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Conference : Collateral Damage from Fracking

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Collateral Damage from Fracking: Coming together to protect communities

Although New York’s highest court has upheld a town’s right to prohibit fracking within its borders, the fracking threats still loom — regardless of whether a community has enacted a ban or moratorium on this activity.

All communities, with bans or otherwise, will feel the impact of fracking-related activities nearby.  Air and water pollution know no jurisdictional boundaries, and the build-up of natural gas infrastructure (i.e., pipelines, compressor stations, storage facilities, and export terminals) will create hazards across municipal, county, and state lines.

The Coalition to Protect Communities from Fracking’s Collateral Damage is organizing a one-day action-oriented conference from 9-5 on November 15, 2014 at Ithaca College to help educate and inspire local officials and citizens about actions they can take to prevent collateral damage resulting from fracking.

  • Waste disposal ? wastewater disposal, landfills, brine spreading on roads
  • Infrastructure for transporting and storing gas ? pipelines, compressor stations, export facilities, underground storage, CNG facilities
  • Air pollution ? methane, ozone, and other toxic substances

Panels of lawyers, municipal officials and citizens will address:

—   Strategies used by NYS municipalities and citizens

—   Controls available to NYS municipalities (counties/towns/villages/cities)

—   Networking and action planning.

Opening speaker: David Slottje, Esq, Community Environmental Defense Council

Co-sponsors:
The Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes
Concerned Health Professionals of NY
Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition
Earthworks
Elected Officials to Protect NY
Food & Water Watch
Gas Free Seneca
Ithaca College Department of Environmental Sciences
Catskill Mountainkeeper
New Yorkers Against Fracking
Otsego 2000
Ratepayer and Community Intervenors
Riverkeeper
Sane Energy Project
Stop the Pipeline
Tompkins County Council of Governments

COST : A $15 registration fee (scholarships available) will help cover costs including breakfast, breaks, lunch, and materials.

WE ARE SENECA LAKE rally and protest

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The WE ARE SENECA LAKE rally and protest

Who: The great people of the Finger Lakes

What: Rally and protest at the gates of the Crestwood compressor station site on Seneca Lake

When: Friday morning, 9:00 AM, October 24, 2014, rain or shine

Where: Meet at the east end of the Walmart parking lot (back left corner of the lot) in Watkins Glen at 9 am. Shuttle service to the site will be provided.

What to wear: The color blue.

Why: The Texas-based energy corporation, Crestwood Midstream, has approval to move forward with plans to store highly pressurized, explosive gas in abandoned salt caverns on the west side of Seneca Lake. While the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has temporarily halted plans to stockpile propane and butane (LPG) in the caverns—out of ongoing concerns for safety, health, and the environment—Crestwood is actively constructing infrastructure for the storage of two billion cubic feet of methane (natural gas), with the blessing of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
This methane expansion project is advancing in the face of unparalleled public opposition and unresolved questions about geological instabilities, fault lines, and possible salinization of the lake, which serves as a source of drinking water for 100,000 people.

And yet, outrageously, Governor Cuomo’s DEC excised references to the risks of underground gas storage from a 2011 federal report on methane contamination of drinking water and has allowed key data to remain hidden.

On-site construction of the massive underground gas storage depot on the banks of Seneca Lake is scheduled to begin on Friday. Please come and show your opposition. Our message:

Seneca Lake is not a gas station for fracking operations. Seneca Lake is our home. Seneca Lake is our water. Seneca Lake brings tourists to our shores and grows wine grapes on our hills. Crestwood, go home! We are Seneca Lake.

To learn more about non-violent civil disobedience, please attend a gathering on Wednesday night, Oct. 22, 6 – 8 pm at the Perry City Friends (Quaker) Meeting House, 6324 Route 227 in Perry City, Town of Hector (directions: Google Maps)

The Pledge to Protect Seneca Lake is here. It is now active and still accepting signers.

Solutions for Sustainability Conference

SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABILITY

EXACTLY ONE WEEK FROM TODAY
On Saturday, October 18, 2014at 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
at The First United Methodist Church on First & Cedar Streets Corning,
New York 14830
Register Now at www.pheinc1.org if you want to attend an excellent program and have lunch as well.
$15/person, $10/student, $25/family
or Send check to:

PHE,inc., Box 504,
Horseheads, N.Y. 14845
so it arrives before October 17, 2014

Fifteen bucks gets you in to see, hear, and dialogue with an A+ Class of presenters about increasing ways we can improve the chances of Planet Earth’s survival.
The messages are positive, uplifting, and put you in the spirit of “Yes, we certainly can!”

Maude Barlow, Anna Edey, Michael Burns, and Albe Zakesare world class authors and speakers. If I saw this kind of power-house line-up offered at Cornell University or Ithaca College, I would stand in line an hour early to get in knowing I would have such a chance at such a price even without lunch being offered. In this day and age, it is hard to be optimistic unless you have reason to think there can be a future for which to act. Join with us on October 18th, and meet some of the pioneers for this
future. REGISTER NOW: www.pheinc1.org

Fundraiser for Gas Free Seneca!

Gas Free Seneca Fundraiser: Save the Date to Save Seneca Lake!

Thursday, October 9
5:30-9PM
Hazlitt’s 1852 Vineyards’ Oasis

Gas Free Seneca is facing both good news and bad news regarding the fight to keep Texas-based corporation Crestwood from storing LPG and methane on the shores of our beautiful Seneca Lake. While we are making great strides with having support to oppose the project, the need for funds is more urgent than ever. We are in need of auction items, food donations, wine, music…but especially money. Can you help us add to our items to auction? Any and all donations are greatly appreciated.

Online donations can be made at: www.gasfreeseneca.com or by mail to:
Gas Free Seneca
PO Box 333
Watkins Glen NY 14891

Checks can be made payable to: Sustainable Markets Foundation, with “Gas Free Seneca” in the memo line.?

Ithaca Climate March & Response

Sunday, September 21, 12:45 PMDeWitt Park (north side of park next to the First Presbyterian Church)

DeWitt Park

Ithaca, NY 14850

Join us in Ithaca if you cannot get to NYC! People of many faiths will gather in Ithaca for a musical march & call to action.

We will meet on the north side of DeWitt Park near the First Presbyterian Church for a silent meditation/prayer (12:50-1 pm). We will start our march around the park with a 350 second “sound-off” at 1 pm, coordinated with faith communities around the planet via GreenFaith.

We will then gather in the First Presbyterian Church’s Dodds Hall for refreshments & a discussion of how we, as faith communities and as civic communities, can spur changes to make real differences for our planet and for all its people.

We hope to project live feeds from people in NYC. If you will be in NYC, please upload your pictures & videos to our facebook event page: Ithaca Climate March & Response

September 21 is just the beginning! We will be coordinating with other area groups concerned about our changing climate on the wide range of ACTION STEPS we can take to help turn the fossil fuel economy into an ecological economy.

People’s Climate March

more information about local bus transportation, see below.

copied from http://peoplesclimate.org/march/

This is an invitation to change everything.

In September, world leaders are coming to New York City for a UN summit on the climate crisis. UN Secretary­ General Ban Ki-­moon is urging governments to support an ambitious global agreement to dramatically reduce global warming pollution.

With our future on the line and the whole world watching, we’ll take a stand to bend the course of history. We’ll take to the streets to demand the world we know is within our reach: a world with an economy that works for people and the planet; a world safe from the ravages of climate change; a world with good jobs, clean air and water, and healthy communities.

To change everything, we need everyone on board.
Sunday, September 21 in New York City. Join us

————-

from Citizen Action;

The time is now!

Get on the bus to help us fight fracking and climate change!

Our friends at Sierra Club are offering bus transportation to the People’s Climate March on September 21. The march through the streets of New York City demonstrate support for climate action and opposition to fracking and will coincide with a week of events supporting United Nations Climate Summit. We are expecting hundreds of thousands of people, coming from all across the US!

Click here to reserve your ticket now!

We also have a limited number of scholarship seats for folks who may not be able to afford the bus. Please respond to this email and indicate that you are interested! 

Click here to reserve your ticket now!

Invite friends to the Facebook event!

Disruption – Movie Screening

Sunday, September 7, 6:45 PM The Sustainability Center

111 N. Albany St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

Sustainable Tompkins is hosting a free public screening of ‘Disruption’ – the new movie put out by 350.org for the climate movement.  We are facing massive climate disruption.  It’s time for us to get disruptive!  Lots of Ithacans will be taking the bus down to NYC for the People’s Climate March on September 21.  We hope you can join us for that, but there are many opportunities to mobilize locally this fall.  We’ll watch the screening together and then talk briefly about what is going on locally on the climate and energy front.

http://events.watchdisruption.com/event/disruption/8165/signup/?no_akid=1

Disruption – Official Trailer from Watch Disruption on Vimeo.