ---------------------------------------------Help Protect the Delaware River Basin from dangerous fracked pipeline projects threatening our beautiful places - please take 2 easy online actions now (petition and letter to drbc with a few clicks): www.delawareriverkeeper.org/about/event.aspx?Id=303 And join us Dec 5th for the next DRBC meeting in West Trenton, NJ to stand up against dirty fracked gas pipelines.
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Post by iameye on Sept 23, 2012 19:29:30 GMT -5
I'm all for that. (Ending the fracking.) Working on the trust part. I'm the one who has done all the work for you.
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Post by B on Nov 22, 2012 17:29:52 GMT -5
Dear All, I truly believe that all of your work against fracking had an effect on Governor Cuomo's recent comments. We are glad that we have a wise and courageous Governor. We are immensely lucky. In celebration of this amazing turn of events, I wish to thank you for all of your incredible efforts in working day and night, and imagine a beautiful future for all of us. For those of us living with fracking every day already, we are with you. I know we are already in a frack free world in spirit. We will be there in reality very, very soon! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Yoko & Sean ....
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Post by iameye on Nov 22, 2012 19:32:26 GMT -5
Dear All, I truly believe that all of your work against fracking had an effect on Governor Cuomo's recent comments. We are glad that we have a wise and courageous Governor. We are immensely lucky. In celebration of this amazing turn of events, I wish to thank you for all of your incredible efforts in working day and night, and imagine a beautiful future for all of us. For those of us living with fracking every day already, we are with you. I know we are already in a frack free world in spirit. We will be there in reality very, very soon! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Yoko & Sean ....Oh seriously FRACK YOU Sean and Yoko. Way to go blowing your One and Only big chance. Don't frack your Mother? You just did! and hey, she's NOT HAPPY about it either! Blows my mind how forgetful you really are...... stop cashing my checks, they are INVALID to you. If you won't take me in, leave me OUT of this debate. I don't like my name dragged around. Not EVER and especially, not NOW.
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Post by buckprivate on Nov 24, 2012 19:24:30 GMT -5
Dear All, I truly believe that all of your work against fracking had an effect on Governor Cuomo's recent comments. We are glad that we have a wise and courageous Governor. We are immensely lucky. In celebration of this amazing turn of events, I wish to thank you for all of your incredible efforts in working day and night, and imagine a beautiful future for all of us. For those of us living with fracking every day already, we are with you. I know we are already in a frack free world in spirit. We will be there in reality very, very soon! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Yoko & Sean Man Accused of Attacking Nude Dancer Officers arrested Eliaser Baez-Duarte, 29, on charges of rape, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, Springfield Police said. www.kval.com/news/local/Man-accused-of-raping-nude-dancer-179142091.html
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Post by buckprivate on Nov 24, 2012 19:25:34 GMT -5
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Post by B on Dec 11, 2012 8:59:36 GMT -5
NY Times ad paid for by Yoko and Sean, for the most part.
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Post by iameye on Dec 11, 2012 9:23:03 GMT -5
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Post by iameye on Dec 11, 2012 9:37:54 GMT -5
Matt.12 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly;so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH.It's a walking tomb bomb Verily I say unto thee, tomorrow shalt thou be with me in paradise. don't frack it up!
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Post by B on Dec 26, 2012 9:27:27 GMT -5
Sean Lennon on NY fracking battle: If it’s too dangerous in Manhattan, it’s too dangerous everywhere current.com/shows/the-young-turks/videos/sean-lennon-on-n-y-fracking-battle-if-its-too-dangerous-in-manhattan-its-too-dangerous-everywhere-------------------------"The industry and its financiers have managed to paint this vast, largely faceless group as unworthy of notice. We are landowners, hunters, retirees and others who choose to live in rural areas. Apparently, personal injury, loss of clean air and water, and the long-term damage to rural industries like agriculture, forestry and recreation are not highly regarded." From one of three great letters challenging the recent New York Times editorial on "Sending Natural Gas Abroad." ---------------
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Post by B on Jan 4, 2013 10:48:07 GMT -5
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Post by B on Jan 5, 2013 21:46:56 GMT -5
You saw it here first! Safe Responsible Fracking is a Mythwww.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo6uSW47QpQdescription: Published on Jan 4, 2013 "30 second commercial submission for the Artists Against Fracking #dontfrackny. Produced by Scott Cannon of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition."
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Post by B on Jan 19, 2013 22:39:12 GMT -5
Fracking debate draws Yoko, Lennon and Sarandon to rural battlegroundsArtists Against Fracking board bus for magical mystery tour of Pennsylvania as New York and New Jersey decisions draw nearbest read at link: www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/18/fracking-debate-ono-lennon-sarandon-tourSean Lennon's comments on the bus in the second half of the video below are excellent! And - in case you're wondering - the dog never stops barking.Yoko Ono and Group Gas Tour -- 1-17-13 from Vera Scrogginswww.youtube.com/watch?v=i2maX3Xp4A4Published on Jan 19, 2013 "Yoko, Sean Lennon, Susan Sarandon, Arun Ghandhi, take my Citizen Tour of Gasland, Susquehanna County, Pa., where I live. Media from NYC and other local media present and activists from our county and affected residents witness and speak out. Thanks, to Yoko and Company for coming and witnessing our plight as the Gas Companies drill over 650 gas wells the past five years throughout our rural countryside and build toxic-belching and noisy Compressor Stations and endless, high-pressure pipelines to extract and process this Shale Gas that is touted as clean and non-intrusive. The footprint is all pervasive and ever-expanding. We are only about 25 % into the development and thousands of gas wells await construction, and dozens of Compressor Stations will fill our beautiful County. Forty counties in Pa. are presently being drilled. These are mostly rural, agricultural and our food supply is at risk besides our lives. The NY Group spent about 6 hours with us and toured the gas sites and talked to residents harmed by the drilling. "Phelim McAleer Harasses Yoko and Susan on the Celebrity Tour - 1-17-13 from Vera Scrogginswww.youtube.com/watch?v=_XYj3uwYjDsUploaded on Jan 21, 2013 "This is at Ray Kemble's home in Dimock, Pa.. The Yoko bus is parked in his driveway. Phelim harasses us with his inane remarks and won't leave Ray's home in Dimock, Pa., where we talk to "Artists Against Fracking" and the press as we give them a Citizen Tour of Gasland, Susquehanna County, Pa.. Phelim made a pro-gas "documentary", called FrackNation and it debuts on Jan. 22nd on a cable station and he interviewed Dimock folks with bad water about a year ago and made like he was going to be neutral but it's a pro-gas movie. Taped 1-17-13 "
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Post by B on Jan 20, 2013 18:22:48 GMT -5
Jessica Ernst, The Consequences of Frackingwww.youtube.com/watch?v=aU6DJE9h6uc"Jessica Ernst is a scientist who has worked in the oil and gas industry. She discovered first hand the consequences of hydraulic fracturing in her town of Rosebud, Alberta, Canada. Jessica has come to Michigan and to other places around the world to warn communities of the dangers of fracking. For more information please visit: banmichiganfracking.org/ "
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Post by B on Jan 27, 2013 12:54:03 GMT -5
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Post by B on Jan 29, 2013 11:05:50 GMT -5
Wilma Subra & Health Effects of Gas Drillingwww.youtube.com/watch?v=M9SEBpVJRwUSpellbinding and horrific. -------------------------Looking Back: Our Trip to Pennsylvania Fracking Sitesby Yoko Onoartistsagainstfracking.com/our-trip/"After that tour, I have never felt more compelled to prevent others from facing the harm I saw in Pennsylvania last week. And after being followed around all day by industry representatives who yelled threats at us, I have also come to realize how much is at stake. We cannot allow people, clean water and the health of our climate and planet to be sacrificed for the gas industry."
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Post by B on Jan 30, 2013 19:31:25 GMT -5
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