VICTORY!!!!!! DRBC VOTE CANCELLED! Stay tuned for next steps. Another announcement in the morning.

by joshfoxgasland

DRBC VOTE CANCELLED!
YOU DID IT. YOU WON.

All of your calls. All of your emails. Your pledges to swarm the DRBC in Trenton on November 21^st.
All of your pressure and all of your strength.

You stopped fracking in the Delaware River Basin for now. You won this round. It is not a complete victory but it is a huge victory. You brought us back from the brink of total devastation.

What cancellation means: The DRBC doesn’t hold a meeting to vote down their regulations. I’ve only ever seen them vote to approve things. Which means they cancel the meeting if they no longer have 3 out of 5 commissioners voting in favor of fracking. Which is exactly what they have done. They don’t cancel meetings often, let alone votes.

Your voice made a tremendous difference. I am humbled, proud and beyond thankful.

Of course, in my wildest dreams...

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Delware River Keeper Letter - DRBC VOTES NO!

Source Link: www.delawareriverkeeper.org

Markell: Delaware will vote against controversial drilling in Delaware River watershed

6:01 PM, Nov. 17, 2011

Gov. Jack Markell said late today that Delaware will vote against a regional agency plan to allow a controversial type of deep shale-gas drilling in the Delaware River watershed, citing unsettled and inadequate terms for state and local environmental safeguards and insufficient public review of recently amended regulatory proposals.

The letter, sent to the governors of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York and the Army Corps of Engineers, emerged just ahead of Monday’s Delaware River Basin Commission vote on new regulations to allow the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to develop natural gas wells across the northern and northwestern tier of the 13,000-acre watershed.

Fracking allows well-drillers to break previously inaccessible natural gas free of deep shale beds by using high-pressure injections of water, chemicals and sand. Vast amounts of gas are believed to be trapped under a 50,000 square mile stone layer below Pennsylvania and New York and similar deposits around the eastern United States.

Drilling advocates see the gas as an untapped source of wealth and reliable, cleaner-burning domestic energy. Critics see the drilling practice as a threat to groundwater and air quality, and as a potential source of spills, runoff and aquifer pollution that could eventually contaminate the Delaware River itself.'

“This risk is a significant concern for Delaware and therefore, until we have confidence that the Commission's Natural Gas Development Regulations, coupled with the state and local regulations upon which they rely, are adequately protective of this water supply, I have a duty to current and future generations of Delawareans to vote no,” Markell said in a letter sent during a stopover in Kuwait, during his return trip from visiting Delaware troops stationed in Afghanistan.

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OCCUPY DRBC INFO - Important update - Buses, WTFrack.org rep and more

Occupy DRBC OCTOBER 21, 2011

The DRBC has changed the date to NOVEMBER 21, 2011

CONNECTING THE DOTS FROM WALL STREET TO WATER

We are standing in solidarity with our friends from Occupy Wall Street.

While the Oil & Gas Industry makes record profits, and pays minimal taxes, they threaten our clean water and health.

WE VALUE CLEAN WATER & GREEN ENERGY OVER CORPORATE GREED!

On November 21, 2011, the DRBC plans to issue fracking regulations giving the green light to frack in the Delaware River Basin, drinking water source to 15 million Americans: NYC, Philadelphia, NY, PA, NJ, DE.

Please take these 3 Actions:

1. Help turn up the heat as Nov 21st approaches

Please write a letter now to the 5 voting members of the DRBC: http://bit.ly/qXgDX8 Just scroll down for the letter.

Call the Governors and President Obama TODAY and tell them Don’t Drill the Delaware, and Don’t approve ANY regulations to permit fracking!

1.  Governor Christie’s office - 609-292-6000

2.  Governor Cuomo’s office - 518-474-8390

3.  Gov Corbett’s office – 717-787-2500

4.  Gov Markell’s Wilmington Office - 302-577-3210

5.  And the white house comment line is 202-456-1111

2. No matter what, BE THERE:

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

10:00 AM - Noon (doors open at 9:30)

Patriots Theater

1 Memorial Drive

Trenton, NJ

That’s Where and When the DRBC Decides the Fate of Our Watershed And We Learn Whether the Fracked-Gas Industry Has Bought Our Government

3. Lawful non-violent direct action training sessions will be offered the night before, Sunday, Nov. 20 in NYC, as well as in Trenton on Monday morning, Nov. 21.

For more info: http://savethedelaware.wordpress.com/

Corporate Greed vs. Clean Energy and OUR RIGHT TO CLEAN WATER

We’ve Got Buses Going!

To find a bus or carpool from your area, just type your zipcode, and click: http://bit.ly/Nov21Travel

From Philadelphia:

Meet at 30th Street Station, 6:30 AM, Return around 2:00 PM

Go to Protecting Our Waters at http://bit.ly/o0rec3

From NYC: http://bit.ly/qsgH9p

Can’t pay for the bus??? We’ll find a way!

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DENVER, CO Supports Occupy DRBC and we have selected a representative/journalist/film-maker, Wade Norris to represent our anonymity at DRBC. We have not met him, but know his excellent work!

 

JOIN MARK RUFFALO NOV 21: SAVE THE DELAWARE RIVER - NOV 21st

Source: WaterDefense.org
Video Link

Occupy DRBC - Josh Fox calls on YOU for assistance

Fracking: It could happen to you! The Cold Hard Truths about it...

Monday, October 3, 2011
Posted by Hil

Fracking…yep, it could happen to you! Our government is manufacturing an epidemic and it’s truly disturbing! If you didn’t know, New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo wants to allow fracking at the New York City Watershed and Delaware River Basin, the largest unfiltered water supply in the world that goes out to 15.6 million people in New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Can you imagine not being able to go into a NYC restaurant and order tap water? We’re famous for our bagels and pizza because the secret’s in the water. Now imagine if you couldn’t take a shower in your own home or wash your clothes because the water is toxic.

This is happening to people across America and in other countries around the world and it’s scary. It’s time for YOU and all of us to get involved and put an end to this dangerous new initiative! It might be coming to your town sooner than you realize. The government and the gas companies don’t care about the public; all they care about is money. And now more than ever, they can use the poor economy as an excuse to enable this practice.

My passion for this issue was spurred on by two things: watching Josh Fox’s “Gasland,” a shocking and horrifying documentary about fracking and a woman I admire very much, Vanessa Marcil Giovinazzo getting behind the cause. Vanessa’s given me so much through Brenda over the past 20 years. She literally changed my life and I want to pay it forward and help her in any way I can. She has a powerful platform to speak out from as a celebrity and she uses it the right way, to spread awareness on important topics that are affecting people on both a national and global level. Let’s help someone that’s helped us. If Vanessa is important to you, I urge you to support her and support this issue. She deserves it!

Have you ever seen water from a tap or stream light on fire? Have you seen a stream bubbling over like boiling water? Have you witnessed wildlife dying? Have you seen animals’ hair falling out? I have. Josh Fox and other organizations are shining light on the dangerous practice of fracking.

What is fracking? (Also known as hydraulic fracturing or hydro-fracking). “It is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling.” More simply put, it is the process of drilling down and creating tiny explosions to shatter, crack or fracture (hence the term “fracking”) hard shale rocks to release the gas inside. “Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale (sedimentary rock) and opens cracks that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.

Problems typically occur when poorly-made cement well casings leak natural gas along with fracking fluid into neighboring water wells. Generally 1-8 million gallons of water may be used to frack a well. A well may be fracked up to 18 times. For each frack, 80-300 tons of chemicals may be used.” That adds up to 1,440-5,400 tons of chemicals used over the lifespan of a well. Now I’m no fracking expert but that sounds like a LOT of chemicals – not cool anywhere but especially not around my drinking water or the water I’m gonna shower in or clean my clothes with or swim in. 

This technology boosts gas and oil production and generates $1.5 billion a year for the gas companies such as Halliburton, about one-fifth of its energy-related revenue. No surprise that one of fracking’s biggest proponents, Dick Cheney used to work for Halliburton before we were cursed with him as our Vice President for eight long and painful years.

Here are some cold hard truths about fracking you might not know...

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Josh Fox/GASLAND on Saving the Delaware River. New Video!

SAVE THE DELAWARE from JFOX on Vimeo.

Featured Fracking Blog - 'Keep Tap Water Safe'

About Us

Keep Tap Water Safe

As concerned, environmentally-minded citizens of Southeastern Pennsylvania, our goal is to aggregate high-quality information about Water Supply Safety and Security; to alert our community about the complex and urgent issue of Natural Gas Drilling in the Delaware River Watershed; and to support the efforts of other environmental and water action groups concerned with the health of our rivers and streams.

Keep Tap Water Safe looks for environmental accountability at the Pennsylvania state and local level and, whenever possible, endeavors to apply maximum pressure to those driving energy and environmental legislation at the federal level.

Liz Rosenbaum, Editor, KeepTapWaterSafe.org
A freelance writer, parent, avid researcher and gardener, Rosenbaum has worked in publishing at Philadelphia Magazine, and as a freelance copywriter and lifestyle journalist. In 2005, she wondered why no one in the media said much when the gas drilling exemptions were slipped into the Energy Policy Act, but it was seeing Josh Fox’s Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland that made her aware of the horrors of Natural Gas Drilling. She quickly realized that fracking is the single largest pollution threat to the water supply of 15.6 million people living in Philadelphia, Southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware and Southern New Jersey. Since then, she has become a volunteer for The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, striving to raise the platform of Fresh Water Security along with the issue of fracking. She’s heartened to have found over a million like-minded activists in Pennsylvania – so far.http://keeptapwatersafe.org/about-us-2/

NY Attorney General Sues Federal Government Over Fracking

The federal government is being sued for allowing natural gas drilling, which involves the potentially harmful "fracking" technique, without conducting a full environmental review. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a lawsuit yesterday that seeks to compel federal agencies to conduct an environmental review before the regulations authorizing gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin are finalized. Obviously, this goes against the gas industry's motto of "frack first, question later."

The fracking process involves injecting chemicals, sand, and millions of gallons of water into shale rock, releasing trapped gas. Unfortunately it's not just the gas that gets shaken loose; the water that was injected into the rock eventually resurfaces, and is often polluted with carcinogenic chemicals.

"The federal government has an obligation to undertake the necessary studies, and as I made clear last month, this office will compel it to do so. The welfare of those living near the Delaware River Basin, as well as the millions of New Yorkers who rely on its pure drinking water each day, will not be ignored," Attorney General Schneiderman said in a statement. "

The lawsuit comes in the midst of mounting opposition to fracking throughout New York State, and weeks after a well blew out at a Pennsylvania gas drilling site, contaminating local waterways with thousands of gallons of drilling fluids. Schneiderman points out that 58 percent of the land area of New York City's West-of-Hudson watershed is within the Delaware River Basin, and that portion of the watershed provides most of the drinking water used by over nine million New York residents and visitors.

His lawsuit maintains that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies must conduct a full review of the impact of the proposed natural gas development regulations. And Schneiderman has the backing of his predecessor, Governor Andrew Cuomo, who last week said he "wants state officials to fully understand what hydrofracking is, before the controversial form of natural gas extraction is approved in New York."

For more on fracking and how it could affect you, here's awesome actor and upstate resident Mark Ruffalo:

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.
Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com

WTFrack.org

Lehigh Valley Sierra Club chairman urges people to oppose Marcellus Shale fracking

Thursday, March 24, 2011

By Tom Shortell

The Express-Times

 

BETHLEHEM | Drilling in the Marcellus Shale could make drinking water in the Lehigh Valley flammable, radioactive and full of cancer-causing chemicals, according to the chairman of the Sierra Club of the Lehigh Valley.

Don Miles, chairman of the local Sierra Club, said hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," will pollute wells and rivers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York and New Jersey if it's allowed to continue unchecked.

"The Marcellus natural gas drilling boom is the greatest natural threat to Pennsylvania in the last 50 years," Miles said to a classroom of mostly senior citizens at Northampton Community College on Tuesday morning.

Fracking is the process of extracting natural gas by drilling a well and pumping it full of highly pressurized liquid. The liquid causes rock to fracture, releasing natural gas for companies to collect. The practice has been commonplace for years in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and other western states.

In the past few years, companies have focused on the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation spanning from West Virginia to New York. Experts estimate it could hold as much as $1 trillion worth of natural gas.

Environmental advocates claim the pressurized liquid contains carcinogens. Pumping it underground to break rock formations could allow natural gas and cancer-causing agents to mix with drinking water, Miles said. On top of that, the Marcellus Shale has radium, a naturally occurring radioactive element, Miller said. He cited a New York Times article that found radioactive fracking waste in the Monongahela River, which provides drinking water to roughly 800,000.

While the Marcellus Shale does not extend into Lehigh or Northampton counties, Miles said, the Delaware and Lehigh rivers extend into those areas and face possible pollution. Those rivers provide the drinking water for much of the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia, he said.

However, officials in the natural gas industry insist there is no documented case of fracking causing ground water contamination....