O my friends, there are resources in us on which we have not drawn. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
10 people have been arrested for blockading the Crestwood facility. Below is video of the arrests
We are joining together to protect Seneca Lake, our families, and the Finger Lakes from Crestwood’s gas storage facility. We invite you to join us!
Blockade Thursday Oct. 23 Blockade Friday Oct. 24
(Some more pictures from Friday’s blockade are here)
The Texas-based energy corporation, Crestwood Midstream, is moving forward with plans to store highly pressurized, explosive gas in abandoned salt caverns on the west shore of Seneca Lake, despite documented instability of the salt caverns and concern over impacts to water quality and public safety. Construction is slated to begin October 24th. Learn more about the projects and their risks.
Salt cavern gas storage is part of a coordinated effort to build out massive infrastructure throughout the Northeast for fracked gas (methane), thus maintaining our dependency on fossil fuels for another 20 years – at a time when we critically need to be addressing climate change. Methane is 86 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 over that same time period. This is a bridge to nowhere, and we are standing up to stop it.
We the people have testified, commented, rallied, marched, authored letters, delivered speeches, made phone calls, lobbied elected officials, and otherwise pursued all available avenues to convince local officials and regulatory agencies to protect us from the harms that Crestwood’s storage facilities pose to our health, environment and economy. Our appeals have fallen on deaf ears; we find ourselves thwarted at every turn.
We will not sit idly by while, behind a veil of secrecy and deceit, Seneca Lake is turned into a gas station for the fracking industry.
We believe we have a solemn responsibility, for the sake of our children and those who come after us, to protect the health and wellbeing of the lake that has given so much to us and makes our lives, and livelihoods, possible. We are committed to resisting the dangerous industrialization of our beautiful lake region and our agricultural and tourism-based economy. And we are equally committed to peaceful, non-violent action. In this, we bring love and resolve to our efforts.
Seneca Lake is our home. Seneca Lake is our water. It flows around us and within us. Seneca Lake brings tourists to our shores and grows wine grapes on our hills. We are Seneca Lake.
A special message from 350.org founder Bill McKibben about the issue, for the Gas Free Seneca fundraiser Oct. 9, 2014:
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. — Mahatma Gandhi