We Are Seneca Lake

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | February 4, 2015

Contact: Sandra Steingraber, 607-351-0719

photos:  http://www.wearesenecalake.com/dads-grandads-blockade-feb-4-2015/

Ten Arrested This Morning in a Fathers and Grandfathers Blockade At Crestwood Gates

Men are residents of 6 different counties; 83-year-old father of two, in wheelchair, among those arrested; two local fathers blockading in memory of their deceased sons 

Total arrests in sustained We Are Seneca Lake civil disobedience movement against gas storage is 210 as campaign enters 4th month

Watkins Glen, NY – Nine men and one woman from six different Finger Lakes-area counties blockaded the main entrance at Crestwood Midstream this morning as part of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign against gas storage called We Are Seneca Lake. After 45 minutes, they were arrested by Schuyler County deputies.

Two of the fathers, John Dennis, 64, of Lansing and Daryl Anderson, 61 of Hector—both teachers—said their actions as civil disobedients were in memory of the deaths of their respective sons two years ago.

Anderson and Dennis, who met each other in a local bereavement group, commuted together to the protest.

Anderson said, “In the past two years, I had a child of mine die and a granddaughter born.  I think in those two years. I’ve learned something about what’s important in life.  The first even makes you wonder if you can go on.  The second event, the granddaughter,  makes you know you have to go on and think about the future.  Since the 1980s, I’ve watched the fossil fuel industry wrap its tentacles around our culture and take away our choices. My nine-month-old granddaughter deserves a fossil-fuel free future.”

Anderson’s son, Collin Anderson  worked as a substitute teacher in the Trumansburg middle school along side his father, who is a math teacher there. Collin died February 7, 2013 of injuries sustained in a traffic accident.  He was 26.

Dennis’s son, Christopher Dennis, drowned in Cayuga Lake on May 22, 2013 days before graduating from Cornell University.  He was 22.  Dennis said, “Chris was an avid environmentalist.  He would have been here today. So I am here for him. Crestwood Midstream should go back to Texas. Storing gas in interbedded salt caverns is leaky by definition.”

During the blockade, protesters held banners saying, “DADS AND GRANDDADS AGAINST CRESTWOOD,” “FATHERS KNOW BEST: CRESTWOOD, GO HOME,” and “DADS SAY HELL NO.” Some also carried signs that included photos of their children or grandchildren. During the blockade 15 others, both men and women, rallied alongside the roadway along Route 14. Among those rallying was John Wertis, of Trumansburg, who wrote a recent blog that was the inspiration for the action.

The line of fathers and grandfathers included one man in a wheelchair, Jim Connor, 83 of Mecklenburg and his wife, Sharon Kahkonen, 65, of Mecklenburg.  The protesters began blockading at 9:45 a.m. and blocked the main entrance to Crestwood in below-freezing temperatures, preventing one truck from from entering the facility and two trucks from leaving. Supporters shoveled snow along the side of the road to ensure safety.  At 10:30 a.m., all ten were arrested by Schuyler County deputies and transported to the sheriff’s office where they were charged with trespassing and released.

The total number of arrests in the ongoing protest now stands at 210.

Edgar Brown, 60, of Naples in Ontario County, said, “I have two young sons. They are water boys who would never miss a chance for total submersion. I want them to grow up to understand, love, and protect the Finger Lakes and so I want to model that. There is no pocketbook deep enough to challenge and prevail against this kind of fierce, collective commitment.”

Jim Connor, 83, Mecklenburg, said, “I am here to help protect the air, water and land from the idea to store gas in the caverns where it is very very dangerous. I am here to protect the lake for myself, the people here, and for my children—two boys.”

The fathers and grandfathers’ action today is the latest in the series of themed actions and comes on the heels of a farmers and chefs’ blockade on Jan. 28, a MLK Day blockade on Jan. 19, and a mothers and grandmothers’ blockade on Jan. 16.

On Saturday, Jan. 31, more than 300 rallied and marched in Geneva in opposition to gas storage in the salt caverns on Seneca Lake in a day of protest called We Are Seneca Lake, Too.

Those arrested today were:

Daryl Anderson, 61, Hector, Schuyler County

Edgar Brown, 60, Naples, Ontario County

Jim Connor, 83, Mecklenburg, Schuyler County

Doug Couchon, 64, Elmira, Chemung County

John Dennis, 64, Lansing, Tompkins County

Marty Dodge, 72, Canandaigua, Ontario County

Peter Drobney, Corning, Steuben County

Sharon Kahkonen, 65, Mecklenburg, Schuyler County

Peter Tringali, 62, Ithaca, Tompkins County

Dwain Wilder, 75, Rochester, Monroe County

Read more about the arrested protesters at http://www.wearesenecalake.com/seneca-lake-defendes/.

Read more about the persistent bias of the Reading Town Court: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/26/a-report-from-the-frontlines-in-the-war-against-fracking/#.VJ7OU5npvxE.facebook

Read more about widespread objections to Crestwood’s gas storage plans: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/nyregion/new-york-winemakers-fight-gas-storage-plan-near-seneca-lake.html?_r=0.

Background on the protests:

Protesters have been blocking the Crestwood gas storage facility gates since Thursday, October 23, including a rally with more than 200 people on Friday, October 24th. On Wednesday, October 29, Crestwood called the police and the first 10 protesters were arrested. Since then, protests have been ongoing, with more arrests each week. More information and pictures of the actions are available at www.WeAreSenecaLake.com.

The unified We Are Seneca Lake protests started on October 23rd because Friday, October 24th marked the day that major new construction on the gas storage facility was authorized to begin. The ongoing acts of civil disobedience come after the community pursued every possible avenue to stop the project and after being thwarted by an unacceptable process and denial of science. The protests are taking place at the gates of the Crestwood compressor station site on the shore of Seneca Lake, the largest of New York’s Finger Lakes.

The methane gas storage expansion project is advancing in the face of broad 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. Crestwood has indicated that it intends to make Seneca Lake the gas storage and transportation hub for the northeast, as part of the gas industry’s planned expansion of infrastructure across the region.

*Note that the WE ARE SENECA LAKE protest is to stop the expansion of methane gas storage, a separate project from Crestwood’s proposed Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage project, which is on hold pending a Department of Environmental Conservation Issues Conference on February 12.

As they have for a long time, the protesters are continuing to call on President Obama, U.S. Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Governor Cuomo, and Congressman Reed to intervene on behalf of the community and halt the dangerous project. In spite of overwhelming opposition, grave geological and public health concerns, Crestwood has federal 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 nearby 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).

More background, including about the broad extent of the opposition from hundreds of wineries and more than a dozen local municipalities, is available on the We Are Seneca Lake website at http://www.wearesenecalake.com/press-kit/.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

media contact: Lindsay Speer: 315-383-7210

Over 300 people brave frigid temps to voice their opposition to LPG storage at Seneca Lake

Residents of Geneva and the northern Finger Lakes state

“We are Seneca Lake, Too!” advocating for the right of surrounding municipalities to have their voices heard

GENEVA, NY — January 31, 2015– Over 300 residents of municipalities surrounding the Finger Lakes of New York gathered on a brutally cold January day at the north end of Seneca Lake to express their opposition to gas storage on the shores of Seneca Lake.  Crestwood Midstream has proposed a massive expansion of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and methane gas storage at the southern end of Seneca Lake.  Since October 2014, there have been over 200 arrests blockading the gates of the facility.   This is the first protest held at the northern end of the lake.

“Schuyler County, hey, hey, hey, the rest of us should have a say!” protesters chanted.

Crestwood Midstream Corporation of Houston, Texas is seeking state approval to store 88 million gallons of LPG in unlined salt caverns.  Schuyler County has signaled its approval for the project, while 16 other municipalities have passed resolutions in opposition to it. The corporation’s application is pending with the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation and will be the subject of a state Department of Environmental Conservation issues conference Feb. 12 in Horseheads, NY. Twelve municipalities are being represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council in the proceedings.

“We are here because there is no other choice for us to defend and preserve this region,” explained Geneva Councilman Ken Camera, citing the importance of the fresh water to the food and wine production of the area, as well as health and tourism. Over 100,000 people depend on Seneca Lake for their drinking water.

Speakers at the two rallies – one on the shores of Seneca Lake and the other at the end of the march on the steps of Geneva’s City Hall – included Camera, Seneca County Supervisor Steve Churchill, journalist Michael Fitzgerald, acclaimed scientist and author Dr. Sandra Steingraber, former Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins, We Are Seneca Lake organizers Doug Couchon and Faith Meckley, and Geneva resident Laura Salamendra, who organized the rally. Speakers emphasized the importance the issue to the region as well as the world.

“We fight for the right to decide what is best for our communities,” explained Couchon.  “Corporations are not people.  People, communities, should have the right to decide their future, not the corporations.”  This lack of democracy is at the heart of opposition to oil and gas projects around the world.

“We are fighting for our whole world,” stated Hawkins, noting this storage facility’s contributing role in the massive buildout of the oil and gas industry in direct contradiction to the clear statement of the International Energy Agency that to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must leave two-thirds of known reserves of hydrocarbons in the ground.  The storage facility promotes the further use and export of fracked gas. “The Jacobson study of Stanford showed that New York can go 100% renewable, providing 4.5 million construction jobs and 58,000 jobs in permanent operations.  This is our future.”

Faith Meckley, who took the fall 2014 semester off from college to march with the Great March for Climate Across across the United States but returned home early to help organize We Are Seneca Lake, is a Geneva resident.  “I never thought, marching across the country, and in NYC, that I would be marching in my hometown of Geneva and addressing a massive crowd from the steps of city hall.  I am so proud of Geneva right now.”

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MEDIA CONTACT: SANDRA STEINGRABER 607-351-0719

JOINT STATEMENT BY GAS FREE SENECA AND WE ARE SENECA LAKE ON THE LPG EXPLOSION IN MEXICO CITY HOSPITAL

Yesterday’s massive explosion of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) that leveled a children’s and maternity hospital in Mexico City brought unspeakably horrific images of mothers fleeing with newborns and rescue workers searching for babies under the rubble of what had been, just moments earlier, a place of safety and healing.

One nurse and two infants lost their lives; 60 people were injured; 39 people remain hospitalized; 18 are listed in critical conditions; and half of the victims are babies. One infant was burned over 80 percent of its body.

Gas Free Seneca and We Are Seneca Lake express our sorrow and deepest condolences to the victims, families, first responders, and the health care professionals who oversaw a hasty evacuation in the moments before the blast, and, in the attempt to save lives at their own peril, were nevertheless forced to leave behind babies in their care.

We express our admiration for the Red Cross, which promptly sent 23 ambulances and 40 rescuers to the scene.

While details of the blast are still emerging and we are waiting to learn more, this accident, prompted by a gas leak, is a tragic reminder that these fuels carry inherent dangers and that the risks of burying hundreds of millions of gallons of LPG in the old salt caverns beside Seneca Lake are too great.

We recommit ourselves to our ongoing efforts to stop Seneca Lake from serving as a mass storage depot for LPG and call upon Governor Cuomo, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to join us in these efforts. There should be no possibility that the horrific scenes in Mexico City will be replayed in New York’s Finger Lakes.