What we have to keep in mind is that the proposed shale gas extraction is an extremely radical idea.

Pick any one of the major problems that accompany the drilling and ask yourself if it is in any way reasonable to ask anyone to live with such a problem.

• Is it okay to have so much late-night noise and bright light that you can't sleep, night after night, with no end in sight?
• Is it okay to live with roads that are so badly damaged they are too dangerous to travel, and that, once repaired, are quickly damaged all over again?
• Is it okay to live without green space?
• Is it okay to live with constant, choking dust from the damaged roads?
• Is it okay to live with the fear that part of your property will be taken from you so a private company can use it to build a pipeline?
• Is it okay to live with the fear that you and your neighbors may have to evacuate your homes due to nearby industrial accidents like chemical spills or gas well fires?
• Is it okay to have a huge, ugly, dangerous shale gas well pad as your new next-door neighbor?
• Is it okay to have an ugly, noisy, polluting compressor station in the middle of a residential neighborhood?
• Is it okay to live with gas well flaring?
• Is it okay to introduce dangerous chemicals into the streams and lakes that we swim and fish in?
• Is it okay for wild and domestic animals to have access to open pits of water laced with toxic chemicals?
• Is it okay to introduce dangerous substances into the air we breathe?
• Is it okay to introduce dangerous substances onto the land that supplies our food?
• Is it okay to transport and store large quantities of dangerous chemicals in residential areas?
• Is it okay for our drinking water to ignite?
• Is it okay for our water wells to explode?
• Is it okay to ruin someone's only source of drinking water and render their home worthless?
• Is it okay to have to devote a huge chunk of your time, without pay, to policing the gas industry because the DEC doesn't have the employees (or the will) to police the industry?

We are being asked to uncomplainingly live with ALL of these problems and more.  Is that okay?

Suppose we had been asked these questions before we had ever heard of the Marcellus Shale: what would we have said?

The EPA has POSTPONED the hearings!

New date will probably be in mid-September.

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20100825/NEWS01/8250401/Still+no+deal+on+EPA+meeting+venue

Still no deal on EPA meeting venue

August 25, 2010, 8:40 pm

BINGHAMTON -- Broome County officials began collecting figures on the cost of hosting a public meeting on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's study on hydraulic fracturing, but no deal had been reached as of Wednesday night, Deputy County Executive Darcy Fauci said in an e-mail.

The county has been talking with Plexus Logistics International, a firm representing an EPA contractor, about hosting the meeting at either The Forum or the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena. Adam Saslow, Plexus' vice president for sustainability programs, said three venues are being considered, one of which is outside of the Southern Tier, but did not say if Broome's facilities were included in that number.

Saslow said Wednesday there was "no news" to report on the meeting.

Fauci said the cost figures would not be released until the EPA and its planning groups make a decision. Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala has said repeatedly the EPA should bear security costs for the event, which is expected to draw protesters.

The EPA is looking at mid-September dates.

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Ask the DEC to withdraw the Draft SGEIS!

Sign the coalition letter:  http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/coalition_letter 

You can search the list of signatories if you aren't sure if you have signed it yet.

From Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting:  "I write today because your help is needed more than ever to safeguard New York from natural gas drilling hazards.

I implore you to redouble your efforts to withdraw the Marcellus Shale draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS).  We are very close to achieving that goal.  One more big push might do it.

All else pales in importance to withdrawing the draft SGEIS and starting that regulatory process over again.  Killing the draft SGEIS is paramount.  So long as we prevent an SGEIS from being adopted, New York's de facto moratorium on Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracking continues. 

If the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) adopts its draft SGEIS, Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracking drilling permits will be issued.  Given DEC's severe regulatory inadequacies, irreparable pollution problems will likely result.

Nearly 10,000 concerned citizens, elected officials, businesses as well as local, state and national environmental groups have signed our coalition letter requesting withdrawal of the draft SGEIS.  I believe that strategy offers the best defense against Marcellus Shale horizontal hydrofracking threats in New York.

Since November, our efforts have achieved historic results.  Down the homestretch of the draft SGEIS comment period, Governor Paterson reportedly received hundreds of calls and emails each day requesting the draft SGEIS to be withdrawn.  Judith Enck, Region 2 EPA Administrator, got so many calls urging a tougher stand on the draft SGEIS that EPA's phone system crashed.  An incredibly hard-hitting EPA letter resulted.  Resolutions requesting withdrawal of the draft SGEIS also were passed across New York. We now need to focus on DEC Commissioner Grannis.  He is the key decision-maker we must persuade.

Additional Natural Gas Hazards Documented: I just released extensive county health department data documenting water wells contaminated with brine, homes evacuated due to methane intrusion and ignitable water.  That information received widespread newspaper, TV and radio coverage as well as critical editorial support.  See my letter to DEC Commissioner Grannis and the data at: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/dec_letter  These findings strengthen our argument that the draft SGEIS must be withdrawn.  We must drive that point home full-force.

Take Immediate Action Today: We need more signatories to the coalition letter.  We are very close to reaching our goal of 10,000 signatories and exceed pro-drilling petition signatories by more than 2:1.  Contact everyone you know who has not signed.  Beat the bushes. 

Click here to sign the letter.