Hi there, I heard back from my friend about that story....
"The Girl Scout story is true and was in a creek on the west side of Otisco lake and we biked by it that day. I know of three other places here in Cayuga Co that we hooked up water wells that had gas in them. There was a place in Cazenovia with no gas well but a gas seep that BLEW UP THE HOUSE TWICE The second time the wife was killed and the husband badly burned." The point here is that natural gas at the surface has posed a threat for decades, and we need to make sure that we don't sound as if these problems are only associated with hydrofracking of the Marcellus Shale. Rather, we should make sure the general public is aware of our history of spills and seeps and leaks -- and that set of problems will grow with the Marcellus exploitation. But we should be careful not to make it sound like all current problems are due to the hydrofracking process. That last article that Jeanne posted illuminates this issue of perception. Walter Hang points out 270 spills and problems with natural gas in 30 years. Some of them are big spills. Yet the DEC shrugs it off because the PERCENTAGE of problems is small. But that is the problem with statistics. Your life might be ruined, but because you represent a small minority in the scheme of things, we go forward with a system that creates a steady stream (albeit small as a percentage) of victims. This leads us into a debate about risk management in the modern world. Costs and benefits, etc. But it is important to keep the future in mind and to keep ethics in clear view. Gay On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 1:47 PM, Simon St.Laurent <[email protected]>wrote: > Gay Nicholson wrote: > >> A friend of mine who grew up in Cayuga County and worked on his uncle's >> farm >> has lots of stories to tell going back to the late 1800s about gas in well >> water and in surface streams from the various sources of natural gas (not >> the Marcellus Shale) in our local geology. Evidently, this is not >> uncommon, >> but I don't know how much has to do with drilling activities, or if >> Chemung >> County to the south has any history of this. It would be good to find out >> more about the history of natural gas coming to the surface in our region. >> I remember even hearing a story about Girl Scouts creating a campfire from >> natural gas at the surface near a stream?! I'd like to make sure our >> discourse on this includes whatever we need to know about this phenomena >> in >> the region. >> > > I've heard the same stories, growing up in Steuben and later in Tompkins > County. There's a lot of methane below us, giving water well drillers > headaches, and I'm not convinced these stories have any direct connection to > the Marcellus Shale exploration. > > I worry that while these stories are vivid, their weakness is potentially > fuel that gas drilling supporters could use to discredit gas drilling > opponents. To me, that danger outweighs their potential for mobilizing. > > -- > Simon St.Laurent > http://simonstl.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > Questions about the list? ask > [email protected] > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- ---------------------------------------------------- Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. President Sustainable Tompkins 109 S. Albany St. Ithaca, NY 14850 www.sustainabletompkins.org 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-220-8991 (cell) 607-216-1552 (ST office) 607-216-1553 (ST fax) [email protected] _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
