More Fracadelia

Here is the incident du jour: Natural gas fire under control

Here is latest entry to About: I live in the Frances Slocum State Park area, but have been to Moon Lake many times. Anyplace where people can run, play, hike, swim, camp, learn, bike, and socialize reverberates through life like an endless smile. The gas it will be sacrificed for, will give but a few people its’ neon pleasure and leave the rest of us in debt and diminished. As far as the County is concerned, mismanagement begets mismanagement. It is like a lie.

At Gort42: Gort is a respected area blogger . (I suspect his real identity is 24 Torg.) Today/yesterday he wrote a post which was titled and about Moon Lake. A commenter on the post suggested that “the Commissioners consider selling the naming rights to the Park just as was done with the Arena.” Whether he was serious or tongue-in -cheek, his proposal got me to thinking…

Perhaps EnCanaLand or CabotPatch. There could be rides like the Drill Rigger,the Thumper Truck Junior, the Endocrine Disruptor, and the Radioactive Mud Slide. Kids could buy Candy Apple Hardhats. The pool would have special undisclosed chemicals. The grounds crew would pick up spills only if they were in plain sight. And of course, no venue would be complete without the fire breathing water fountains…

Public Meeting a Success!:
One hundred and ten people attended the education and awareness meeting sponsored by the GDAC (Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition). The Citizen’s Voice, Times Leader, and WNEP were there. State Senator Lisa Baker and State Representative Karen Boback were in attendance throughout the two hour meeting and spoke impromptu to the audience. (they both seem to be earnest and open but since I was the MC, I was unable to pay full attention to their remarks since I was in and out of the forum.) Also present was David Madiera who is the Republican primary candidate in the 10th Congressional District (Democrat Chris Carney’s seat). We spent a lively time afterward, in the parking lot with several others, debating and getting to know one another.

Vera Scroggins of Kingsley, PA spoke in front of a backdrop of original footage from Dimock shot by Audrey Simpson. She has been an outspoken champion of a saner humanscale approach by calling for an environmental impact study and a moratorium until said study is complete. She stirred the audience into resounding applause.

The evening began with a welcome by Pastor Earl Roberts who opened his facility to the public. The United Methodists are called to take environmental stewardship very seriously. Then Leanne Mazurick of GDAC presented the film Rural Impact . This film covered it all: increased crime, decreased property values, trashed unsafe roads, sick air, carcinogens, endocrine disruptors, environmental degradation, noise, corporate irresponsibility, on and on…

Also speaking was John Nowak of Sweet Valley, an owner of thirty acres refusing to sign. He presented his research on the actual employment impact of the “Gas Play”. Most jobs will be, and already are, for outsiders and extrapolated over time will net a pittance of actual full time jobs to locals.

Then Tom Jiunta (founder of Luzerne County Citizens for Clean Water) spoke about the various legislative, ordinance, and petition initiatives in progress. He then fielded questions from the audience. (Tom knows his stuff.) There was lively, honest, and spirited discussion and testimony.

Afterward there was coffee, more discussion, and petition signing/recruitment in the adjacent reception area. I spoke to an eighty-five year young man who was intending to move to his daughter’s home in Bethlehem. His local home was under contract to be sold but the offer was dropped once the prospective buyer found out the neighboring property was large and under lease. It was the first this man had known of it. Now he is stuck.

The realities are beginning to emerge.

Muchas Gracias to Cindy, Jeanette, Karen, and Leanne for organizing this meeting.

Later, standing in the evening air gazing at the big orange moon, I wondered about the naming rights to it…

Here is a more detailed coverage:

Citizen’s Voice – Natural Gas Meeting Draws Big Crowd

Here is television coverage:

WNEP – Residents in Luzerne County React to Gas Drilling

Community meeting a success!

Andrew Byers of the Shaleshock Action Alliance spoke to a packed house last night at the Kingston Township Municipal Building.  (Thank you Kingston Township).

Andrew worked with facts and extrapolated them to the scales of production which have been projected here.  He used slides to show fully developed fields, sites in preparation, and waste ponds being dozed back into the earth.  He spoke about the generators which spew out ozone creating hydrocarbons, pipelines, access roads, dragon tanks, diesel trucks, waste fluids, and radioactive mud.  He spoke to the typical everyday spillage, topsoil degradation, and its cumulative effect on the water system.  He spoke to mismanagement, the Cheney/Halliburton loophole, endocrine disruption, and the industrial sized scale of it all.  He also covered community organizing, monitoring strategies, and local political activism.   It was a rational and fact based portrayal of a world we are allowing to happen.

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Here is the Citizen’s Voice coverage:

Here is the Times Leader coverage:

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Here is a story from Wayne County: Outcry greets possibility of gas drilling at Wayne County schools

I added a Moon Lake Park page above. Sign the petition there or HERE.  Let’s not forget Moon Lake!!!

Also, I have added a Petition Page. There are five petitions and/or legislative links. Go there to voice your concern. PETITIONS HERE

A powerful post from Another Monkey – Please read it.

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I love the gas industry tv commercial where the woman is traveling up a well as if in a stainless steel and glass elevator. So clean and so slick. I guess we will see truck loads of well dressed women heading down our roads soon.

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I have an old friend up north who recently emailed me about his experiences with gas drilling. Here is the sad email. I took out their names at their request:

“Herb. Thanks for the info. (Wife) and I have spent the last 2 years educating ourselves about this issue. We are at ground zero in Dimock and are surrounded by gas wells being drilled. What we have learned so far is scary and our actual experiences dealing with this has been terrible. The beautiful area I have lived in for the last 35 years is being butchered. Many of my neighbor’s water supplies have already been polluted. It is a shame that our government would, in these days and times, allow such environmental exploitation all for the sake of money.

But I have to let you know of my situation – (wife) and I held out from signing a gas lease as long as we could, due to our environmental concerns. However, when we realized all our neighbors had signed and we were surrounded by leased land – we finally gave in and signed. Now seeing what has happened I would gladly return the money if they would pack up and leave. I consider it dirty money. I believe the gas company’s tactic was to offer people money to get their foothold and then they come in and do their thing. (friend’s name)”

See you tonight.

fracadelia

New arrival to the Violations and Accidents vault : Talisman Energy – Fuel spill reported in Armenia Township

Check this out: Texas earthquakes may be linked to wells for gas mining

Here is a great letter sent to me as a comment. It is long and complex, but filled with golden nuggets of insight

Good update on the national political front: from Audobon

Today,  Steve Corbett (WILK radio) related how EnCana Corporation was avoiding an interview.  More on Encana in days to come I’m sure.

It is not just water contamination.  It is also air.  See the Split Estate movie to to find out what Ecana is really like.