Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Gas Drillers Caught Dumping Toxic Waste into the Delaware River--Our Drinking Water!

Are you ready to fight now?
Posted by: Noël Jones


In the Express-Times today, the Associated Press reports that PA gas drillers have been caught dumping toxic waste water from the process of drilling for natural gas, into the Delaware River, the drinking water source for 15 million of us in four states. Independent studies have also found carcinogens, neurotoxins, extremely high salt levels and radioactive material in the river water.


Are we ready to fight this yet, or are we just going to keep drinking the water and pretend the toxins aren't there until our parents, partners and children get cancer?


The time is now to fight for our way of life, or start paying to buy and ration bottled water in our homes for cooking, drinking, cleaning and bathing. We can't sit around thinking someone will take care of this for us. These gas companies are getting rich and DO NOT CARE about us--and most of our politicians are so excited about extracting a severance tax from the gas companies to plug budget holes, that they will not support a state-wide moratorium. PLEASE WRITE OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS and call for a STATE-WIDE MORATORIUM ON ALL DRILLING until the EPA's cumulative impact study on health risks is complete:




Governor-elect Tom Corbett
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
200 North Third Street
13th Floor
Harrisburg, PA 17101

Tel: 717-238-4009
(no email available)


Hon. Robert Mensch
Senate Box 203024
Harrisburg, PA 17120-3024

Tel: (717) 787-3110
E-mail: bmensch@pasen.gov


Hon. Robert Freeman
215 Northampton Street

Easton, PA 18042 

Tel: (610) 253-5543 


[If you are not from the Easton area, please use the links on the right side bar of this home page to contact your representatives and senators!]

And if you haven't seen GASLAND or Split Estate yet, please see the trailers below and then watch them on either Netflix or HBO On Demand:

GASLAND Directed by Josh Fox (Netflix) (trailer)
Split Estate Directed by Debra Anderson (Netflix) (trailer)

12 comments:

David Caines said...

A quick than you-
I'd like to post a quick tahnx to EPD,
I called the non-emergency number to report some local kids (good kids I think) who were bothering a neighbor and they did in time send someonme by. My neighbor is alright, a bit of s drunk , and doesn't like the noise.
It kills me as I don't wish to be mean, or to bother police officers who have real crimes to deal with, but last time...he came out, fell down and cracked his skull. trying to explain liability insurance to kids is not fun. And I feel horrible.
Still, thanx EPD, on the ball as always.
Goodnight,
David

tunsie said...

I thought El went to council to adopt a law to prevent this from happening...My drinking water is filtered 5 times....but there R others that dont have this type of system.....I am definitely going to beat some body up now....Tunsie.....I luv noel

tunsie said...

sweetheart sweetheart.....please in a future post for me just say 3 words EASTON POLICE DEPARTMENT....and i will tell u story after story about my expeience as a business owner with the EPD...It infuriates me when somebody says something remotely bad about them....I see what they go thru...they deserve more than a paycheck...they deserve a medal.....they always always go above and beyound the call of duty....all of them,,,this ma posted about just one of his experiences with the EPD.I can and will tell U hundreds of stories...That is why I dont like anon,,,because whenn I met him he told me he didn't like the EPD.and he thought they were corrupt....Tunsie....I love noel

Anonymous said...

all of my experiences with the police in trhe last four years or so have been equally as positive. I think they still have a bad rep from years ago.

noel jones said...

Why is everyone talking about the police on this post? This post is on water contamination from natural gas drilling that is threatening drinking water for 15 million of us--if this continues there is the potential for thousands to get cancer--please stay on topic.

Tunsie, in answer to your question, the resolution that El proposed was in support of Pittsburgh's ordinance they passed to prevent drilling in their city limits--it doesn't stop drillers in other communities from dumping along the Delaware River--and by the way, they are planning tens of thousands of new wells along the Delaware River Basin!

El's resolution was a symbolic gesture of support for self-governance, but the fight has to be taken to Harrisburg and we must demand a moratorium on ALL drilling until health risk studies are complete. There is too much risk for Big Gas to be allowed to continue before we know how much more damage they will do to our health, our environment, and our property values.

This is going to have to be a long, hard steady fight to the end if we are to win and protect our health and way of life (drinking water out of our taps).

Please everybody, write to our elected officials with the information provided!

David Caines said...

We lived in NJ, we've filtered our water forever. This is one of those little not so little things we're going to have to deal with as we as a nation go third world / Ghetto. It's been over a decade since we as Americans could trust our water and we know it. The drilling is a horror, but it's just one more on the list of falling standards we have come to expect.
It stinks but there you have it.
Tunsie, also a big EPD fan, they're the reason I can sleep at night (sort of- I'm PTSD among other things),
The question with the water is when and how we turn back the tide, and can we?
The GOP and others don't much seem to care what happens to the country as long as the bills get paid.
Blessings,
David

noel jones said...

I have found that many Democrats are also reticent to sign on to a statewide moratorium until the EPS's studies on health risks are completed. Many Democrats are eager to plug budget holes that have been caused by wasteful spending, rather than making hard decisions about needed cuts.

This is a gold rush on all sides and not an issue of the right or the left--it is a basic human health issue, and a property rights/values issue, as the gas companies want to develop forced pooling in which if a certain number of your neighbors sign leases, they can force you to sign a lease for drilling on your property too. The risk for us here--aside from getting cancer, getting headaches and nausea, and losing motor function--is that if our drinking water from the tap is destroyed, the property value of our homes goes to ZERO. No one will buy a house where the water is contaminated and they have to ration from tanks every month to cook, clean, bathe and drink.

tunsie said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Surely there is something beyond letter writing to officials that can be done???? Letters can be ignored and they are. What is needed is CONFRONTATION. But that requires organization. And we are not seeing it here in PA.

Sandra Walters Weiss said...

This is not the first incident of illegal dumping in the Delaware. It is one of the reasons that they are starting to discover mutant fish,eels and other creatures that have been created by humans dumping toxic chemicals and waste into the river.It is a sad state of affairs when we are looking at a situation of man destroying nature.Pretty soon you will be buying water to survive unless as Noel said we start to protest this and other practices that destroy Mother Earth. peace SWW

tunsie said...

I love Yuv Yuve NOEL...she is gonna sing on jazz nite for me because shes the bestest.number one.greatest.in the whole wide world....tunsie

noel jones said...

Anon 11:34--yes, confrontation is an important part of taking action, and yes citizens have been confronting, government, the Delaware River Basic Commission and the industry for over a year now in this area.

The next action will be a huge rally on Jan. 18th and I will be posting about it next week when I have full details so that it stays on the home page until the event takes place.